One Step Ahead of My Shadow

To music – and sometimes the song “One Step Ahead of My Shadow” – we see various scenes of a China imagined by 1930’s U.S. stereotyping. We’re in what may be Shanghai, with rickshaws and other cultural touchstones. A young man steers his small boat down a river to visit his sweetheart, to whom he sings. A large man, who’s well-to-do, seems to cheat his rickshaw driver who takes him to the same house where the kids are courting. A dragon interrupts the fun, the damsel is in distress, and fireworks may follow.