纪录片即将上映，探索泰坦尼克号上鲜为人知的中国故事

Over a century after RMS Titanic, then the largest ship in the world, sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean during a chilly night in 1921, a new documentary with James Cameron as one of the executive producers is unraveling a little-known tale closely connected to Chinese audiences.

1921年一个寒冷的夜晚，当时世界上最大的轮船泰坦尼克号沉入了大西洋海底。一个多世纪后，一部由詹姆斯·卡梅隆担任执行制片人的新纪录片揭开了一个与中国观众密切相关的、鲜为人知的故事。

Eight Chinese passengers boarded the British liner on a single ticket listing all their names for the third class, a common practice for the cheapest cabin, and six of them survived the tragic sinking.

八名中国乘客用一张三等舱船票登上了这艘英国客轮，船票上列有他们所有人的名字，这是最便宜舱位的常见做法。他们中有六人在沉船悲剧中幸存。

As one of the deadliest disasters in maritime history, Titanic collided with an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton in England to New York, causing the death of more than 1,500 lives of the overall more than 2,220 passengers and crew on board.

泰坦尼克号在从英格兰南安普敦驶向纽约的首航中撞上冰山，导致船上2220多名乘客和船员中1500多人死亡，这是海运史上最致命的灾难之一。

Fang Lang, a Chinese man who was perhaps the last survivor rescued by the returning No.14 Lifeboat, inspired James Cameron to create the iconic scene of his blockbuster Titanic, in which Leonardo Di Caprio, who starred as Jack, leaves the chances of survival to Kate Winslet's Rose by pushing his beloved onto a floating door.

中国男子Fang Lang也许是返航的十四号救生艇所救援的最后一名幸存者,是他启发詹姆斯·卡梅隆在他的大片《泰坦尼克号》中创造了经典一幕——莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥饰演的杰克将凯特·温斯莱特饰演的罗丝推上漂浮的门板，将生还的机会留给了他的爱人。

These are told in the documentary “The Six: The Untold Story of RMS Titanic's Chinese Passengers”, which will open across Chinese mainland on April 16.

纪录片《六人——泰坦尼克号上的中国幸存者》中讲述了这些故事，该纪录片将于4月16日在中国大陆上映。

Arthur Jones, the documentary’s director, says he heard the Chinese survivors’ story from his decades-long friend Steven Schwankert for the first time in 2015. The Shanghai-based British filmmaker felt very surprised and was more shocked to find few of his Chinese friends knew it.

纪录片导演亚瑟·琼斯表示，他在2015年第一次从他几十年的朋友史蒂文·施万克特那里听到了中国幸存者的故事。这位住在上海的英国电影制作人感到非常惊讶，更震惊的是，他发现他的中国朋友几乎都不知道这件事。

“We knew two of the eight Chinese passengers died, but nobody talked about the six survivors. Most of the Titanic survivors have their stories, but those six seemed to completely disappear,” says the director.

导演表示：“我们知道八名中国乘客中有两人死亡，但没有人谈及那六名幸存者。大多数泰坦尼克号幸存者都有自己的故事，但那六个人似乎完全消失了。”

The 47-year-old Yorkshire town native has lived in China since 1996. He once worked as a film reporter before shifting his interest to helm documentaries.

这位47岁的约克郡本地人自1996年以来一直生活在中国。他曾经是一名电影业记者，后来他的兴趣转向了执导纪录片。

The Six marks his second cooperative documentary with Schwankert, a New Jersey-born American researcher and historian, after their 2013 feature The Poseidon Project.

继2013年合作拍摄《海神号》后，《六人》是他与生于新泽西的美国研究员、历史学家施万克特合作的第二部纪录片。

“I grew up near the ocean. I’ve always held an interest in maritime history, ships and shipwrecks since I was a little kid,” says Schwankert, who traveled to China in the late 1980s.

“我在海边长大。我从小就对海运史、船舶和海难一直很感兴趣，”上世纪80年代末去过中国的施万克特这样说道。

Stumbling upon Titanic’s passenger list and gathering a few clues, Schwankert realized that he could turn his private interest in China and the sea to make a new project, for which he, alongside Jones, took five years to travel over 20 cities and interview over 100 people as well as read 1,000 archives and historic works.

偶然发现泰坦尼克号的乘客名单并搜集了一些线索后，施万克特意识到，他可以将他对中国和海洋的个人兴趣投入到一个新项目的制作上。为了这个项目，他和琼斯花了五年时间，旅居二十余个城市，采访了一百余人，并阅读了千份档案和历史作品。

Through a sizable amount of investigating and conducting experiments to recreate the rescue moments of the fatal night, the crew pieced together the whole picture of the six survivors, respectively Lee Bing, Fang Lang, Chang Chip, Ah Lam, Chung Foo, and Ling Hee.

为重现那个生死攸关的夜晚里的营救时刻，经过大量的调查和实验，船员们拼凑出了Lee Bing, Fang Lang, Chang Chip, Ah Lam, Chung Foo和Ling Hee这六名幸存者的全部信息。

Unlike other survivors who were treated in hospitals or transferred to hotels, the six Chinese passengers who escaped the fatal night were barred from entering the US because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, notoriously known for using Chinese laborers as scapegoats for the US’ economic woes.

由于《排华法案》，与其他在医院接受治疗或被转移到酒店的幸存者不同，从致命一夜中逃难的六名中国乘客被禁止进入美国。众所周知，该法案将中国劳工作为美国经济困境的替罪羊。

All the sailors boarded the Titanic to work jobs, but the six survivors were reassigned from a freighter docked in New York bound for Cuba by the company who purchased the ticket for them.

所有船员都为工作而登上泰坦尼克号，但这六名幸存者来自一艘停靠在纽约、开往古巴的货轮，正是为他们购买船票的公司重新将他们派遣过来的。

Considering that the average survival rate for third class male passengers is less than 20 percent, Schwankert says he believes the 75 percent survival rate of Chinese passengers is attributed to their experience as sailors.

施万克特说，考虑到三等舱男性乘客的平均存活率不到20%，他认为中国乘客75%的存活率归功于他们从事海员的经验。

“They had a particular understanding of what was happening on the ship. As sailors they would know that the best thing to do is to get near the lifeboats early. We think they got onto the deck and took their opportunity when the boats were almost leaving,” echoes Jones, the director.

“对船上发生的事情，他们尤其了解。作为水手，他们知道最好的办法是早点靠近救生艇。我们认为他们在船快沉的时候爬上了甲板，抓住了机会。”导演琼斯重复道。

With thorough research and experiments that range from building a full-size lifeboat and using a 3D software to simulate the escape route, the documentary dispels the rumors that claimed the Chinese survivors donned women’s dresses to hide as stowaways in the lifeboats.

从建造一个实际尺寸的救生艇，到使用3D软件模拟逃生路线，这部纪录片通过深入的研究和实验破除了有关中国幸存者穿上女装、藏在救生艇内偷渡的谣言。

“All of those rumors are very unfair. The one thing we should remember about Titanic is that there were spaces on all of the lifeboats. Some of the lifeboats from Titanic were not even half full,” says Jones.

“所有这些谣言都很不公平。关于泰坦尼克号，我们应该记住的一件事是，所有的救生艇上都有空位。泰坦尼克号的一些救生艇甚至还没坐满一半。”琼斯说。

“Is it wrong to try to survive?” he adds.

他补充道：“努力求生有罪吗？”

However, the most thought-provoking part of the documentary is not just what happened to the Chinese passengers on the Titanic’s tragic night, but their poignant life paths as early-generation immigrants struggling against discrimination and racism, as well as fears that they might be forced to lose everything they had strived for.

然而,纪录片最发人深省的一部分并不仅是中国乘客在泰坦尼克号的悲剧之夜里所经历的事，还有身为早期移民的他们为反对歧视和种族主义而斗争的辛酸人生路，以及害怕他们可能要被迫失去为之努力过的一切。

“Nobody ever claimed them. Nobody ever talked about them…There is a deep psychological wound that the generation suffered which is not just about ‘can I survive?’ or money. There's something else that sits inside their heart or minds,” says Jones.

“从来没有人承认过他们。从来没有人谈及他们……这一代人遭受了深刻的心理创伤，这不仅仅是‘我能活下去吗?’或者钱的问题。在他们的心里、脑海里还有些其他的事。”琼斯说。

The director says most Chinese immigrant laborers didn’t get married, with their families ending with them. The most highlighted survivor in the documentary is Fang Lang, who didn’t tell his Titanic survival story to his children or wife for many difficult reasons.

导演说，大多数中国移民劳工都没有结婚，他们的家族也终结在这一代。纪录片中最引人注目的幸存者是Fang Lang，由于种种困难，他没有把自己从泰坦尼克号上生还的故事告诉他的孩子或妻子。

An unexpected chance emerged to make the movie more known in 2019, when the documentary was in the post-production stage. Jones and Schwankert watched a scene in the film Titanic about a young Chinese man floating with a piece of wood. The shot was among more than 20 scenes cut from the theatrically released version, but kept in the DVD copies.

2019年，纪录片进入后期制作阶段，一个意外的机会让这部电影更加广为人知。琼斯和施万克特观看了电影《泰坦尼克号》中的一幕，一名年轻的中国男子抓着一块木头在海上漂流。在影院上映的版本中，这个镜头是被剪掉的20多个场景之一，但仍保留在DVD副本中。

Realizing the character could be the archetype of Fang Lang, one of the six Chinese survivors, Jones contacted a lawyer of Cameron, surprised to discover that Cameron had already heard about their documentary project and would talk to them in person.

琼斯意识到，这个角色可能是六名中国幸存者之一Fang Lang的原型，于是联系了卡梅隆的律师，惊讶地发现卡梅隆已经听说了他们的纪录片项目，并愿意当面与他们交谈。

"We wanted to know how Cameron knew about this story. Why did he film it? Why did he delete it? We had a lot of questions,” Jones took these questions before he flew to see Cameron in New Zealand along with Schwankert.

“我们想知道卡梅隆是怎么知道这个故事的。他为什么要拍?他为什么删了它?我们有许多问题。”在和施万克特飞往新西兰会见卡梅隆之前，琼斯带上了这些问题。

“Cameron was very helpful. He knows so much about the Titanic. He told us the true story of Fang Lang and why it has been a big influence on his movie. He had a lot of opinions about discrimination against Chinese people and the problems of racism,” Jones also explains that Cameron cut the scene as it looks sort of an unnecessary repeat of Rose and Jack’s scene, which would affect the story-telling pace.

“卡梅隆帮了大忙。他知道很多关于泰坦尼克号的事。他给我们讲述了Fang Lang的真实故事，以及为什么这个故事对他的电影产生了巨大影响。对于针对中国人的歧视和种族主义问题，他有很多观点。”琼斯还解释说，卡梅隆之所以剪掉了这个场景，是因为它看起来像是对罗丝和杰克那一幕的不必要的重复，会影响叙事的节奏。

For the duo creators, their retelling of Titanic from the Chinese perspective has its distinctive meanings.

对于两位创作者来说，他们以中国人的视角重述了泰坦尼克号事件，这有着独特的意义。

"Every generation after Titanic kind of uses Titanic as a way to talk about society," say Jones.

“泰坦尼克号事件之后的每一代人都或多或少地将它作为谈论社会的一种方式。”琼斯说。

Giving the instances that Titanic stories were retold to explore moral values, the difference between women and men and the class discrimination, Jones says they hope to look at Titanic from a fresh perspective that tells “how society deals with issues of ethnicity and nationality and how that affects people's lives”.

泰坦尼克号的故事被重述，以探索道德价值观、两性差异和阶级歧视，

基于这些事例，琼斯说，他们希望以全新视角看待泰坦尼克号,讲述“社会如何处理种族和国籍问题，以及这会如何影响人们的生活”。