When the British Titanic sank into the Atlantic in April 1912, thousands of people fell into cold waters and died.
Only one of the lifeboats escaped the shipwreck has returned to search for survivors.
In the dark, rescuers found a young Chinese man clinging to a wooden door, trembling but alive. It was Fang Lang, one of six Chinese who survived the tragedy and the rescue that later inspired a famous scene in the 1997 Hollywood blockbuster “Titanic”. Titanic was the largest ocean-going ship in the world in the 1910s. It was described as “invincible fish” before sinking in the Atlantic in 1912. Photo: Easyvoyage However, miraculous survival is not the end of their trials. Within 24 hours of arriving at the immigration screening station on Ellis Island, New York, they were deported from the United States for a controversial law banning mainlanders from immigrating in the country. According to the BBC, 6 men disappeared from history to the present day. A documentary film has just been released on the mainland titled “The Six” has clarified their identity and life, 109 years after their fateful trip. The film unfolds the story outside of the legendary Titanic, a story shaped by racism and anti-immigration policies that are gaining special attention following the recent wave of persecution of Asians in the United States. Who are the 6 Chinese survivors? The men were identified as Lee Bing, Fang Lang, Chang Chip, Ah Lam, Chung Foo and Ling Hee. They are believed to be sailors coming to the Caribbean to work. Arthur Jones, British filmmaker and director of The Six, told the BBC that they were known as a group, not as an individual. A ticket listing the names of eight Chinese guests aboard the Titanic. 6 of them survived the shipwreck tragedy. Photo: LP Films The names of the Chinese survivors were on the list of passengers on the Titanic. Articles covering the sinking of the Titanic also briefly mentioned them. However, according to historians and researchers, unlike other survivors who had been praised by the media, this group of Chinese people was vilified for their anti-Chinese views in the West in the early 20th century. For example, in a report published a few days after the sinking, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle called the Chinese survivors “creatures” that rushed into the lifeboats “at the first sign of danger. and hide under the seats. However, research by the documentary production team shows that this claim is false. They built a replica of the Titanic’s lifeboat and found that it was impossible for the Chinese men to hide underneath without being spotted. “I think, we see the same thing today. We are seeing immigrants turned into scapegoats,” commented director Jones. Lifeboat took survivors away from the sinking area of the Titanic in April 2012. Photo: Easyvoyage Other media have even accused the Chinese of dressing up as women in order to be given priority on boarding the lifeboats. But Tim Maltin, the Titanic historian, says there is no evidence that the survivors of the Chinese had either stowed away or disguised themselves as women. Mr. Maltin believes, these are stories made up by the press and public opinion after the event. Rumors may stem from the stigma attached to many male survivors, as the vast majority of the general public believes that women and children should be given priority in the rescue. According to the historian Maltin, Chinese men tried to help other survivors. Fang Lang, who tied himself to a floating door in the sea, later steered the lifeboat that helped bring many people to safety. What happened to them after the crash? Rejected by the US, six Chinese men were sent to Cuba. They quickly made their way to England, where there was a shortage of sailors as many British sailors enlisted in World War I. (From left to right) Three of the Chinese guests who survived the tragedy with the Titanic were Ah Lam, Fang Lang and Ling Hee. Photo: LP Films Chang Chip became more and more ill after the fateful night and eventually died of pneumonia in 1914. He was buried in an unmarked grave in a London cemetery. The remainder worked together in Britain until 1920, when the country experienced a post-war recession and anti-immigrant sentiment surged. Some are married to British women and have children. However, anti-immigrant policies force them to leave the country without notice, leaving their relatives behind. “It’s not their fault. All these families have been divided because of politics, which they really don’t have any control over,” said director Jones. Lee Bing immigrated to Canada, while Fang Lang, after taking a train between Britain and Hong Kong for many years, became a citizen of the United States, the country that once rejected him. Similarity between history and today Tom Fong, son of Fang Lang was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA almost half a century after the sinking of the Titanic. His family surname has many different spellings in English. For decades, Fong was unaware of his father’s experiences aboard the legendary ship, dubbed “unsinkable”. “My father never mentioned it. At least not to me or my mother,” said Fong. Tom Fong was not told by his father – Fang Lang about what he experienced. Photo: LP Films Mr. Fang died in 1985, at the age of 90. Only 20 years later, his son was revealed by a family member that the father had survived the terrible shipwreck. Fong thinks his father may have kept it a secret because of his hurt and discrimination. “There was a lot of information saying that they were sneaking under the boat and disguised as women … stories like that were widely spread at that time,” Fong stressed. As The Six’s team traces the descendants of survivors, many of them still hesitate to share stories of stigma that family members experienced a century ago. Over the past 100 years, the hostility suffered by the six Chinese survivors has been eerily repeated in the midst of anti-Asian racism arose in today’s pandemic scene. In the US alone, there have been thousands of abuse cases reported in recent months, ranging from spit, verbal harassment to violent assault. Fong decided to share his family’s story in the hope that everyone will learn the truth about the Chinese survivors of the Titanic disaster and reflect on current events. “Because if you don’t know history, it will repeat itself,” he asserted.
You must log in to post a comment.