Tribute to China's Yankee general
ANYONE who doubts that American education is in crisis should talk to Shirley Sun. ''This may sound startling,'' the award-winning New York film-maker said, ''but many Americans under the age of 40 don't know that China was involved in World War II, and that includes a lot of college graduates I've met.
''There's a real need to address that kind of ignorance. Part of it is that people prefer to see movies instead of reading books these days. The lack of knowledge about the China-Burma-India theatre of war is another factor. It has been called the forgotten war.'' Ms Sun's solution has been to make a documentary film. It is definitely not meant to supplant the printed word. In fact, Vinegar Joe Stilwell may well have the reverse effect as viewers descend on bookstores and libraries avid for more information about the extraordinary American who headed both the US and Chinese Nationalist resistance to the Japanese during World War II.
Last week, a fascinated audience was treated to a preview. ''First screening of a work-in-progress'' read the invitation to the highlight of the celebrations to mark the opening of the Hongkong-America Centre at the Chinese University.
It was Vinegar Joe Stilwell, and producer-director Ms Sun was on hand to field questions. She was gratified by the response. ''A pretty learned group of people watched it - there were scholars from the States, China and Hongkong - and made some very thoughtful comments. Some even suggested how I might end my film.'' The death of General Joseph Warren Stilwell in California on October 12, 1946 at the age of 63, would be one way. Given the wealth of material at her disposal, Ms Sun can be depended on to avoid anything so literal.
Rare archive footage, interviews with family members and distinguished figures in the US, Taiwan and China, scenes shot on location should be edited and ready to screen on American television by mid-summer.
It will take viewers just under an hour to learn about the man who already knew China intimately when, at the height of the war, a resentful Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek bowed to American pressure and asked Stilwell to be his chief-of-staff, placing himin command of China's armed forces.
Shirley Sun, born in Shanghai, raised in Taiwan and the US and acutely conscious of her heritage, has spent years on the project. Out of it has come a profound respect for the ''quintessential American with a Yankee code of honour'' who found himself battling not only the enemy, but Chiang Kai-shek.
''The crux of their conflict was that Stilwell's mission - and he was obsessed by it - was to fight the Japanese. But Chiang wanted to reserve the best troops to fight the communists. As he put it, 'The Japanese are a disease of the skin; communism is a disease of the heart'.
''It has been said that Chiang's genius was political, not military. It can also be said that while Stilwell was no diplomat, he was totally honourable.
''He was also extremely likeable. He may have been 'Vinegar Joe' because of his acerbic wit, but to his men he was Uncle Joe. Even Chiang Kai-shek called him that when they were on good terms.'' Vinegar Joe Stilwell goes to the heart of the mission whose failure was to influence American involvement in Asia for the next three decades. It is also a moving tribute to the wiry, Mandarin-speaking American who, between 1911 and the 40s, witnessed themost crucial events in China.
If anything, ''Uncle Joe'' dominates this documentary which portrays a devoted family man and passionate egalitarian who, according to Shirley Sun, ''always identified with the working class''.
Until recently, the elegant New Yorker who earned a doctorate in art history at Stanford University and spent 10 years working in cultural affairs before devoting herself to film-making, was known mainly for her documentaries.
Her first feature film, the critically acclaimed A Great Wall, was about an Americanised Chinese who takes his family on a sentimental journey to China only to find that oceans really do divide.
In 1991 came Iron and Silk based on the real-life experiences of Mark Salzman, a young American graduate who went to China as an English-language teacher - ''an exquisite and wise character study of two cultures'', said The Hollywood Reporter.
Now it would seem that Shirley Sun has come full circle with Vinegar Joe Stilwell, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington DC. Not so.
''I'm working on developing it into a dramatic film and there's been great interest from both the US and China.
''Last week I was in Beijing for talks with the August 1 Studio - that's the big military outfit - and its involvement would be ideal. Troops are no object to that bunch. Nor are planes, tanks, military backdrops and just about anything needed for a wartime film.
''Nancy Easterbrook, the eldest daughter of General Stilwell, was with me and together we explored her childhood haunts. She grew up in Beijing and speaks fluent Mandarin. An incredible woman.'' Last year, Ms Sun acquired the option for the film which she says could be another Patton.
''Warner Bros had it originally and there was talk then of Paul Newman playing Joe Stilwell. He still could, but then so could any number of fine actors including Clint Eastwood and Nick Nolte.'' After the wide screen, says the film-maker, there would be no excuse for those America college graduates. Or for that matter, the millions in the People's Republic who have never heard of the once-strategic highway linking Burma and China, which 3,000 labourers including their Uncle Joe built.
It's neglected now, but the name bestowed on it by Chiang Kai-shek remains: Stilwell Road.
