Escape from Huang Shi

(as extracted from an email I wrote to my bestie)



Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:54:19 +0800

Nie,

I found few sources, but this one seems to be the most interesting read.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-long-march-across-china-and-a-very-british-hero-437898.html

I found out that George Hogg is partially a fictional character in 'Children of Huang Shi' (in Singapore and M'sia, it's known as 'Escape from Huang Shi') - just like how 'Bailey' is potrayed in 'Kingdom of Heaven' and other movies which I can't recall for now.

He's fictional in the sense that many of the events in the film was not accordingly to the events that was written in the book that formed the basis for the film.

He died of tetanus, actually contracting the disease from an injury to his toe whilst playin' basketball with his students.

His mate - Lee Pearson - she was nowhere to be mentioned in history.

Hogg's mentor - Alley - a major contributor to Chinese history, was not being told in the film, where in Shandan, memorial were set up in remembrance of Hogg and Alley.

Anyways, we're so lucky to have witness this story - cos' it took 22 years for the story to reach the screen - thanks to the author of the book, who was in shanghai in the 1980s or something...so happen he overheard some other people's conversation, in a public area - about a memorial in remembrance of an English hero. That sparked an interest in the author, who went on to investigate the full story, plus interviewing the survivors, i.e. the children of Huang Shi, who are now in their eighties.

- Sam -

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(Below as quoted from a site)

The Book: The Life & Legend of George Hogg
http://kenixloh.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/untitled1.jpg
The author, James MacManus, was working as a reporter in Shanghai in 1980s when he heard talk of a statue being up in the remote town of Shandon on the Mongolian border in memory of an Englishman called George Hogg. This book is the result of his investigations – and the basis for a major feature film called ‘The Children of Huang Shi’, directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Jonathan Rhys Myers