They Chose China

After the Korean War, 21 liberated U.S. POWs decided to remain in China. Hailed as “peace fighters” by their hosts and branded as “turncoats” by the American media, some stayed in China permanently—studying, taking jobs, marrying and raising families—but most eventually regretted the decision and returned to the U.S., often to face trial, imprisonment, and accusations of treason. Chinese filmmaker/narrator Shuibo Wang's They Chose China combines archival footage, excerpts from American and Chinese television broadcasts (including an interview with one of the returnees conducted by a young Mike Wallace), contemporary interviews with some of the surviving servicemen and their families (as well as with Chinese subjects who guarded the men in the camps or worked with them afterward), and footage of a trip one of the returnees takes back to China in order to investigate the motives behind decisions to remain or return, finding that contrary to the general U.S. view that they'd been brainwashed, the men despised the idea of coming home to a country blighted by McCarthyism and racism. They Chose China presents a perspective that is Chinese rather than American—one that many may still dispute—but even so, it's a fascinating introduction to a little-known episode of Cold War history. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)