H. S. Wong

H. S. "Newsreel" Wong

H. S. "Newsreel" Wong (1900 – March 9, 1981) was a Chinese newsreel photojournalist. He is most notable for "Bloody Saturday",^[1] a photograph captured during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Wong was also known as Wong Hai-Sheng (Chinese: 王海升) or Wang Xiaoting (Chinese: 王小亭).^[2] He owned a camera shop in Shanghai.^[1] For capturing moving images he used an Eyemo newsreel camera, and for still photography he used a Leica.

In the 1920s and 1930s, H. S. Wong worked in China and provided photographs and films for various newspapers and agencies, such as Hearst Metrotone News and Shanghai News.^[2][3] Wong's most famous photo, "Bloody Saturday" or "Shanghai Baby", was taken during the Battle of Shanghai in the Second Sino-Japanese War. It shows a baby sitting up and crying amid the bombed-out wreckage of Shanghai South Railway Station.^[2][3] Within a year of its publishing, the photo was seen by more than 136 million people.^[4] In 2010, Wong was honored as a pioneering Asian-American journalist by the Asian American Journalists Association.^[5]

Wong filmed more newsreels covering Japanese attacks in China, including the Battle of Xuzhou in May 1938 and aerial bombings in Guangzhou in June.^[6] At times, he placed himself in danger to get a photo; once was subjected to bombing and strafing by Japanese aircraft.^[7] After angering the Japanese by documenting the violence of their attacks, the Japanese government put a bounty of $50,000 on his head.^[8] In China, he operated under British protection, but continued death threats from Japanese nationalists drove him to leave Shanghai with his family and to relocate to Hong Kong.^[9] He retired to Taipei in the 1970s and died of diabetes at his home at the age of 81 on March 9, 1981.^[10]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Cinema: Shanghai, Shambl". Time (Time, Inc.). September 13, 1937. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770870,00.html. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "王小亭 1900~1983" (in Chinese). 《他們是歷史的目擊者》─民國40年代台灣攝影記者作品展. imagecoffee.net. http://imagecoffee.net/content.asp?noxcv=459. Retrieved 9 July 2011. 
3. ^ ^{a b} 邢定威　 (2005/09/01). "王小亭“觀看”的力量" (in Chinese). 台灣記協 (Association of Taiwan Journalists). http://www.atj.org.tw/newscon1.asp?page=prev1243. Retrieved 9 July 2011. 
4. ^ Van der Veen, Maurits (2003). Uriel's Legacy. Trafford Publishing. p. 262. ISBN 1553954629. http://books.google.com/books?id=Gz0h6n8yuOAC&pg=PA262. 
5. ^ "Honor Roll List: Pioneers, past and present". Asian American Journalists Association. December 24, 2010. http://aaja-la.org/2010/12/honor-roll-list-pioneers-past-and-present/. Retrieved January 18, 2011. 
6. ^ "Library Contents Listed Year-by-Year: 1938". The 1930s: Prelude to War Video Library. UCLA Film and Television Archive. http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/Prelude/1938.html. Retrieved January 18, 2011. 
7. ^ Ezickson, A. J. (1938). Get That Picture! – The Story of the News Cameraman. New York: National Library Press. p. 148. http://www.archive.org/stream/getthatpicturest00ezicrich#page/148/mode/1up. 
8. ^ French, Paul (2009). Through the looking glass: China's foreign journalists from opium wars to Mao. Hong Kong University Press. p. 192. ISBN 9622099823. http://books.google.com/books?id=sM0O9oqGK8sC&pg=PA192. 
9. ^ Faber, John (1978). Great news photos and the stories behind them (2 ed.). Courier Dover Publications. pp. 74–75. ISBN 0486236676. http://books.google.com/books?id=DqwLVaPdDgoC&pg=PA74&dq=%22I+noticed+that+my+shoes+were+soaked+with+blood.%22&hl=en&ei=u3g1TdHRO4z2tgPv7OD9BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22I%20noticed%20that%20my%20shoes%20were%20soaked%20with%20blood.%22&f=false. 
10. ^ "'Newsreel' Wang succumbs at 81". Taiwan Today (Government Information Office, Republic of China (Taiwan)). May 1, 1981. http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xitem=119988&ctnode=124&mp=9. Retrieved January 18, 2011. 

Persondata
Name	Wong, H. S.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1900
Place of birth
Date of death	March 9, 1981
Place of death	Taipei