After a long "hiatus" of intense Chinese language study, PsyDip is back with a story of foreign film intrigue! It all started late one night at a jazz club in Beijing. A Chinese big band was serving up Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got that Swing)”. I had a gin and tonic in one hand and a cigar in the other. A friend and I were having a good laugh about life and I must have been gesturing with liquid-confidence. Two women approached and didn’t waste time before offering me a part in a movie. They said I looked like the guy they wanted for a new Chinese movie partly set in 1950s California. I thought for sure it was either a joke or a scam. But curiosity got the best of me and low and behold it turned out to be an actual movie. After a lengthy clearance process with the Department of State, to my surprise, I was cleared to play the small but exciting part of Grant B. Cooper, a famous lawyer. The story: “Qian Xuesen” (钱学森, Qián Xuésēn).
Qian Xuesen is a national hero in China. He almost single-handedly started China’s missile and space program. He did so with the knowledge that he gained in America, starting with a U.S. Government scholarship, as a Chinese graduate student. His story reads like a McCarthy era spy novel. In short, the very brilliant Qian Xuesen was groomed by the U.S. Government to be a top rocket scientist but then tragically ran up against fear of communism in the 1950s. Qian’s highly successful career at California Institute of Technology was brought to a grinding halt when the U.S. Government pulled his top secret security clearance, on little to no evidence, and put him under what was essentially house arrest for five years -- out of concerns that he was a communist spy. Finally Qian was forced back to China where he took his missile know-how and helped turn China into a nuclear power. This led his American lawyer Grant Cooper to later declare: "That the government permitted this genius, this scientific genius, to be sent to Communist China to pick his brains is one of the tragedies of this century." Practically no one in contemporary America knows this story. PsyDip certainly did not until now.
Qian Xuesen is a national hero in China. He almost single-handedly started China’s missile and space program. He did so with the knowledge that he gained in America, starting with a U.S. Government scholarship, as a Chinese graduate student. His story reads like a McCarthy era spy novel. In short, the very brilliant Qian Xuesen was groomed by the U.S. Government to be a top rocket scientist but then tragically ran up against fear of communism in the 1950s. Qian’s highly successful career at California Institute of Technology was brought to a grinding halt when the U.S. Government pulled his top secret security clearance, on little to no evidence, and put him under what was essentially house arrest for five years -- out of concerns that he was a communist spy. Finally Qian was forced back to China where he took his missile know-how and helped turn China into a nuclear power. This led his American lawyer Grant Cooper to later declare: "That the government permitted this genius, this scientific genius, to be sent to Communist China to pick his brains is one of the tragedies of this century." Practically no one in contemporary America knows this story. PsyDip certainly did not until now.
The fascinating story of Qian Xuesen’s life is now being resurrected on the big screen by critically-acclaimed Chinese film director Zhang Jianya (張建亞, Zhāng Jiànyà ). It stars the big name Chinese actors Chen Kun (陈坤, Chén Kūn) and Zhang Yuqi (张雨绮, Zhāng Yǔqǐ ). It also features fine American and Australian actors Steve Boergadine (of “Contract Killers”) and Nick Tate (of “Lost”). The timing of the film is ideal because Qian Xuesen would have been 100 years old this year had he not passed away in 2009 at the age of 98. Director Zhang Jianya has about nine million U.S. dollars worth of funding to tell Qian Xuesen’s story in a way that will honor him in the eyes of the Chinese. Qian’s story is inherently fascinating, as he was born in China in the time of rickshaws and yet died having helped China put a man into outer space.
PsyDip suspects this movie will not be particularly critical of Qian Xuesen, but rather will showcase the rocket scientist’s great contributions to China that came as a result of apparent mistreatment by the United States Government. The film is reportedly being made with the blessing and insistence of the Chinese Communist Party, which still very much runs China. They put no large premium on critical depictions of their heroes. After all, glorified Communist dictator Mao Ze Dong is still prominently featured on all Chinese currency to this day. PsyDip fully imagines that when the Qian Xuesen movie hits Chinese theaters this fall, it will showcase Qian Xuesen in almost entirely positive light and it will showcase the U.S. Government in mostly negative light. So why would an American diplomat want to play Grant B. Cooper in this movie?
Grant B. Cooper is someone who proudly defended Qian Xuesen in his deportation hearings in Los Angeles in the early 1950s. He and several other American characters in the film came to Qian Xuesen’s defense in the name of what is good and true about America: justice, fairness, due process. As such, the film presents a great teachable moment for the U.S. perspective. Despite dark periods in America like McCarthyism, America has a proud history of addressing our legal failings and fighting hard to self-correct them. Hopefully some of those great American voices will come through in the movie, despite any mistreatment Qian Xuesen may have received by the American government at that time.
Though Chinese audiences watching the Qian Xuesen movie probably won’t see them, from at least one major American writer's perspective, Qian Xuesen may in fact have had some downsides (aside from the lingering, though remote possibility he may have actually been a Chinese spy). Famous author and fellow University of Illinois alumnus Iris Chang wrote about Qian Xuesen in her book “Thread of the Silkworm”. Chang was no stranger to critical analysis of historical figures and events (readers may recall her compelling book “Rape of Nanking”, which documented the Japanese Army’s atrocities in China -- a book Chinese have certainly accepted as proof of their victimization). Thread of the Silkworm highlights the very harsh treatment Qian Xuesen received by the American government in the 1950s, but also suggests that Qian went on to become exactly the kind of rigid bureaucrat that he had so despised in the United States. In fact, according to Chang, that is the big story—Qian’s transformation from open-minded American academic to closed-minded Communist bureaucrat.
Chang asserts that Qian Xuesen helped to design China’s Great Leap Forward which resulted in at least 36 million Chinese people starving (according to several authoritative accounts, even by long-time Chinese Communist Party member, Yang Jisheng). Chang also asserts that Qian Xuesen publicly supported the crack-down on the democratic student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Of course despite these criticisms of Qian Xuesen, he certainly may have been very well-intentioned in both cases. He may also have felt forced to comply with Mao Ze Dong’s wishes in order to stay in his good graces during the persecution of the Cultural Revolution. The point here on PsyDip is that you probably will not see any of this multi-facted analysis in the Qian Xuesen movie, as its goal is to make Qian Xuesen shine at his best.
In any event, “Qian Xuesen” promises to be a great movie. I can tell you first hand that the production is running with great attention to detail and great expertise in both acting and directing. It has been a real honor to meet Zhang Jianya, Chen Kun, and Zhang Yuqi and to help tell the story of a very remarkable man. It’s clear that Qian Xuesen was both a genius and that he made incredible contributions to both American and Chinese society. His story needs to be told and discussed. I am happy to be a small part of that and to play the part of Grant Cooper, a great American lawyer.
For those who are curious what it took for me to get State Department clearance to act in the film, the answer is: 1) no contract, 2) no use of real name in the film credits, 3) no filming while on the clock, 4) no pay. I’m actually donating the pay I would have got to a local charity. The point of all this is to make clear that my participation is entirely non-official.
Here’s to hoping the film turns out well! Whether it ever becomes available for viewing at theatres outside of China will really depend on how well the film does in China and whether it could be adapted for Western audiences. One thing’s for sure, acting on camera is a real thrill!
-PsyDip
Here is a Wall Street Journal article from 2009 describing the life of Qian Xuesen:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125721495250424443.html
A promotional video of the two big stars in the movie:
A promotional video of the two big stars in the movie:
http://video.sina.com.cn/p/ent/m/c/2011-03-07/170061275245.html
Some video from the press conference at start of filming:
Some video from the press conference at start of filming:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjM3ODg4NTQ0.html
Here is some information on the Chinese internet about the movie:
Here is some information on the Chinese internet about the movie:
http://ent.hunantv.com/d/x/20110308/870502.html
Here's an opinion from another foreigner who is an extra in the film (interestingly, state-controlled "Global Times" printed it):
Here's an opinion from another foreigner who is an extra in the film (interestingly, state-controlled "Global Times" printed it):
