Summary

Game name (and type): 'Chinese Wall' (chasing game)
Alternative types: running games

Handwritten description of the chasing game 'Chinese Wall' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Janice Soder, a student at Double View Government Primary School, on 25 March 1955. To play 'Chinese Wall', Soder states that a large, open space is required. She describes the necessary layout, providing an annotated, hand drawn diagram. A line is drawn at each end of the ground; a second set of parallel lines are drawn across the centre as illustrated. A child stands in between the central lines facing the other players, who are lined up at one end of the field. At the blow of a whistle, Soder writes that the child must try to capture the other children as they run across the central section of the ground. She notes that captured players must assist with the chasing.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's games written to children's Folklorist Dorothy Howard between 1954 and 1955. Dr Howard came to Australia in 1954-55 as an American Fulbright scholar to study Australian children's folklore. She travelled across Australia for 10 months collecting children's playground rhymes, games, play artefacts, etc. This letter, together with the other original fieldwork collected by Dr Howard during this period, is preserved in the Dorothy Howard Collection manuscript files, part of the Australian Children's Folklore Collection (ACFC), Archive Series 3. The ACFC is an extensive collection documenting children's folklore and related research.

Physical Description

Handwritten game description in blue ink on lined paper. Comprises two pages featuring borders ruled in red pencil and an annotated, hand drawn diagram; text printed on one side only.

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