They Chose China
Shuibo Wang
Canada, France | 2005 | 52mins | Beta | Colour | Subtitled
January 1954. The Korean War is over. Captured UN soldiers held in POW camps are free to return home. Those who refuse repatriation to their homeland are transferred to a neutral zone and given ninety days to reconsider their decision. Among them are twenty-one American soldiers who decide defiantly to stay in China.
Back in the USA, McCarthyism is at its height. Many Americans believe these young men have been brainwashed by Chinese communists through a new form of thought control. But what really happened?
Some, like James Veneris, never came home, except to visit very late in his life. In fact, his complete assimilation into Chinese society made him a national hero. He married a Chinese woman, fathered two kids and supported the family by working in a factory.
With the Cold War fading into memory and featuring never-before-seen footage from the Chinese camps as well as interviews with former POWs and their families, this revealing documentary tells the fascinating stories of these forgotten American dissidents.
|
