WITNESSarchive

W–025 · Documentary photograph and sources

The Shanghai Child

People hoping to leave the city gathered at Shanghai South Railway Station while fighting continued around them. Japanese aircraft bombed the station on 28 August 1937. A child was left among the wreckage. The cameraman was Wang Xiaoting, a Chinese-American photographer and newsreel operator for Hearst Metrotone News, also known as H. S. “Newsreel” Wong.

1. After the air raid

A child among the ruins of Shanghai South Railway Station after the Japanese bombing on 28 August 1937. Photograph by Wang Xiaoting.
A child among the ruins of Shanghai South Railway Station after the Japanese bombing on 28 August 1937. Photograph by Wang Xiaoting.
Provenance and sources for frame 1

Displayed file: 2940 × 2396 pixels. Full image record in Russian.

loc.govvirtualshanghai.netView image file

Wang carried both a motion-picture camera and a still camera. His footage was shown in cinemas, while newspapers printed the photograph of the child amid the ruins. LIFE devoted a page to it on 4 October 1937, noting that newspapers and newsreels had already brought the image to millions.

The picture acquired several names: “Shanghai Baby,” “Bloody Saturday,” “Chinese Orphan.” The child’s name was never learned; even the child’s sex is uncertain. There is no reliable account of the family’s fate that would justify calling the child an orphan.

Later, critics alleged the photograph was staged. They identified a man seen near the children in the newsreel as Wang’s assistant and claimed he arranged them for the camera. Archival descriptions do not establish that he worked with Wang or prepared the scene for a photograph.

Another surviving frame by Wang shows what happened next: the child on a stretcher, receiving treatment for injuries. The available pictures and records do not trace the child’s life beyond that moment.

2. On a stretcher

The same child receives treatment for injuries on a stretcher. Wang Xiaoting, Shanghai, 28 August 1937. What happened after this treatment is unknown.
The same child receives treatment for injuries on a stretcher. Wang Xiaoting, Shanghai, 28 August 1937. What happened after this treatment is unknown.
Provenance and sources for frame 2

Displayed file: 467 × 296 pixels. Full image record in Russian.

commons.wikimedia.orgView image file