Mapping the transnational entertainment circuit

Industrialisation and urbanisation in the 1800s led to more developed transportation and communication networks, to increased leisure time, and higher demand for, and supply of, public entertainment. In the second half of the century, the shipping industry developed, new railway lines were built, and trade within and outside Southeast Asia multiplied. Gary Magee and Andrew Thompson call the development of transnational networks an informal process without a grand design that helped create a world market with regional hubs.Footnote ¹⁵ The development of transportation networks made travelling cheaper and faster, facilitating the expansion of entertainment circuits. Building and sustaining communication networks, such as shipping routes and railway lines, were also part of the imperial ambitions of colonial powers, and an explicit strategy to increase their influence and trade. Andrew Clarke, Governor of the Straits Settlements (1873–75), believed that British traders all over the world should be assisted and protected, since they were building a British empire.Footnote ¹⁶ Frank Swettenham, Resident-General of the Federated Malay States (1896–1901) and Governor of the Straits Settlements (1901–04), wanted to open up British Malaya by constructing ‘high-class roads, railways, telegraphs, waterworks’.Footnote ¹⁷

Shipping lines were initially dependent on mail contracts and government subsidies to serve regular long-distance routes between Europe and its colonies. Most lines operating between Europe and Asia or within Asia during the second half of the century, whether British, French, Dutch, or Japanese, started with or were sustained by mail contracts.Footnote ¹⁸ The mail was prestigious, and delays led to indignation, as illustrated by an editorial in the Straits Times: ‘This is the greatest, the most important seaport in all the Colonies of the Empire. Is it right that we should be the slowest with our mails?’Footnote ¹⁹ As ships became faster, together with the building of the Suez Canal, voyages from Europe to Southeast Asia went from taking three months in 1850 to less than a month in 1900.Footnote ²⁰ Consequently, several new shipping lines opened, both within Asia and to other parts of the world.Footnote ²¹ Railway lines, symbolising economic progress and modernity, also developed in Southeast Asia in the late 1800s. It was a capital-intensive way to promote and develop colonial areas, access natural resources, increase trade, and yield commercial advantages to the colonial powers. Ronald E. Robinson described the railways as a symbol for, and an actual physical extension of, empire-building.Footnote ²²

Entertainment companies toured a circuit of cities based on the infrastructure of transportation. The companies strengthened the transnational connections in the region while following paths of commerce and shipping. Early itinerant companies performed exclusively in the main shipping ports because of easy accessibility. As new shipping and railway lines were created, new places were included in the touring schedule of the companies. It was a process of experimentation; if visits to cities and towns were successful, other entertainment companies followed, thereby gradually creating established routes.Footnote ²³ Based on researching primary material such as advertisements and reviews in contemporary colonial newspapers, I have documented and mapped the movement of about a hundred entertainment troupes in Southeast Asia around the turn-of-the-century, and visualised their paths of circulation. Five distinctive features can be discerned through the mapping of these routes (fig. 2).

Figure 2. Map of entertainment companies’ circuits in Asia c. 1890–1910. The original map is taken from: Karte der grossen Postdampfschifflinien im Weltpostverkehr (Berlin: Verlag des Berliner Lithogr. Instituts, 1899).

First, the most common way to enter Southeast Asia was via British India.Footnote ²⁴ In addition to European entertainment companies, Parsi theatre companies, such as Victoria Parsee Theatre and New Elphinstone Parsee Theatre, frequently toured Southeast Asia in the late 1800s.Footnote ²⁵ The Victoria Parsee Theatre went from Bombay to Calcutta, Rangoon, Singapore, Java, Surabaya, Bangkok, Singapore, and back to Bombay via Colombo.Footnote ²⁶ Another, less usual, way was the Pacific and Australasian circuit, where entertainers came from the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii, or Australia. As colonial ports such as Singapore and Hong Kong developed, the circuit and itineraries of these troupes changed.Footnote ²⁷ When the Philippines became a US colony in 1898, it also became a stepping-stone to Southeast Asia for American companies. Entertainment troupes often travelled back and forth between India, Southeast Asia, and East Asia (Hong Kong, China, and Japan). The Ada Delroy Company from Australia, for instance, went from Madras to Calcutta, Rangoon, Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Manila in early 1900.Footnote ²⁸ The Barnes’ Entertainers went in the other direction in 1902: from China to the Philippines, Singapore, and Penang.Footnote ²⁹

Second, the Straits of Malacca was the most common entry point to the Malay Archipelago and Southeast Asia. Most entertainment companies and ships from Bombay, Calcutta, Colombo, and Rangoon passed through the Straits of Malacca. The other route to the Malay Archipelago was through the Straits of Sunda.Footnote ³⁰ With the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, however, the Straits of Malacca overtook the Straits of Sunda as the shortest and fastest way between Europe and Asia, enhancing the importance of Singapore and Penang at the expense of Batavia and Surabaya.

Third, and related to the previous point, Singapore was the regional hub for itinerant entertainment companies around the turn of the century. Most companies returned to Singapore two or three times during a Southeast Asian tour. Singapore's role as a centre for regional trade and transhipments expanded, and direct routes between other Southeast Asian ports decreased.Footnote ³¹ As a transhipment port, most cities carried direct shipping lines to Singapore; an entertainment company could thereby have the following itinerary: Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Java, Singapore, Saigon, etc. Examining the trade and shipping traffic of Singapore gives indications of the distribution paths and patterns of entertainment companies. Trade in all the Southeast Asian countries multiplied between 1890 and 1910, especially intra-regional commerce.Footnote ³² In 1897–99, around half of Singapore's trade was with other Southeast Asian countries, primarily the Dutch East Indies and the Federated Malay States.Footnote ³³ Fifteen large ships (with a capacity of over fifty tons) entered Singapore per day in 1904 and 1905; around 70 per cent came from within Southeast Asia, with similar statistics for ships leaving Singapore. About 35 per cent of the maritime traffic was with the Dutch East Indies, and 25 per cent with the rest of British Malaya.Footnote ³⁴

Fourth, shipping was used to a much larger extent than railways, naturally, considering the archipelagic nature of Southeast Asia. Port cities, such as Rangoon, Singapore, Penang, Batavia, Surabaya, Bangkok, and Manila, were better connected than routes between the port cities and the inland towns, and hence travel was easier between ports. The geographical reach of entertainment companies and variety artists into smaller inland cities and towns was, however, dependent on the railway. British Malaya, Dutch East Indies, Indochina, and Siam all multiplied the length of their railways between 1890 and 1900, and again between 1900 and 1910 (see Table 1). In British Malaya new railway lines connected inland towns to port cities to provide for the tin mining industry.Footnote ³⁵ The Dutch East Indies, likewise, expanded their railways, and in 1888 eight railway lines connected the fifteen largest cities and towns on Java. The volume of passengers (and freight traffic) multiplied accordingly: 20 million in 1895, 38 million in 1900, and 50 million in 1905.Footnote ³⁶ In 1897, Harmston's Circus travelled with the railway throughout Java, performing in Blitar, Kediri, Mojokerto, Madiun, and Surakarta.Footnote ³⁷ They included a cinematograph on their tour, and were the earliest film exhibitors in many parts of Java.

Table 1: Length of railways in Asia, 1890–1910 (km)

Notes: ^a1892; ^b1898; ^c1901 Source: B.R. Mitchell, International historical statistics: Africa, Asia & Oceania, 1750–2005, 5th ed. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp. 723–5, 728.

Finally, and connected to the previous points, British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies were the most toured areas for several reasons. The infrastructure was well developed; distances were short, which saved companies time and money; the railway network was developed; and the area was at the intersection of, and thus connected to, India, Australia, China, and Japan. Daily steamships, which took two days, went between Singapore and Batavia.Footnote ³⁸ The movement of Willard Opera Company illustrates the centrality of those countries. In 1895 and 1896, the British company went from Bombay to Colombo to Penang, Singapore, Batavia, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Singapore, Penang, Medan, Penang, Rangoon, India, Penang, Singapore, India, London, India, Singapore, Penang, Deli, Singapore, Batavia, Surabaya, Singapore, and back to India.Footnote ³⁹ Moreover, a common lingua franca, Malay, facilitated the touring of Malay-language theatre groups.

This last point is a reminder of the interconnectedness of Southeast Asia and its colonially constructed national borders. Pre-colonial borders in Southeast Asia were fundamentally different, as the region did not really consist of nation-states, but rather political centres of influence, autonomous provinces, and stateless societies. The largely artificial colonial borders were kept, strengthened through school education, and in essence form the national boundaries we have today.Footnote ⁴⁰ As a further illustration of the artificiality of these national borders, Sumatra under the Dutch was part of a currency area with British Malaya rather than with Java, thus using the Mexican silver dollar or Straits dollar instead of the guilder or florin.Footnote ⁴¹

Entertaining Southeast Asia

Audiences in Southeast Asia experienced different forms of Western and local entertainment through travelling theatre, opera, vaudeville, circus, and cinema. A city like Manila had regular performances in several languages, and Italian, French, Cuban, Spanish, English, American, Russian, Chinese, and Filipino artists performed in different theatres and shows.Footnote ⁴² Singapore had theatres, street operas, film exhibitions, billiards, skating rinks, bars, dances, and bands appealing to all social and ethnic groups. Entertainments provided sites for new impressions and reflection. In North America, these amusements had a significant impact on the creation of an imagined community, across class and ethnic barriers.Footnote ⁴³ These observations were to some extent also valid for the colonial societies of Southeast Asia. Entertainment companies gathered people from all strata of society to their programmes, and helped create temporary liminal spaces where audiences with varied ethnic and social backgrounds mixed, especially at the more affordable film exhibitions and circuses.Footnote ⁴⁴ The travelling amusements worked on several levels simultaneously, as sites for cultural exchange and symbols of cultural imperialism. International companies added local artists to their shows to add local flavour, trim salaries, and refresh their programmes, while some local amusements appropriated Western commercial forms; this led to a continuous exchange of ideas, forms, and performers.

Around the turn of the century at least sixty different itinerant opera, theatre, and variety companies were touring Southeast Asia.Footnote ⁴⁵ It is problematic, and slightly misleading, to assign a particular national identity to these itinerant troupes, as they typically consisted of mixed ensembles with changing performers. Based on the proprietor of the company, more than half of them originated from Europe (Britain, France, Spain, and Italy) or the United States. Of the remaining twenty-three, eleven were of Malayan origin, four from India, three from Japan, three from Australia, and one each from New Zealand and China. The touring Malay companies were bangsawan groups combining theatre, opera, and dance. Tan Sooi Beng describes it as ‘the non-Europeans’ version of Western theatre modified and adapted to suit local tastes’.Footnote ⁴⁶ In addition to these travelling entertainment companies, many more local forms of amusement — such as theatre (zarzuela and moro-moro in the Philippines, bangsawan in the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya, likay and lakhon in Siam), Chinese street opera (jiexi), and shadow puppet theatre (wayang kulit in the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya) — that did not tour the region attracted large audiences on a nightly basis. Most such performances were not advertised in the local press, however, and it is hard to gauge their volume and frequency. Chinese street opera, or theatre, was very popular in Singapore, as discussed by Tong Soon Lee, and one of the most affordable entertainment forms.Footnote ⁴⁷

Visitors to Southeast Asia testified to the significance of these entertainment forms. In 1905, Augusta de Wit claimed: ‘To all other pleasures, the Javanese prefers that of witnessing a performance of the wayang, the native theatre.’Footnote ⁴⁸ Henry Norman portrayed the love of the Siamese for likay and lakhon plays in his travel journal from 1895: ‘To an ordinary Siamese it is the height of happiness to sit jammed in a dense crowd on the floor, from seven p.m. to two a.m., watching the same play.’Footnote ⁴⁹ Ernest Young called the theatre ‘the most popular of all amusements’ for people of all ages in Siam, and ‘a purely native institution, unaffected by those Western influences that are so rapidly destroying in the East the many Oriental manners and customs that were once the delight of the traveller’.Footnote ⁵⁰ The Bangkok Amateur Dramatic Society was formed with Siamese actors in the early 1900s with the support of the Siamese Crown Prince who acted and wrote for the company. Its style was reportedly more ‘Western’, and it performed Western adaptations and original Siamese plays.Footnote ⁵¹

Matthew Cohen writes about the Eurasian Malay-language bangsawan troupe, Komedie Stamboel, founded by A. Mahieu in 1891, and assesses its impact in the Dutch East Indies, particularly in Surabaya. The Komedie Stamboel combined the Malay language, Eurasian actors, Mahieu-composed melodies, and Chinese management to create a mixed amusement form, neither European nor native, with a multi-ethnic troupe of Dutch, Chinese, Arab, Javanese, and Indian actors, combining elements from the circus, the opera, and the theatre. It thus shared many traits of Wayang Kassim described in the introduction. Komedie Stamboul was very popular, and attracted a wide array of audiences; as such it challenged social and racial barriers. The company existed for around a decade, then gradually lost its appeal, experiencing financial losses along with a decline in popularity.Footnote ⁵² A. Mahieu and part of his company joined Wayang Kassim for a period in 1902 after Komedie Stamboel closed down.Footnote ⁵³

Another illustration of the cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic, and multi-lingual nature of the entertainment world is the Victoria Parsee Theatre led by Khurshedji M. Balivala from Bombay. In Bangkok in 1899, they performed Ali Baba and the forty thieves, Aladdin, as well as Indian operas and comedies at Mom Chow Alangkarn's Theatre, which also was the location of the earliest cinematic exhibitions in Bangkok two years earlier. A Siamese company performing and singing in Thai accompanied the group, and during the intervals English songs were sung. Japanese lanterns lit the hall, and the performances were under the patronage of the French chargé d'affaires and a Russian minister. The successful programme was concluded with cinematographic pictures, including films from the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, warmly applauded by the large audience.Footnote ⁵⁴ Two years later the Victoria Parsee Theatre performed Hamlet in Hindi for a large audience in their temporary theatre on Beach Road in Singapore, and the press described it as ‘excellently staged and produced’ and ‘a pleasure to witness’.Footnote ⁵⁵ Christopher Balme's work on Maurice Bandmann and his different opera and theatre troupes, based in Calcutta but travelling throughout the world, is yet another good case study to illustrate the transnational entertainment circuit of the time. Bandmann also later became a cinematograph owner.Footnote ⁵⁶

Circuses were significant in creating and developing an Asian entertainment circuit since no city in Southeast Asia was large enough to support a permanent circus troupe. I have identified twenty-eight circus companies that toured Southeast Asia during a period of ten years around the turn of the century. Most circuses consisted of some forty to ninety artists and performers, with acts, people, and animals from around the world. With its ethnic diversity, the circus could offer a tour of the world, something cinema also later claimed to do.Footnote ⁵⁷ Again, it is hard to assign a national label, but around two-thirds of the circuses originated from Europe (Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, and Italy) or the United States. Of the remaining ten, six originated from India, two from Australia, one from South Africa, and one from the Philippines.Footnote ⁵⁸ Large circuses often integrated other exhibitions in their programmes, performers frequently moved between different companies, and local performers, such as Filipina tightrope walkers and Malay-speaking clowns, were employed.Footnote ⁵⁹ Many performers initially employed by itinerant entertainment companies in Europe and the United States decided to stay on in Southeast Asia, and joined other companies. Troupes were also usually refreshed between seasons in order to include new performers, and the latest spectacles and acts, making for novelty each time they came to a city.

The circus was particularly popular as it appealed to audiences across social, ethnic, and linguistic barriers. Circuses helped create a shared leisure culture, as it was a community occasion for all ages and social classes due to lower prices compared to other itinerant entertainment forms. Even the unloading of the animals and setting up of the tent was part of the spectacle, as was the large audience.Footnote ⁶⁰ The circus was the benchmark for other entertainment forms in Southeast Asia, and people reportedly asked for advance wages and pawned their valuables to visit the circus. Newspapers in the Dutch East Indies frequently compared Komedie Stamboel and Wayang Kassim to circuses, in terms of tents, seating arrangements, audience size, and quality.Footnote ⁶¹ Janet Davis sees the circus as metonymic for the infrastructural and national expansion of the United States, since it too spread along with the railways and exhibited the latest technology; she also depicts the size and scope of the circus as a sign of European imperialism.Footnote ⁶² Gillian Arrighi argues that technologically up-to-date circuses with electricity and gas installations were symbols of modernity, and that the itinerant circuses were instrumental in spreading that view.Footnote ⁶³ In their heyday, circuses continually grew bigger, enlarging their tents and adding more rings and acts. They also lowered general admission prices, making circus-going even more accessible, and charged extra for the sideshows.

Notwithstanding all these troupes, foreign-language newspaper editorials and reports throughout Southeast Asia criticised the dearth of good amusements, by which they meant Western entertainment companies.Footnote ⁶⁴ Bangkok Times wrote: ‘Singapore and Hongkong have a plethora of entertainments to brighten their lives and drive dull care away, but Bangkok pursues its solemn leaden course content to be neglected by the whirligig of amusements.’Footnote ⁶⁵ A certain rivalry also existed between the different cities; after one month of performances in Bangkok, Harmston's Circus was reported to leave for ‘Hongkong and other undeserving spots’.Footnote ⁶⁶ The lack of amusements often resulted in entertainment companies prolonging their stay, which was both a publicity and marketing ploy. D'Arc's Marionettes from Britain, for instance, stayed two weeks instead of three days in Penang ‘owing to the unprecedented and enormous success’.Footnote ⁶⁷ Straits Times yet complained about the lack of theatre plays: ‘Singaporeans can boast many pastimes, but play-going cannot be said to rank as foremost — it is a luxury which is given us only occasionally, and by only one company [Dallas Company].’Footnote ⁶⁸ Singapore, of course, had dozens of different Chinese and Malay theatre groups, but the only theatre the colonial papers counted was the European. Arnold Wright and H.A. Cartwright summed up the entertainment scene (slightly inaccurately) suitable for Europeans in British Malaya in 1908:

Technological development, such as the phonograph, kinetoscope, and cinematograph slowly changed the nature of the entertainment and leisure world.Footnote ⁷⁰ The cinematograph, and its film exhibitions, was an entertainment form that could easily travel and tour across national borders.Footnote ⁷¹ When cinema arrived in Southeast Asia, it provided added opportunities for local musicians. Live musical accompaniment played a central role in the cinematic experience, and was a way to market a cinematographic exhibition and distinguish it from others. Phonographs or gramophones often accompanied cinematographic exhibitions, playing English, Chinese, and Malay music and songs in Singapore.Footnote ⁷² Phonographs gradually lost their appeal, and audiences wanted live musical accompaniment. Piano was the most common live accompaniment to films, especially if exhibitions took place in a town hall or theatre rather than in a tent. The American Biograph was accompanied by Miss E. Wood on the piano at the Town Hall in Singapore.Footnote ⁷³ The Royal Bioscope was accompanied by a piano at the Town Hall in Singapore, and by a phonograph when they moved to a tent on Beach Road.Footnote ⁷⁴ The American Bioscope in Penang had a harmonium with ‘sweet music at intervals’. One night, a grand piano replaced the harmonium to the subdued excitement of the reviewer: ‘the music was not unenjoyable’.Footnote ⁷⁵ The Gaiety Stars performed ‘illustrated songs’ where a singer accompanied the films with suitable songs, described by the local press as a ‘novel experience’.Footnote ⁷⁶

Many orchestras and bands were created in British Malaya around the turn of the century. The Selangor State Band was formed in 1894, and the Penang Band in 1904, with most musicians being Malay.Footnote ⁷⁷ These bands played at balls, parties, dinners, dances, and funerals. The Penang Band reportedly charged $60 for a five-hour performance (dances and funerals), and $30 for two or three-hour dinners and garden parties, excluding transportation costs.Footnote ⁷⁸ The arrival of cinema gave the bands more venues to perform. The Volunteer Band accompanied the film programme of the London Chronograph in Singapore in 1906.Footnote ⁷⁹ The Japanese Cinematograph in Singapore had ‘appropriate music’ accompanying their films.Footnote ⁸⁰ Later it advertised new live musical accompaniments, ‘imported at great expense’. During a five-week period, a Manila band, the Batavian Troupe Orchestra, and the Santa Cecilia orchestra accompanied their films.Footnote ⁸¹ When the new Alhambra Cinematograph opened in Singapore in 1907, it had its own orchestra, the Alhambra Band, consisting of twelve musicians.Footnote ⁸² A year later, it brought an orchestra from Calcutta (see fig. 3), ‘to provide really good music, which visitors to local cinematograph shows ought to consider a long-felt want’.Footnote ⁸³ The Japanese Cinematograph at Harima Hall immediately replied with an advertisement that read: ‘Our Orchestra The BEST in Singapore.’Footnote ⁸⁴

Figure 3. New Orchestra at Alhambra Cinematograph in Singapore (advertisement, Straits Times, 16 Nov. 1908, p. 6 © Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Reprinted with permission)

Most orchestras in the region accompanied cinematic exhibitions at some point. In Kuala Lumpur, the Selangor Band supplied musical accompaniment to the Grand Parisian Cinematograph and London Chronograph, and a string band accompanied the French Cinematograph on Saturdays.Footnote ⁸⁵ In Manila, the Pasig band played during the intermission at Gran Cinematografo del Oriente, and an orchestra played with Cinematografo Parisien.Footnote ⁸⁶ In Medan, the Andalusian String Orchestra accompanied the General Bioscope.Footnote ⁸⁷ In Batavia, the London Cinematograph claimed to have its own string orchestra.Footnote ⁸⁸ The orchestras became so entwined with cinematic exhibitions that by 1910 one was reported to hear music familiar from cinematic venues at Chinese funerals and Tamil weddings in British Malaya.Footnote ⁸⁹

The profitability of entertainment

Many itinerant entertainment troupes were successful as they focused on markets with a shortage of amusements. When Warren's Circus performed in Taiping in 1901, a review stated that ‘any entertainment, however poor, would be accepted as a welcome relief’.Footnote ⁹⁰ Not all itinerant entertainment companies were successful, however. The London Lyric Company, for instance, only filled 25 per cent of the seats at the Penang Town Hall in 1894.Footnote ⁹¹ An editorial in Perak Pioneer in 1906 made the unverified claim that the majority of entertainment companies touring Asia the past 25 years ‘invariably wind up by hopelessly coming to grief financially, in plain words being properly “stranded,” with the usual result of many of the members having to be assisted by the community’.Footnote ⁹² Large troupes had considerable costs for transportation, accommodation, salaries, equipment, permits, and marketing. Profits were not guaranteed, and transporting personnel, animals, and equipment across oceans was difficult.

Costs for salaries and travelling were significant considering that troupes often had more than forty performers. The monthly salaries of local artists varied depending on their role, and were reported to be between $8 and $40.Footnote ⁹³ Western artists made substantially more. As a comparison, the daily wage of a manual labourer in Singapore was around 50 cents, depending on their work.Footnote ⁹⁴ Transportation costs in Southeast Asia were quite high, a third-class ticket by ship between Batavia and Singapore costing 15 guilders ($10).Footnote ⁹⁵ Tickets between destinations further apart were more expensive, but troupes often received group discounts. Itinerant companies also incurred additional costs for renting venues and for advertising. The cost of renting the Town Hall in Singapore was $55 a night for international troupes and $30 for local groups.Footnote ⁹⁶ Singapore charging more for international troupes is an additional illustration of its significance in the entertainment circuit. In the Dutch East Indies, the policy was the opposite to attract international troupes; local entertainments had to pay a permit fee, whereas it was free for European companies. The fees varied depending on entertainment form and gender: 80 guilders ($54) for female troupes, f60 ($41) for male troupes, f50 ($34) for puppet companies, and f20 ($14) for Chinese shadow puppetry shows.Footnote ⁹⁷ Putting up a tent, rather than renting a hall, also entailed costs. In Singapore, the Land Office was responsible for granting the land area; rents, as well as the necessary police charges, were higher than elsewhere in Asia.Footnote ⁹⁸

Climate also affected touring routes and provided difficulties for the entertainment companies, as it could be excessively hot or raining torrentially. Paper and electric fans were provided in most venues to cope with the heat, and the sides of the tents were often raised to provide additional respite.Footnote ⁹⁹ The large companies had high daily maintenance costs, and lost earnings when bad weather resulted in cancelled performances. The rainy season varied from country to country too, which impacted the companies’ chosen routes. Most entertainment troupes avoided Southeast Asia during the rainy season; itinerant companies performing in tents were, therefore, initially seasonal. Around 1905 many entertainment companies advertised rainproof tents, indicating performances would take place regardless of weather.Footnote ¹⁰⁰ Challenging the weather still entailed risks, something the London Chronograph in Taiping experienced: ‘The wild weather of the last few days completely wrecked the large tent which was brought, and compelled it to seek shelter in a more substantial erection [the Chinese Theatre].’Footnote ¹⁰¹

The entertainment companies’ income varied depending on the location of the venue and size of the audience. Three principal ways existed for an itinerant company to arrange performances: being hired for a fixed sum for a certain number of performances by a local agent or theatre owner; making all the arrangements itself; or a combination of the two, where profits or losses were shared with the venue-provider. In the first instance, the local agent or theatre owner took the financial risk and profit. The Filipino Circus was hired to perform for a week in Ipoh for $1,000, and after one performance the local agent had recouped half the money.Footnote ¹⁰² Wayang Kassim received $1,000 for a one-week contract in Taiping, a sum cleared in two days. For Saturday night the box-office was $600, despite competition from Chinese and Tamil plays performed elsewhere.Footnote ¹⁰³ Four years later, a Chinese merchant offered Wayang Kassim $3,000 for a month in Taiping, whereas they demanded $4,000.Footnote ¹⁰⁴ The Zig-Zag Variety Company received 5,000 ticals ($3,000) for ten performances in Bangkok, and 3,900 ticals ($2,400) for another series of performances, of which 1,000 ticals ($600) was an advance payment.Footnote ¹⁰⁵ Many itinerant companies used different practices in different places: Komedie Stamboel received a fixed fee for some performances, and an income-based one for others.Footnote ¹⁰⁶ Contracts that depended fully on the proceeds collected for income could be risky, given the possibility of dishonesty and deceit among organisers. When the entertainment company made all the arrangements themselves, their potential profits were larger, but so were the risks. Harmston's Circus made its own arrangements, and reportedly brought in more than $2,000 per night in Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, and Ipoh.Footnote ¹⁰⁷ The financial stakes were high. When the circus arrived in Surabaya by ship, the Royal Dutch Packet Company (Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij) dropped part of the loop used for their famous bicycle trick into the sea, and Harmston's Circus demanded 2,000 guilders ($1,360) for every night they could not perform the trick.Footnote ¹⁰⁸

Cinema, circus, theatre, street opera, music, and other entertainment forms prospered side by side during the first decade of cinema. Matsuo's Cinematograph Show and Spampani's Circus both drew good houses every night in 1907 in two spacious tents opposite each other in Ipoh.Footnote ¹⁰⁹ Many new theatres were built and renovated in British Malaya in the early 1900s. In Singapore, the Town Hall was renovated and a new theatre, the Victoria Theatre, was built next to it. In Penang, the King Street Theatre renovated its hall to provide electric lights, fans, and new seats.Footnote ¹¹⁰ Many renovations were likely due to increased competition from travelling entertainments providing up-to-date and sophisticated tents. Several theatre buildings, however, were gradually taken over by cinematographic exhibitions in the early 1900s. Wayang Kassim and another bangsawan group could not perform in Taiping in 1910 as all theatres were leased by cinematograph shows, which prompted the Perak Pioneer to suggest that they should lease the cinematograph and combine the theatre with cinema.Footnote ¹¹¹