AI-Enhanced 1917 Footage Reveals Daily Life in Pre-Communist China

A century-old documentary, 'A Trip Through China,' has been enhanced and colorized using artificial intelligence, offering a rare glimpse into daily life in China in 1917. The film was created by Benjamin Brodsky, a Russian-born businessman who moved to China from San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Brodsky shot over 20,000 feet of negatives across China before the Communist Revolution, capturing diverse landscapes and people. The surviving sections, colorized by AI, are available on YouTube. Critics note that AI colorization may not accurately represent original hues and has sparked debate over skin tone rendering. The footage provides a window into a China largely unknown to Westerners at the time, who relied on missionary publications and newspaper coverage of events like the Boxer Rebellion and the fall of the Qing dynasty.