Chinese Diplomat in Vienna Wants to Ban 1936 China Documentary Made by Post-Habsburg Cinematographers

The leading Chinese diplomat in Vienna wanted to ban ‘So lebt China’ (= This is how China lives), a 1936 movie produced by post-Habsburg cinematographers in Zurich for its negative misrepresentation of China.

 

In a truly Austro-Hungarian production by the Swiss studio Praesens we are introduced to 1930s rural China on the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, seeing the “everyday life of the ordinary Chinese people.”

 

When the Nazi chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels watched it, he thought: “[The Chinese are] an absolutely nomadic, primitive people. Probably completely unsuitable for a large historical form.” (Fröhlich, ed. “Februar 1937.” In Band II März 1936 – Februar 1937, 2: 355–98. Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels [Diaries of Joseph Goebbels]. Berlin, Boston: K. G. Saur, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110956870-014., 362; line 40.)

 

It is no wonder that Chinese charge d’affaires Tong Deqian appealed to Chancellor Schussnigg to forbid its showing in Austrian cinemas. Most probably without any success. (Kaminski & Unterrieder. Von Österreichern und Chinesen [About Austrians and Chinese]. Wien [Vienna]: Europaverlag, 1980., 640-642.)

At 9:59, for instance, while watching a dying person ignored by a faceless crowd of passersby, we hear the following from Eperjes/Prešov-born Havrilla’s slightly accented voice: “[A man] simply dies by the roadside. It doesn’t matter much to anyone that he should die. It doesn’t matter much to him, for he is tired, and his old limbs ache.”

 

This is China (1937), the trimmed American version of the German-speaking original, was made by the following post-Habsburg-heavy crew. Director: Galician-born Swiss Lazar “Leo” Wechsler; Photo: Swiss cinematographer Emil Berna; English narration: Austro-Hungarian-born American actor Alois Havrilla; Music: Austrian composer and Zurich concertmaster Alfred Uhl.