One hundred and thirteen years ago today, the sinking of the Titanic became an enduring tragedy, its narrative often focusing on the lost and the lauded. Yet, a lesser-known chapter involves six Chinese men who survived the disaster only to face immediate hardship and erasure due to the pervasive anti-Chinese sentiment of the time. Their story, recently brought to light, reveals a stark reality of early 20th-century racism that continued long after their miraculous survival.
Aboard the Ill-Fated Voyage
Eight Chinese men were aboard the Titanic, primarily believed to be sailors en route to the Caribbean for work. When the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, six of them – Lee Bing, Fang Lang, Chang Chip, Ah Lam, Chung Foo, and Ling Hee – miraculously survived. Fang Lang’s rescue, clinging to a wooden door in the frigid Atlantic, even inspired a scene that was ultimately cut from the 1997 film Titanic.
Met with Suspicion and Deportation
However, their survival was met not with celebration but with immediate suspicion and hostility. Upon their arrival at the immigrant inspection station at Ellis Island in New York, these six men were denied entry and expelled from the United States within 24 hours. The reason? The Chinese Exclusion Act, a discriminatory law that barred Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S.
Read more: Echoes from the Deep: The Titanic’s Forgotten Asian Passengers and Other Lost Histories
Contemporary media coverage further compounded their ordeal. As reported by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle days after the sinking, the Chinese survivors were callously labeled “creatures” who had supposedly “sprung into the lifeboats at the first sign of danger” and concealed themselves. Historian Tim Maltin refutes these claims, stating, “These were stories made up by the press and the public after the event.” Research for the documentary “The Six” even involved building a replica lifeboat, demonstrating the impossibility of hiding unnoticed.
Adding to the slander, some reports falsely accused the men of disguising themselves as women to gain access to lifeboats. Maltin dismisses this as baseless rumor, possibly fueled by the general public’s sentiment that male survivors should have yielded to women and children. In reality, accounts suggest the Chinese men actively participated in the rescue efforts. Charlotte Collyer, a passenger on lifeboat 14, recounted how Fang Lang, after being rescued, “worked like a hero,” rowing to safety.
Lives After the Disaster
Denied entry to the U.S., the six survivors were sent to Cuba. They eventually made their way to the United Kingdom, where a shortage of sailors due to World War I provided employment. Tragedy struck Chang Chip, who succumbed to pneumonia in 1914 and was buried in an unmarked London grave. The remaining men worked together until the post-war recession and rising anti-immigrant feelings led to further displacement in 1920.
Some of the men formed families in the UK, marrying British women and having children. Yet, anti-immigrant policies forced them to leave, separating them from their loved ones without warning. As filmmaker Arthur Jones, director of “The Six,” explains, “All of these families were really driven [apart] by politics, something they didn’t really have any control over.”
Their lives took disparate paths. Ah Lam was deported to Hong Kong, while Ling Hee journeyed to Kolkata (then known as Calcutta). Lee Bing immigrated to Canada. Fang Lang, after years of sailing between Britain and Hong Kong, eventually became a citizen of the very nation that initially rejected him – the United States.
Tom Fong, Fang Lang’s son, born in Milwaukee nearly half a century after the Titanic disaster, grew up unaware of his father’s harrowing experience. “He (Fang Lang) never spoke about it. Not to me, at least or to my mother,” Fong told the BBC. It wasn’t until two decades after his father’s death in 1985 that Fong learned of his survival, suspecting his silence was due to trauma and the stigma associated with the false accusations. “There was a lot of information saying they were sneaking under the boat, and they dressed up like women… Stories like that were circulating at the time.”
Unearthing Forgotten Histories
The documentary The Six sought out descendants of these survivors, many of whom were still hesitant to share their families’ stories due to the lingering shame. Tom Fong, however, chose to speak out, hoping to correct the historical record and draw parallels to contemporary issues. He recalls his father facing racism in America, a hostility that eerily echoes the surge in anti-Asian hate during the recent pandemic. “Because if you don’t know the history, it will repeat itself,” Fong warns.
Read more: Southbank Centre’s ESEA Encounters: A Celebration of East and Southeast Asian Culture
Steven Schwankert, the chief researcher for The Six, emphasizes the deliberate erasure of these men from the Titanic narrative. “Six Chinese guys made it off the Titanic alive and 24 hours later were written out of the story,” he stated. “That wasn’t an accident. That was deliberate. It’s something that the culture of the time made happen.”
Remember the Lost: Attend the E.C.H.O Exhibition
The story of these six men is just one of many forgotten histories from British East and Southeast Asian communities. To delve deeper into these narratives, including the experiences of the first Asian travelers to Britain, the forced repatriation of Chinese seamen after the World Wars, and the journeys of Vietnamese refugees, consider visiting E.C.H.O (ESEA Collective: History, Over Here), an upcoming exhibition by Voice ESEA.
E.C.H.O will be held in London on May 1st and 2nd at Second Home in Spitalfields and in Manchester on May 24th at SEESAW. This exhibition aims to resurface these long-forgotten currents of history, fostering open conversations about the past and present.
Please check the event page for ticket information and join this important opportunity to remember and learn from our shared history.
