Woosung Pootung – The Great Chinese Mystic (Not)

I’ve blogged previously several times about western magicians adopting Chinese garb and names to capitalise on the old music hall audience’s belief that Chinese were great magicians – here, here and here. There were some genuine Chinese magicians working the stages of Europe and America, but also the likes of Chung Ling Soo. So prevalent were these fake Chinese magicians that jokes could be made of the often odd names they chose. Here’s one such joke on the theme from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1932 (though originally from the English newspaper, Sheffield’s Weekly Telegraph) combining two famous Shanghai districts Woosung (Wusong) and Pootung (Pudong)…