San Francisco Chinese Funeral (1904)

• 37%
• 1904
• Documentary

To the sound of weird Chinese music and the slow measures of the Dead March from "Saul," the body of Tom Kim Yung, late Secretary of the Chinese Consul-General, was carried through the streets of San Francisco behind the most gorgeous Oriental procession ever witnessed in that city. The procession was headed by three mounted police. A number of Chinese servants followed, carrying highly decorated boards, on which were painted the rank and title of the late Secretary. Four men dressed as guardians of the evil spirits came next. They wore long, black gowns and peculiar basket-like hats. In their hands they held chains with which to bind all evil spirits to be met with while en route to the cemetery. A black horse draped in Chinese mourning was led riderless in the procession. On this horse the spirit of Tom Kim Yung was supposed to ride. A troop of warriors of ancient days in China marched behind the black horse that carried the spirit of the late Secretary. Members of the Tom family were dressed in long, white gowns and chanted weird incantations as they passed through the streets. Four men carry a large silken banner on which the complete story of Tom Kim Yung's life was written in Chinese characters.