Hale’s Tours in Singapore and Hong Kong

Since Raymond Fielding's essay on the subject, Hale's Tours and Scenes of the World - an exciting multi-sensory simulation of train travel involving wagon-like auditorium and moving image projection - have received noteworthy attention from early cinema scholars. Despite Hale's Tours being a worldwide phenomenon, however, the focus has been on North America and Western Europe. To our knowledge, there are only two properly referenced contributions on Hale's Tours (or its clones) outside these regions - in Singapore and Rio de Janeiro. Focusing on regions outside North America and Western Europe, however, is crucial for arriving at a more representative understanding of historical spectatorship and the affects the device produced. By drawing on English, Chinese, and Malay sources, this essay, therefore, expands our understanding of the Hale's Tours by investigating their first appearances in Asia in Singapore (1908) and Hong Kong (1912).