Shock Horror – Yankee Strippers in Shanghai (1937)

Well actually there weren’t any. What there were were Chinese knock-offs of the famous (infamous) Sally Rand and her fan dances and balloon bubble dances which wowed ’em at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 where she twirled, not quite showing all thanks to the delicately placed fans and balloons, to Claire de Lune. She was once arrested four times in one day for nudity. It didn’t take long for Shanghai to get in on the act and for local dancers to start waving fans and bouncing balloons on stage.

Of course a little later real strip acts came to the nightclubs of the Shanghai Badlands, but that’s another story…..