The Survival Conditions of the Ticket Scalpers in Shanghai Theaters, 1946-1949

Abstract: After the War of Resistance against Japan, the Shanghai film market witnessed an unprecedented boom, and large numbers of ticket scalpers took advantage of the opportunity to infiltrate and engage in the resale of movie tickets. The numerous theaters within the jurisdiction of the Shanghai Municipal Police Department's new district became a 'disaster zone' for the scalpers. This paper aims to analyze the archives of the department's arrests of theater ticket scalpers to understand the composition, motives, income, internal organization, and division of labor of this group. It seeks to gain an initial understanding of their survival conditions and further explore the possibility of using the interrogation records in the archives to sketch a picture of the everyday life of the lower social classes.