Chinese passengers

[Dave Gittins]

Somewhere on this forum there is a reference to an item about Lee Bing in a paper called the Cambridge Reporter. This is the story of him operating a restaurant. The Cambridge concerned is a town in Ontario, Canada. The paper was recently taken over by a big company and in 2003 it was closed down, along with its website.

Did anybody save the story while it was still available?

 

[Tom K. Fong]

Hi to all. Need to clarify Fang Langs'name,his real name was Fong Sum given at birth.We believe the mistake occur because of his dialect in chinese has a long drawl.Whoever wrote down his name probably wrote it phonetically. He came from the Island of Hainan Dao.After marriage with my mother,he went by the name Fong Wing Sun.
Mr.Gittins,let clarify that family legend about his passage.Our family strongly believe someone in the States paid for his passage and services.His journey started from Hainan Dao to Hong Kong,to Paris ,France before he boarded Titanic in Southampton.In chinese,when someone sells their services it's called(selling the piglet).He owed for passage from China to France, that's why he was enslaved to someone here in the States.More info in near future.

 

[Paul Lee]

Did any of the Chinese give accoutns about their escape?

Best wishes

Paul

 

[Dave Gittins]

So far nobody seems to have turned up a primary source. My Chinese correspondent tells me that he has found very little about the Titanic affair in the Hong Kong press and certainly no mention of the sailors.

 

[Andrew Y Liu]

i am really sorry about the title. but i think my sister was married to one of the colleagues' descendants who were on the titanic. I now live in Seattle Washington. My sister lives in Virginia with her second husband. My brothers believe he is one of them because his last name is Yang and he said one of his ancestors was a person named Fang Lang. Please help.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

The only information ET has on Mr. Fang Lang is at

Fang Lang (Wing Sun Fong) : Titanic Survivor

Biography of Titanic Survivor Wing Sun Fong aka Fang Lang

www.encyclopedia-titanica.org

It doesn't say anything about him settling in the United States but it appears to me that it's not likely that he did so. He was a seaman who was traveling with seven others, probably with an eye towards getting home or meeting another ship.

There may be a passenger person around who knows otherwise so stay tuned for any additional posts.

 

[Dave Gittins]

The eight Chinese on Titanic were all firemen or trimmers who were going to join a ship called Annetta in New York. Two were lost in the sinking. (The ship's name is incorrectly spelled in the US inquiry).

The other six never set foot in the USA, being barred by the Chinese Exclusion Act. They were held overnight on Carpathia and taken to Annetta next day. There is thus no evidence for them settling in America in 1912.

Chinese friends have helped me research them and we have concluded that the case is pretty hopeless. Some of the names are reversed, with the surnames last, western style. All are incomplete, as all are missing one syllable or more. The home addresses given to US immigration authorities appear to be corrupted versions of Cantonese words.

It's not a hopeful tale and I'd be very cautious of any undocumented claims of connections with the Chinese men.

All this happened only 94 years ago. Tracing family trees back that far is not hard. Begin at the claimed descendant and work back.

 

[Glenn Hoge]

Hi everyone,

Among the many, many fascinating things about the Titanic, I'm intrigued by the Chinese man (believed to be Fang Lang) who survived by floating on a door until rescued by Lifeboat No. 14. I've learned a great deal about him by exploring the message board, but there are still some things I wonder:

Do we KNOW that it was Lang who was rescued, instead of one of the other Chinese passengers? Are we at least reasonably certain it was him? If not, then how did his name become attached to the man found floating on the door?

If the testimony regarding Fifth Officer Lowe's racist remarks about Lang has been discredited, what about the follow-up, when Lowe exclaimed "I'd save the likes of him six times over"? Is that bogus too?

(Apparently, there is a thread somewhere here that discusses the issues with the Collyer testimony in detail. Can someone tell me where it is?)

What do we know about the circumstances of Lang's rescue, other than the fact that it occurred? Was he really lashed to a door (as opposed to simply floating on top of it)? Did Lowe say anything about him, good or bad? Did he help with the rowing? Is there anything else we know about him?

Also, and related to the rescue, in what order were the survivors (including Mr. Hoyt) plucked from the water by Boat 14?

If anyone has the answers to any of these questions, or can point me in the right direction, I'd be much obliged. Thank you.

 

[Dave Gittins]

My Chinese e-mate has pointed out the difficulty of finding out anything about the Chinese passengers. This is hardly surprising, as they were tranferred from Carpathia to their own ship, Annetta, by boat on the morning of 19 April. Their names were recorded by US officials, together with a few addresses and next of kin.

Not one of their names is correctly recorded. The Hong Kong custom is to put the family name first, followed by two syllables. Fang Lang is therefore incomplete, as are all the other Chinese names. to make matters worse, the addresses recorded by the US immigration authorities appear to be corruptions of Chinese words. The street names as recorded never existed in Hong Kong.

The correct names of the Chinese are given in the Chinese manner, with the family name first.

Lam (given name unknown), Fang Lang, Lam Len, Cheong Foo, Chang Chip, Ling Hee, Lee Bing, Lee Ling.

I have never seen a primary source for Fang Lang being the man rescued by Lowe.

The Collyer account is utterly unreliable, as Collyer was never in a position to hear what Lowe said.

Some fairly wild claims have been made about the Chinese, but few hard facts can be gathered, other than they went to their ship as planned. Given the incomplete names, little more is likely to be found.

 

[Michael Cundiff]

An interesting sidenote to this..."LINER BREMEN SIGHTS 100 OR MORE BODIES"..."The Captain said...several of the bodies were lashed to doors and gratings, denoting the desperate fight they had made for life. It was noticeable that the bodies sighted by the Bremen all had on life preservers, except some of those lashed to pieces of wood, which answered the same purpose".

Michael Cundiff
NV, USA

 

[Mike Poirier]

Hi Michael
I sent you a thank you letter awhile back. I hope you received it.
Mike

 

[gddrskcd]

Hey! My name is Xu zhen. I’m a journalist from Beijing, China, and now working on a report about 8 Chinese passengers on Titanic.

It’s not a surprise that little information related to them since they were third-class passengers and other reasons. But I’ve already made some progress on digging their experience on Titanic, especially the six survivors. The limited official documents really helped a lot.

While more questions are remind to be discovered. I list the following questions that might be helpful for my research. I would be so appreciate that any of you can help me with any of them. Please feel free to sand me any information. [email protected]

1) I found a post in old forum titled Any Info Regarding to the 8 Chinese Passengers. One Chinese survivor’s grandson whose name is Tom K. Fong once appeared and wrote on this post in 2004. Tom provided so much valuable information about his grandfather Fang Lang, but the conversation was ended in a sudden. I know it’s been 8 years and it’s very difficult to find the Tom back (his ID is unavailable now). But I still want a try. Is it possible that any of you might know his email or other ways that I can contact him?
As for your information:
Any info regarding to the 8 Chinese passengers??

2) There also a book The Loss of The S.S.Titanic, written by Lawrence Beesley. I happened to find one of the Chinese survivors naming Choong Foo were on lifeboat 13, the same lifeboat as the author Lawrence boarded. Unfortunately, it's not easy for me to get this book in China, so would it be possible that any of you who has the book to find any information about this Chinese guy?

3) Another book would also be helpful A Night to Remember written by Walter Lord. Would it be possible that any of you might has a digital version?


It’s really not easy to find more information about these Chinese guys, but I hold the view that their stories were also deserved to be told.

Many thanks again!
And my email address again: [email protected]

p.s. Thank you Bob Godfrey and Dave Gittins, you’ve helped a lot!!

 

[Juiceiscathy]

I wonder which record,archive or newspaper tell that the six survivors got on Annetta. Can anyone help me with it?

 

[Juiceiscathy]

any latest info about Chung Foo,Chang Chip,Ah Lam and Ling Hee??

 

[Charles Francis Dowling]

A deleted scene in the Jack/Rose film Titanic shows Fang Lang, a Chinese steerage passenger as being pulled from the water. Other sources say that his companions were crushed by passengers sitting on top of them in lifeboats after they hid.

Can anyone tell me more of these sailors? It seems like a miracle that Fang survived and alot of his companions didn't in the sinking.