ANYONE who doubts that American education is in crisis should talk to Shirley Sun. ''This may sound startling,'' the award-winning New York film-maker said, ''but many Americans under the age of 40 don't know that China was involved in World War II, and that includes a lot of college graduates I've met.
''There's a real need to address that kind of ignorance. Part of it is that people prefer to see movies instead of reading books these days. The lack of knowledge about the China-Burma-India theatre of war is another factor. It has been called the forgotten war.'' Ms Sun's solution has been to make a documentary film. It is definitely not meant to supplant the printed word. In fact, Vinegar Joe Stilwell may well have the reverse effect as viewers descend on bookstores and libraries avid for more information about the extraordinary American who headed both the US and Chinese Nationalist resistance to the Japanese during World War II.
Last week, a fascinated audience was treated to a preview. ''First screening of a work-in-progress'' read the invitation to the highlight of the celebrations to mark the opening of the Hongkong-America Centre at the Chinese University.
It was Vinegar Joe Stilwell, and producer-director Ms Sun was on hand to field questions. She was gratified by the response. ''A pretty learned group of people watched it - there were scholars from the States, China and Hongkong - and made some very thoughtful comments. Some even suggested how I might end my film.'' The death of General Joseph Warren Stilwell in California on October 12, 1946 at the age of 63, would be one way. Given the wealth of material at her disposal, Ms Sun can be depended on to avoid anything so literal.
Rare archive footage, interviews with family members and distinguished figures in the US, Taiwan and China, scenes shot on location should be edited and ready to screen on American television by mid-summer.
It will take viewers just under an hour to learn about the man who already knew China intimately when, at the height of the war, a resentful Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek bowed to American pressure and asked Stilwell to be his chief-of-staff, placing himin command of China's armed forces.