People sometimes want to escape from the reality into another world, and films give them the way. Typically, the Great Depression of 1929~1933, it was just like the end of the world for many people. It was the economic crisis that the basic contradiction of capitalism and production of anarchy developed to an extreme degree of sharpness after the development of capitalism to monopoly stage, which pushed the American Capitalism to the edge of collapse. “In other period of Depression, we can always find things which we can place hope on, but now we look around and see on hope,” said former American President John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. in 1933. “We have already come to a blind alley, and we can do nothing about it,” said former American President Herbert Clark Hoover on the day after his inaugural. Based on this background, the 1933 film King Kong got great success with its extraordinary movie stunt and thrilling story. The success spawned a series of films. King Kong (2005 film) is just another remake. Anyway, King Kong is not King Kong, but the way for temporarily escaping from reality.

King Kong (2005 film) is an epic monster adventure film co-written, produced, and directed by Peter Jackson. The film stars Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody. It is set in 1933 America, an overly ambitious filmmaker leads his team and ship crew to travel to the mysterious Skull Island, including the beautiful Ann, where they meet the dinosaurs and are attacked by the natives. King Kong, a legendary giant gorilla, responses to the scream of Ann. It is even not afraid of dinosaurs, but just likes Ann. The crew captures and displays King Kong in New York City, with tragic results.

The Chinese crew member Choy.

Among the crew members, there a Chinese called Choy. From the movie that he shows up four times, I guess that he is in charge of daily matters or physical work or may be a servant. Theoretically, the crew just wants someone to do the job good, as long as he is responsible and strong, and anyone is good. The role bears no important duty, and just does his job or does as other person does. I don’t know exactly why the director sets this role for him, but if we analyze it, we can find that it is reasonable. Especially, that time Chinese in America are commonly of low cultural level, and they always live on nothing but their hands.

First, a Chinese crew member is cheap of the same work, which is undoubtedly the truth. His name, Choy, which is from Cantonese and means vegetables, reveals that he is cheap and may be from Guangdong Province, China. Considering the whole economic situation of America that time, it is smart to get things done at a cheap price. And the filmmaker is at the edge of bankruptcy, and he annoys his boss and gets no budgets, and he even has to provide a blank check for the play writer.

Second, Chinese are hard-working, and he will do the job to the best. Chinese are faithful, and they will not live on the team while helping others secretly to harm the team. Chinese are responsible, and they evade their responsibilities.

Third, it gives some kind of mystery. This short and small person, silent and obedient, gives his face here and there just for the story. People would be curious why he gets involved in such a journey of adventure.

The final show-up of the Choy is at the bottom of the dead valley. Choy is dead and his white companion cries sadly aside, which means that Choy is recognized through his hard work to make his own contribution.

The American Chinese that time.

During 1930s, the American mainstream society was in the nervous status. Ethnic Chinese at the edge of society faced bigger challenge with the already lower society position. They were faced with double difficulties of Chinese exclusion and the impact of economic crisis.

The situation of Chinese intelligentsias during the Great Depression.

At the beginning, Chinese with low level of knowledge in America mainly lived on their strength and technologies to do physical work. In America, Chinese suffered racial discrimination from the white, and they couldn’t share the same job and education opportunities with the white. There were few Chinese intelligentsias in America, for they couldn’t get the social position and respect they deserved.

But, there were still many Chinese intelligentsias. In 1854, Rong Hong was the first Chinese graduated in American university, and he graduated from Yale University. He actively brought Chinese teenagers to America for new education, most of who chose to stay in America because what they learned couldn’t get use in old China. Wars between warlords during 1911~1937 and Japanese invasion during 1937~1945 made many rich people send their children to America for education. And 1941 broke out the Pacific War, which made more than 5000 overseas students stay in America. And they were refined and cultured, knew English well, and they greatly influenced the Chinese and non-Chinese communities.

There emerged some outstanding Chinese intelligentsias who got internalized by America and the world. Yuen Ren Chao, or YR Chao, studied in America in 1910, and then returned to China for teaching. He settled in America in 1938, and he took up the post of President of the American Language Association, President of the American Oriental Society, and taught in University of Hawaii, Harvard University, and University of California. James Wong Howe was the Chinese photographer to win the Oscar Academy Awards with Algiers (1938). He was written in American <Encyclopedia Britannica> as one of the greatest photographers in America.

Chinese intelligentsias experienced a tortuous development history, and Chinese culture and Chinese intelligentsias’ achievements were gradually acknowledged by American society.

Living condition of Chinese women in the Great Depression.

At the beginning, Chinese came to America mainly for making a living by heavy manual work, so there were few female Chinese. There were two ways for female Chinese to come to America. First, in 1931 Congress of the United States changed the 1924 legislation on banning non-American born wives of American citizens to come to America to allow Chinese females married with American citizens before 1924 to come to America, after years of protest. Second, because of serious imbalance between men and women, many Chinese males had to go back to China to look for spouses and give birth to children, which caused a lot of Chinese-born American citizens. And to become American citizens by way of American citizens’ children was the main way to come to America.

Hardworking, thrifty, and kind, those Chinese females accepted the traditional Chinese ideological and moral, and they focused on their husbands and children. They were faced with the hard life and the discrimination and hostility from the white people, in a state of panic all day long. Their activities included washing, cooking, taking care of the children, managing the vegetable garden, feeding cattle, and farming. Afraid of American discrimination and violent Chinese exclusion from the white people, the early stage Chinese females’ range of activities was limited in China town.

In the Great Depression, American Chinese females were not fragile but positive to face the crisis. They learned more living skills to help the family. They pinched pennies to give the family a somehow decent life, and minimized the influence of the crisis on the family economy. But, under the discrimination, they had narrow employment field. There was a survey that 11.7% of American Chinese females were tailors, 10.6% retailers, 7.3% laundry, 8.2% waitress, and 11.2% clerks. Private home service was the only career out of the ethnic group range. Anyhow, because they were smart, hard-working, willing to sacrifice, the American Chinese females together with their families succeeded in passing through the crisis.

In a word, relying on China town and Chinese social organizations, the American Chinese helped and supported each other to tide over the difficulties. And finally, they received the policy adjustment of American government to improve and provide space for further development of American Chinese. We can think so that, as the ethnic minority in America and under the social and cultural background of racial discrimination, the accomplishments of American Chinese are the results of their hard work, the change of the attitude and cognition of the world towards Chinese, and the social progress.

Dragon Blade is a 2015 Chinese Hong Kong historical action film written and directed by Daniel Lee. In the film, Jackie Chan plays Huo An, the commander of the Protection Squad of the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty. John Cusack and Adrien Brody also play their parts in the film.

In western China, 48 BC., the Han Dynasty established the Protection Squad of the Western Regions to protect the Silk Road and reconcile 36 nations in the Western Region, and Huo An is the commander. However, the Protection Squad is found corrupt, causing the entire group to be judged to construct the castle at Wild Geese Gate. Not long after, Wild Geese Gate is threatened by a Roman legion led by Lucius in need of water and supplies. Huo An and Lucius succeed in staying in peace. The legion uses its engineering skills to speed up the construction work, and they finish the job together ahead of schedule.

To hunt down Lucius, Tiberius, a corrupt consul who murdered his father, approaches with 100,000 soldiers. Lucius is set up and dies and Huo An is trapped. As Huo An’s and Lucius’s soldiers are surrounded, the armies of several other races arrive and fight against Tiberius, including the Indians, Huns, Uighurs, and Turkics, all of whom are determined to preserve the Silk Road’s safety. But their combined forces are unable to gain the upper hand. Finally, the envoys sent earlier return with a massive force of Parthians, who have signed a special treaty with Tiberius’s father. Tiberius’s soldiers lose their will to fight. Huo An challenges Tiberius to a duel and kills him. After the war, the Chinese emperor grants Lucius’s legion the right to establish their own city, which they choose to name Regum. They accept Huo An as their commander.

Dragon Blade is based on a true Chinese history event.

In the Han Dynasty of Chinese history, the Huns were a severe threat in the north to the Han Emperor. During the regnum of the Emperor Yuan (74 BC—33 BC), the Huns separated into two parts, the South Huns and the North Huns. The North Huns, led by the Zhizhi Chanyu who was envious of the preferential treatment of the Emperor for the South Huns, often imprisoned, humiliated or even kill the Han envoy within their territory. Zhizhi Chanyu was worried about the punishment from the Emperor, though. And Zhizhi Chanyu escaped to Kangqu, in what is now the area between Balkhash Lake and Aral Sea, where he built a Zhizhi City.

Chen Tang, Vice-captain of the Protection Squad of the Western Regions, determined to attacked the Zhizhi City, and he reported to the Commander Gan Yanshou. Gan Yanshou agreed the plan, but he insisted that the plan should be proved by the Emperor. Chen Tang was impatient of the long decision procedure and the road to the Emperor was so long. One day, Gan Yanshou was ill, which gave Chen Tang the chance to fabricate the command of the Emperor to call in all army and protectorate army to attack the Zhizhi City. Gan Yanshou was so shocked by Chen Tang, but the attack was on the way, and he had to admit the mistake and reported to the Emperor and followed Chen Tang to lead the war.

In the assault against Zhizhi City, a team of strange soldiers in Zhizhi ‘s army used a “fish-scale formation ”, which is believed by historian and military scientist that the described Testudo formation of overlapping shields was made only by Roman soldiers. The infantrymen used the Testudo formation for defense on the foot of the fortress, and the cavalrymen charged towards Gan Yanshou and Chen Tang army. But the Han united army finally win the war, and Zhizhi Chanyu was killed. A thousand more North Huns army was captured, the team of strange soldiers included. It is believed that the the team of strange soldiers were mercenary army.

The war happens in the wrong Chinese place.

The war is real, and Commander Gan Yanshou, Vice-Captain Chen Tang, and Testudo formation are true in history. In the long long time in history, as an advanced farming culture, the Han-Chinese were self-sufficient. But the nomads, especially the Huns in the Han Dynasty, threatened the Han Dynasty in the way of burning, killing, pillaging, even war, to get necessities. The Han-Chinese regime often fought for the right to survive, but to lose more than to win. The film tells the basic truth but makes some mistakes.

First, the Dragon Bladewar happens in the wrong place. The film people apparently are short of geographical knowledge. Check the Han Dynasty map below, and the black circle part is the Wild Geese Gate fortress in North China, and the red circle part is the Capitol City Chang’an, and the green region is the territory of the Han Dynasty.

The Wild Geese Gate fortress, which is “Yan men guan” in Chinese pinyin, located in Yan Men Mountain, 20km north of Daixian County, Yizhou city, Shanxi Province, North China, is an important pass of the Great Wall. The Wild Geese Gate fortress is famous of its steepness and ruggedness, easy to hold but hard to attack. During the Han Dynasty, the Wild Geese Gate was a significant military base for the Han army to fight against the Huns from the North.

The Protection Squad of the Western Regions, with its administrative office located in nowadays Luntai, Xinjiang Province, China, governed the Western Region, in what is now mostly Xinjiang Province, Qinghai Province, China, and the area located in the east of the Pamirs Plateau, east and south of the Balkhash Lake. If the Roman legion came to China, they would first arrive in the Western Regions in any case.

The distance between the Wild Geese Gate fortress and Western Regions is thousands of miles. The Roman legion would never be able to reach the deep China. So, the Roman legion must arrive in the Western Regions.

Second, the film excessively weakens the operational capability of the Han Dynasty army.

The Roman legion of 100,000 soldiers led by Tiberius couldn’t just silently go to the Wild Geese Gate and pass by the Capitol of the Han Dynasty, Chang’an, which is located in the middle between the Western Regions and the Wild Geese Gate. And during the story, the Han Dynasty army never shows up, which doesn’t make sense. Needless to say, the powerful Han Dynasty army, the army of the Protection Squad of the Western Regions cannot be underestimated. And the Han Dynasty army will never ignore the Roman legion occupying the 36 nations in the Western Region, and will annihilate the Roman legion in minutes.

Third, the film never explains how the Roman legion with 100,000 soldiers supports their logistical ability. In ancient times, the logistic support for the army is rather difficult, because it needs human to transport food, weapons, tents, and forage. In this way, the logistic support troops must be huge, as the 100,000 soldiers’ legion fought thousands of miles deep in China. But in the film, the logistic support troops never show up.

Forth, the Parthians and the 36 nations in the Western Region would never come to the Wild Geese Gate fortress in North China, for the same reasons. The Parthians and the 36 nations armies, which are enormous Operational personnel, would never have the fighting ability to attack to come to the area, and the Han Dynasty army never overlook them.