"The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru," a documentary on the heroic rescue of British prisoners of war (POWs) by Chinese fishermen during World War II, premiered Friday at the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival.
The 123-minute documentary features extensive interviews with survivors and their descendants in China's Zhoushan Islands and Hong Kong, as well as in Britain, the United States and Japan.
In October 1942, "Lisbon Maru," a cargo vessel requisitioned by the Japanese army to carry over 1,800 British POWs from Hong Kong to Japan, was sunk by the U.S. army off the Zhoushan Islands in China's Zhejiang Province. Local fishermen risked their lives to rescue over 300 POWs.
Denise Wynne, daughter of Dennis Morley, one of the survivors, was tearful after watching the documentary.
"I just think it's an amazing film and it should be shared all over the world and hopefully promote peace. Because that was just a terrible thing to happen. It should never happen again," said 75-year-old Wynne.
Tony Banham, the historian advising the makers of the film, also the author of the Sinking of Lisbon Maru, says one of the biggest challenges was getting the facts right given most witnesses have passed away.
"If you want a really, really accurate description of any event, you have to interview quite a lot of people, and also find documents from the period such as letters, diaries, anything that might have been written closer to the time, to enable you to focus on what really happened rather than people's memories," Banham said.
The producer and director of the documentary, Fang Li, is also an ocean exploration expert who located the sunken ship's location in 2016. Upon learning that few people know about the historical episode, he became resolute in his determination to make the film.
The documentary took about eight years to finish, as the production team interviewed more than 110 families of the British prisoners.
"When I found the sunken ship and I heard that there were only two people left who experienced the tragedy, since my second profession was filmmaking, I instinctively felt that if we didn't salvage the history, it would be lost forever. So it was just an instinct. I had no experience in documentary filmmaking or directing, and what I wanted was just to preserve the history," said Fang.
After the premiere, the film is scheduled for release to the general public later this year.
Documentary on Lisbon Maru rescue premiered in Shanghai
Documentary on Lisbon Maru rescue premiers in Shanghai
China has made significant progress in economic transformation toward emerging and future industries as well new business models by developing new quality productive forces.
A key driver for the development of new quality productive forces is sci-tech innovation. In the first 10 months of 2024, investment in high-tech industries in China increased by 9.4 percent year on year, significantly boosting the development of emerging industries, particularly in the humanoid robot sector.
"Walker X, launched in 2021, is our fourth-generation robot, which added enhanced artificial intelligence interaction capabilities, enabling it to perform tasks such as picking up a bottle, playing chess, and giving massages," said Gao Weifeng, a senior technical engineer of UBTech Robotics, a robot manufacturer based in Shenzhen City of south China's Guangdong Province.
"I believe that intelligent manufacturing, particularly in the automotive sector, may emerge as the first significant application area for humanoid robots. To support this, we launched the Walk S series in 2023, focusing on applications in industrial manufacturing," said Qin Wenlong, another senior engineer of UBTech.
The advancement of AI technology has created huge opportunities for advanced manufacturing.
In Ningde City of east China's Fujian Province, CATL, the world's largest power battery manufacturer, has established the first "lighthouse factory" in the lithium-ion battery industry.
The facility features a highly intelligent and automated production line, laying a solid foundation for leading innovation in green energy sectors.
"Our cell-to-pack technology eliminates the module structure by directly assembling the battery with the cell. This innovation improves the energy density of the battery. In recent years, we have seen notable acceleration in our development of energy storage industry. Like now, we see these energy storage cabinets which currently represent the cutting edge technology in the field. These cabinets have the capability to replace fixed fossil energy sources," said Ma Lin, deputy director of the Intelligent Manufacturing Department of CATL.
The rapid development of science and technology has revitalized traditional industries. As the world's largest logistics market, with over 70 percent of freight transport occurring on roads, China is leveraging technological innovations like autonomous driving to enhance line-haul logistics. The progress is also contributing to the formation of new supply chain patterns.
"As the average age of drivers increases, autonomous driving can help car companies solve part of the driver shortage. This is helpful to the sustainable development of the logistics industry, which requires a combination of extensive technology and data. We get rich data from China's complex logistics environment and diverse operational scenarios, and from simulation as well. In this perspective, China is at a relatively leading position in terms of intelligent driving technology," said Liu Yuhang, director of the China Logistics Information Center.
Intelligent technologies have been applied in agriculture to help farmers monitor field conditions, reduce costs of fertilizers and pesticides, and increase yields.
"Now, with this smart basement, we can monitor the disease, insect and pests and growth situation remotely," said Wang Jun, a farmer in Lishu County of northeast China's Jilin Province.
"This part of the base station is to monitor the insect situation, and there are parts to monitor the wind, humidity and so on. On the monitoring platform you can see the situation of any parts of the land. You can click on whose land this belongs to, what situation is convenient for us to operate," said Han Fengxiang, head of the Fenghuangshan Rural Cooperative.
With high technology, efficiency and quality, future industries are flourishing in China. According to official data, the scale of China's commercial space market is projected to exceed 2.3 trillion yuan (about 315 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024.
In 2023, the low-altitude economy in China reached over 505 billion yuan (about 69.19 billion U.S. dollars), marking a growth rate of 34 percent. The market is expected to expand to 1.5 trillion yuan (about 206 billion U.S. dollars) by 2025.
"About four years ago, we started thinking about adjacency for Aviage. What if we can make that avionics suite smaller, cheaper, lighter and even better? And sure enough, now, the Chinese government is really promoting this thing called the low-altitude economy. And it's a perfect fit for our eVTOL market," said George Chang, president and CEO of Aviage Systems, a joint venture between General Electric Company (GE) and Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).
New quality productive forces reshaping China's economic landscape
