Documentary Reveals How 6 Chinese Men Who Survived The Titanic Were Left Out Of History

For early millennial kids, the movie Titanic was something of a milestone. Come on, nobody is forgetting the “Draw me like one of your French girls,” scene any time soon. For the Indian household, it was a revolutionary moment of utmost awkwardness. I can still remember the cringe levels from that day. *shudders*

Jokes and meme fodder aside, the tale of the great supposedly indestructible Titanic that sunk to the depths of the ocean on its maiden voyage, is one that we are all familiar with and will not forget easily.

However, an upcoming documentary claims that six Chinese men who survived the catastrophe were left out from the narrative.

The story of the doomed maiden voyage of RMS #Titanic is known to most people, but the tale of the six Chinese men who survived the disaster is absent from the history books. It was this little-known fact that sparked a new #documentary, The Six. https://t.co/6IdZG7KkMC pic.twitter.com/vF3A3ElJkU

— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) May 29, 2018

Not just in the movie, but also in real life. The presence and survival of these 6 men were never taken into account for the more than 100 years that the tale of the Titanic has been repeated over and over again.

The documentary titled ‘The Six’ examines the lives of the Chinese passengers who were on board the Titanic and later seemingly vanished from history books.

British documentary maker Arthur Jones found this discrepancy in the records odd and set out to find out more about the 8 Chinese passengers aboard the Titanic, 6 of whom had survived.

According to the South China Morning Post, he collaborated with historian Steven Schwankert to learn more about Lee Bing, Fang Lang, Chang Chip, Ah Lam, Chung Foo and Ling Hee, the 6 survivors and Lee Ling and Len Lam, the 2 dead.

Jones says:

“Of the 700 survivors of the Titanic disaster, the six Chinese men never told their stories. Why were they ignored?

The global press loved and continues to love the Titanic story, chronicling every little detail, right down to the size of the ashtrays in second class. But nothing was reported about the Chinese passengers.”

He launched a social media campaign, whoarethesix.com to find out information from the masses about these men or their relatives. From the thousands that reached out, it was ascertained that the 8 men worked on cargo ships travelling between the US and China and were probably headed to the US in search of a new life.

Similar to Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jack, the 8 men boarded the vessel in a single ticket listing eight names, a common practice for third class passengers.

But unlike, Jack, 6 of them survived the crash. 4 boarded the last lifeboat, 1 was rescued from another boat and the 6th member was found floating on a piece of wood.

But when they reached US soil, they were turned away from the country as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Act, a US federal law that explicitly suspended immigration for Chinese nationals.

Watch the trailer for the documentary here:

https://youtu.be/5-0gpvPHaZs

This is another classic example of discrimination based on nationality. And it took us more than a 100 years to finally speak up about it. Let’s hope that our generation reacts to such discriminations faster. After all, we see one form or the other of it on a daily basis, both online and offline, don’t we?