Inside China Today

The bravery and endurance of the Chinese people forms the theme of this panoramic survey from the March of Time. Footage of barefoot soldiers, peasants with wooden ploughs and labourers flattening airstrips with primitive rollers show the stoical qualities of the country’s 450 million people in their long struggle against Japan. The tensions between Chiang-Kai Shek’s Kuomintang and Mao Tse Tung’s Communists are hinted at: naturally the commentary hopes that democracy will prevail.

This issue criticises American journalists for attacking anti-democratic elements in the Kuomintang, and champions the likes of Soong Ching-ling, (the widow of Sun-yat Sen, founder of the Republic of China). This prickly attitude can be traced to the March of Time’s peculiar relationship with the Chinese leader. According to newsreel historian Raymond Fielding, Henry Luce, the chairman of the Time-Life magazine empire - and ultimate owner of The March of Time - regarded Chiang kai-Shek as off-limits as far as criticism went. Richard de Rochement recalls that ‘We felt we were on the side of the angels in most cases with the possible exception of Chiang kai-Shek, whom we regarded as a protege of Mr Luce”.