A film about the Titanic's little-known Chinese survivors, scheduled to premiere Friday in China, reveals the rampant anti-Asian attitudes of the time. And experts say that a century later, the survivors' story continues to be chillingly relevant.
The documentary, which hits theaters the day after the 109th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, delves into the experiences of passengers Lee Bing, Fang Lang, Chang Chip, Ling Hee, Ah Lam and Chung Foo.While some press reports painted the six survivors as stowaways, they were actually professional mariners who were headed to their next jobs, Schwankert said.
Many of the accounts about the Chinese mariners came from grieving survivors who had just experienced loss, as well as their own pain and trauma, Schwankert said. Many were women who had lost husbands or older sons, and their descriptions were often very skewed, he said. The Chinese survivors ended up being scapegoats.
Schwankert said anti-Chinese discrimination at the time was codified and legalized. The Chinese passengers were treated in line with the attitudes the U.S. held toward the Chinese under the, which initially put a 10-year moratorium on immigration of Chinese laborers. The discriminatory policy was extended several times through the Geary Act and other restrictions. It remained in effect until 1943, when China became a U.S. ally in World War II.
Schwankert said that although their post-Titanic treatment was undoubtedly difficult to confront, the mariners are likely to have dealt with far worse later because they worked in the West during a time of rampant racism and discrimination.