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. 2025 Jun 18;23(1-2):144-165.
doi: 10.1080/17460654.2025.2501566. eCollection 2025.

Hale's Tours in Singapore and Hong Kong

Mario Slugan  1 , Ata' Hanifee  1 , Weijia Zeng  1
Affiliations

Hale's Tours in Singapore and Hong Kong

Mario Slugan et al. Early Pop Vis Cult. .

Abstract

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).

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Inside Hale’s Tours. Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly, 1 October 1908, 481.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
‘Hales Tours Building’, plan of building at Beach Road, 1908, reproduced with permission of National Archives of Singapore.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Advertisement for ‘Hales Tours’, Union Times, 12 August 1908, 3.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Report from Utusan Melayu, 11 August 1908, np.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
The university bazaar advertisement. Hongkong Daily Press, 12 March 1912, 3.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
‘Scenic Railway’ advertisement at the old Land Office. China Mail, 27 April 1912, 3.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
‘幻遊火車’ [‘Illusory Train Tour’] advertisement at the old Land Office. Chinese Mail, 12 June 1912, 6.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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