Figure 1.--The Chinese boys, nuch like the French boys mostly wear short pants. Note the one boy here in his Young Pioneer uniform with his cap. Click on the image for another view of Chinese boys wearing caps.

This interesting little French film begins in a run-down suburb of Paris. It's about a group of bored children making mischief to fill the days (eg sticking a cat up a tree and then calling the fire brigade so they can watch them get it down!) The first part of the film deals with their adventures in Paris. One of them has a Chinese kite, with a message on a piece of paper in Chinese on it. His mates try to grab it to sell to an antique shop. One night, one of the boys and his sister are visited by a mysterious Chinaman and are promptly floated off on their bed to China in their pyjamas. The Chinaman clicks his fingers and they appear once again in their everyday clothes, and have all sorts of adventures in China.

Setting

This interesting little French film has two settings, it begins in France and then shifts to China. The second part of the film is set in China where the French children are magically transported to and have many adventures. Thus the film also has information on the clothes wore by French children. Some of the films also so Chinese boys in their Young Pioneer uniforms.

Story

The film is about a group of bored children making mischief to fill the days (eg sticking a cat up a tree and then calling the fire brigade so they can watch them get it down!) One of them has a Chinese kite, with a message on a piece of paper in Chinese on it. His mates try to grab it to sell to an antique shop. One night, one of the boys and his sister are visited by a mysterious Chinaman and are promptly floated off on their bed to China in their pyjamas. The Chinaman clicks his fingers and they appear once again in their everyday clothes, and have all sorts of adventures in China.

Figure 2.--The French children make friends in China with their kites. This is the same boy with his Young Pioneer uniform: white shirt, red kerchief, and blue shorts. He has taken his cap off in this photograph. Click on the image for another view.

Costuming

HBC believes that there was not a lot of costuming in the French part of the movie. HBC is less sure about the Chinese part of the film. Almost all of the Chinese boys wear short pants. HBC simply does not have enough information to assess how accurate this was. So far HBC has acquired vey little information about China. While the French children may have mostly worn their own clothes, I'm less sure this is true for the Chinese children. It looks like the flew the French children to China to film the Chinese scenes. They seem to wear the same clothes.

Clothing

Some of the clothes the Chinese children wear include.

Caps

Most of the Chinese boys do not wear caps. The ones that do wear Mao caps floppy peaked caps. They wear them both with their Young Pioneer uniforms and with their regular clothes.

Shirts

Most of the boys wear solid colored shirts. The most common color is white. Some other light-colored shirts are worn. I don't see any patterened shirts. Almost all of the boys tuck their shirts in except for one boy in long pants.

Figure 3.--French children are seen in the foreground. Notice the Chinese boy with a kite in the background. He wears a Pioneer red kerchief with a white shirt and khaki shorts. Click on the image for another view.

Pants

Almost all the Chinese boys I see wear short pants. The length of the shorts on the French and Chuinese boys is quite similar. The colors seem to be mostly blue, white and Khaki. Notice the khaki pants now so popular in the United States were originally "chinos" because the khaki/tan material made in China was sold in the Unted States. Apparently khaki in the 1950s was still popular in China. HBC notes only one Chinese boy wearing long pants.

Socks

All the Chinese boys I see wear ankle socks. I do not see any boys wearing kneesocks.

Shoes

Very little information is available on shoes in these images.

Young Pioneer Uniform

The Young Pioneer uniform appears to be a blue Mao cap, white shirts, red kerchiefs, and blue short pants. Some boys wear white shirts and kerchiefs, but with other colored shorts. Other boys wear their red kerchiefs with other colored, presumably non-uniform shirts.

Figure 4.--The Chinese and French boys work together here to get their kite aloft.