"Western Hills", circa 1927

This film is part of a collection of motion picture films that John Van Antwerp MacMurray shot during the time he served as American Minister to China (1925-1929).

MacMurray and his family spent much of their free time in the Western Hills northwest of Peking, where many diplomats "rented a temple." MacMurray leased living quarters at Ta Pei Ssu in the Pa ta Ch'u valley. The film includes some family and temple scenes, unidentified street and village scenes, as well as footage of carriers, laborers, pig herders, and other villagers.

For the John Van Antwerp MacMurray Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library see http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/wh246s13m . For more information or to comment on this video, visit the library's blog "The Reel Mudd:" http://blogs.princeton.edu/reelmudd/2010/08/renting-a-temple-in-the-western-h...

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Education

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• John Van Antwerp MacMurray
• China
• Western Hills
• diplomats
• rural