This handbill was used to advertise the Cantonese movie, ‘China at Dawn’ (太平天国女英雄, Taipingtianguonǚyingxiong), also known as ‘Taiping Heroine’. During its Singapore run, the movie was screened at the Ruby (宝石, Baoshi), Marlborough (曼舞罗, Manwuluo) and Liberty (银国, Yinguo) cinemas.Between the 1950s and 1960s, most Mandarin, Cantonese and other Chinese-dialect movies were made in Hong Kong by film production companies with financial support from Singapore-based film studios such as Shaw Brothers, Cathay and Kong Ngee (光艺, Guanyi). These studios were also involved in the distribution and exhibition of these movies in Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia through their network of cinemas. In the early 1970s, Mandarin movies from Taiwan became popular, but by the late 1970s, Hong Kong movies were dominant once more.
