Historical Malayan newsreels available on YouTube

PETALING JAYA: Dozens of historical Malayan newsreels can now be watched online with the release of over 85,000 British Pathé newsreels to YouTube.

Formerly lighted on British and colonial cinema screens, the films spanning over 3,500 hours footage collected from 1896 to 1976 can be searched from:

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Malayan-shot films here span from the early 20th century, many of the regional footage covering events from the Second World War up to the late 1960s when British military forces gradually leave the country.

Founded in the 1890s by Charles Pathé, the British arm of the company was first established in London in 1910 and was later known as Pathé News, becoming one of the oldest media companies in the world.

It would initially show bi-weekly newsreels at cinemas spanning four minutes each, starting off with silent films. 

With television becoming more popular from the 1950s onwards, the company stopped making cinema newsreels in 1970. Since then, it mostly operated as an historical film archive.

While some of these newsreels have narrators in the background with accompanying music, others are silent: a reminder of a bygone era before audio in film.

These films include the surrender of over 10,000 Japanese troops to Allied forces at Sungai Petani after the Second World War, and a visit by the first Yang Di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Rahman to the east coast states in 1958.

King of Malaya's Tour of East Coast Malaya

There are even nostalgic views of Kuala Lumpur, with sights of Chinese men pulling rickshaws past the Sultan Abdul Samad building and British colonials stepping on the Selangor Club Padang in the 1920s, that is Dataran Merdeka today.

There are also short newsreels featuring Commonwealth troops fighting the Communist guerrillas deep in the Malayan jungle, and even Sarawak's first elections after joining the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

Jungle Raid in Malaya

“Our hope is that everyone, everywhere who has a computer will see these films and enjoy them,” says Alastair White, General Manager of British Pathé in a company blog post.

“This archive is a treasure trove unrivalled in historical and cultural significance that should never be forgotten. Uploading the films to YouTube seemed like the best way to make sure of that,” he added.