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Matt Glasby

This is the latest instalment in a feature series reflecting on instances of East meets West in world cinema, including China-US co-productions.
Hoping to replicate the success of his 1961 smash hit El Cid, Hollywood producer Samuel Bronston turned to the events of the Boxer rebellion, which took place in China from 1899 to 1901. Named after a crucial siege, the ensuing epic, 55 Days at Peking (1963), would star Charlton Heston and David Niven, and be shot on huge sets in rural Spain.
Bronston told the Los Angeles Times he was attracted to the story because it showed “the unity of peoples, no matter what their beliefs, in the face of danger”. Those people? Mostly white. The face of danger? Chinese.
As the Boxer rebellion threatens to engulf China, the Eight-Nation Alliance’s outnumbered forces try to hold the capital, then known as Peking.


With Heston’s Major Matt Lewis representing tough-talking American militarism, and Niven’s Sir Arthur Robertson the picture of urbane UK diplomacy, you can imagine similar tussles taking place today over the Iran war.
The production was a troubled one, cycling through five scriptwriters and three directors. Original director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause, King of Kings) had a heart attack mid-shoot – and no wonder.
As he recalled to Take One magazine: “The pressure was tremendous. On a US$6 million production, I had no production manager, and a 21-year-old assistant director. No script. I had two artists in my office, one Chinese and one Spanish. I’d describe the scene to them, they’d draw it and then I’d give it to the so-called writers and say, ‘Write a scene around this?’”
The actors were not impressed. Heston called his character’s tepid romance with Ava Gardner’s Russian aristocrat “very arbitrary”, Gardner spent the shoot drinking heavily, and Niven walked off set four weeks into filming, staying away until a hastily scribbled monologue persuaded him back.

As second unit director and Ray’s second replacement, Andrew Marton noted: “What I have learned from this, I hope permanently, is never start a film without a good, finished script.”
The screenplay is certainly one of the weaker aspects, trying to keep too many plates spinning at once. But modern viewers will struggle to get past the casting of white actors in “yellowface” as Chinese characters.
For those who can, the film is not without merit. It certainly looks and sounds the part. Dimitri Tiomkin’s stirring score and theme song were nominated for Academy Awards, while the opening and closing credits feature evocative paintings by Chinese-American watercolourist Dong Kingman.
Recreated on a 70-acre (28-hectare) site by production designers Veniero Colasanti and John Moore, Peking’s Legation Quarter and Forbidden City look huge and forbidding, with walls that are 40ft (12 metres) high and a canal running through the set.


Three thousand extras were required to fill it, including 1,500 Chinese performers drawn from across Europe because there were nowhere near enough in Spain alone.
The combat scenes are of a scale that is hard to imagine today, with hundreds of torch-wielding Boxers storming the battlements as the alliance tries to hold the city. Director of photography Jack Hildyard’s shots of the sun rising over the walls are breathtaking, although clearly filmed in Spain, not China.
But is there any getting over the racism? Although “yellowface” was still standard practice in Hollywood at the time, there was no need for it to be – Flower Drum Song (1961) had featured a majority Asian-American cast – and most of 55 Days at Peking’s supporting (read: servile) characters are played by Asian actors who could easily have been used in major roles.
Particularly regrettable is the evil Prince Tuan (played by the Australian Robert Helpmann), a glowering Fu Manchu-like baddy who twirls his ornate nail guards as he plots against the Empress Dowager Cixi (English actress Flora Robson).

It is a pity, because the film does have some small sense of its responsibilities.
There is a decent amount of Mandarin spoken; the Japanese contribution to the siege is acknowledged through the dignified Colonel Goro Shiba (future Tampopo director Juzo Itami); and Major Lewis tells his marines, “We’re almost in Peking, capital city of China, this is an ancient and highly cultured civilisation.”
This sensitivity, if you can call it that, does not last. Robertson warns Lewis that China is not the Wild West, saying: “We can’t go around shooting Chinese like Red Indians.” But the film does come to resemble a Western – an Orientalist Alamo where every Chinese death is for the greater good, and every alliance loss a tragedy.
Never do we get the sense of who the Boxers were, or why their cause might have legitimacy. Essentially, 55 Days at Peking seems to be saying that China is a colonial outpost to be squabbled over by white people.
Or, as the empress puts it: “China is a prostrate cow; the powers are not content milking her, but must also butcher her.” The fact that this line is delivered by a performer in “yellowface” is an indignity too far.
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How Hollywood’s 55 Days at Peking turned China’s Boxer rebellion into a racist Western

(From left) Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and David Niven in a still from 55 Days at Peking. The 1963 Hollywood epic about China’s Boxer rebellion looks the part with stunning sets, but ultimately casts China as a colonial outpost to be squabbled over by white people.

Charlton Heston (left) and David Niven in a still from 55 Days at Peking.

Robert Helpmann and Flora Robson in a still from 55 Days at Peking.

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Park Ji-hoon in a still from The King’s Warden.

(From left) Park Ji-hoon, Yoo Hae-jin and Jeon Mi-do in a still from The King’s Warden.

Korean actor Yoo Hae-jin (left) and director Jang Hang-jun attend an interview with the SCMP at the Far East Film Festival, in Udine, Italy. Photo: Daniel Eagan

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Jeremy Irons in a still from M. Butterfly.

Jeremy Irons and John Lone in a still from M. Butterfly.

John Lone (centre) in a still from M. Butterfly.

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Film & TV

East meets West

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Li Bingbing and Ruby Rose in a still from The Meg.

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Li Bingbing (third, left) and Jason Statham (centre) lead an international cast in The Meg (2018). Despite negative reviews, the film made US$530 million worldwide to be the highest-grossing Chinese-American co-production of all time.

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Director Zhang Yimou (centre) and his main cast members on the set of The Great Wall.

Andy Lau in a still from The Great Wall.

Matt Damon in a scene from The Great Wall. The most expensive film ever shot on Chinese soil, it lost US$75 million worldwide.

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Tiger Chen (right) and Yu Hai in a still from Man of Tai Chi.

Keanu Reeves in a still from Man of Tai Chi.

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Fimmel (left) and director Duncan Jones on the set of Warcraft: The Beginning.

A still from Warcraft: The Beginning.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a still from Looper.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a scene from Looper. The movie was one of the first major Hollywood films to be granted Chinese co-production status.

Summer Qing (left) and Bruce Willis in a still from Looper.

Emily Blunt in a still from Looper.

Director Rian Johnson (left) speaks to Gordon-Levitt on the set of Looper.

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Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, co-stars of The Karate Kid. The real star of the 2010 co-production is arguably China, where the film was shot in locations including the Forbidden City, Great Wall and Wudang mountains. Photo: AP

Jaden Smith in a still from The Karate Kid.

Jackie Chan as Mr. Han and Jaden Smith as Dre Parker in a still from The Karate Kid.

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Fan Bingbing in a still from the Chinese version of Iron Man 3.

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A still from The Last Emperor.

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A still from Furious 7.

Director James Wan and Vin Diesel on the set of Furious 7.

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Jet Li (left) and Jackie Chan in a still from The Forbidden Kingdom. Photo: Online

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Christian Bale in a still from Empire of the Sun.

The crowded streets of Shanghai in a still from Empire of the Sun. Directed by Steven Spielberg.

A still from Empire of the Sun.

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Crowds mob Christian Bale during shooting in Hong Kong in 2007. Photo: SCMP

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(From left) Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson and Chris Hemsworth in a still from Red Dawn. Photo: Ron Phillips/2009 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios

‘North Korea’ in a still from Red Dawn.

Chris Hemsworth and cast in a still from Red Dawn.

Will Yun Lee in a still from Red Dawn.

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FOR USE WITH FEATURE PACKAGE FOR SUNDAY NOV. 2 --Chinese actress Bai Ling begs Richard Gere not to run in a scene from the movie “Red Corner,” being released Friday, Oct. 31.  “Red Corner,” an account of an American executive framed for murder and railroaded by the Chinese judicial system, is one of five films being released that deal with Chinese oppression.  The fresh batch of China-related films is motivated by genuine concern about international human rights and the film business’ unique position to advocate for change. (AP Photo/Richard Foreman Jr., HO)

Richard Gere in the 1997 film Red Corner, which was highly critical of China. Photo: UPPA

Bai Ling (centre) in a still from Red Corner. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios

Richard Gere in a still from Red Corner. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios

Richard Gere (centre) and Bai Ling (right) in a still from Red Corner. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios

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Neve Campbell (left) and Dwayne Johnson in a still from Skyscraper.

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Dwayne Johnson in a still from Skyscraper.

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A still from The Dragon Pearl (2011). In order to appease China and get approval for the film, the character of the dragon was changed and the script rewritten weeks before filming began. 

Li Linjin as Ling (left) and Jordan Chan as Wu Dong in a still from The Dragon Pearl.

Sam Neill as Chris Chase (left) and Robert Mammone as Philip Dukas in a still from The Dragon Pearl.

Louis Corbett and Li Linjin in a still from The Dragon Pearl.

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Milla Jovovich (left) and Cameron Bright in a still from Ultraviolet.

Milla Jovovich in a still from Ultraviolet.

(From left) Ultraviolet director Kurt Wimmer, Charles Wang of producer Salon Films, and John Tsang, then Hong Kong secretary of commerce, industry and technology, in 2004. Photo: SCMP

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Brad Pitt as mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in a still from Seven Years in Tibet (1997), directed by Jean-Jacque Annaud. Photo: Columbia/Tristar Photo.

Brad Pitt in a still from Seven Years in Tibet (1997), directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud.

Seven Years in Tibet director Jean-Jacques Annaud (left) and star Brad Pitt (centre), and members of the Tibetan Association of Southern California, at the film’s premiere in Los Angeles on October 6, 1997. Photo: Reuters

Brad Pitt (right) as Heinrich Harrer receives a blessing from Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk as the Dalai Lama in a still from Seven Years in Tibet. Photo: Columbia/Tristar Photo

Brad Pitt (left) as Heinrich Harrer and David Thewlis as fellow Austrian mountaineer Peter Aufschnaiter in a still from Seven Years in Tibet. Photo: Columbia/Tristar Photo

Brad Pitt poses for a selfie with Chinese fans as he arrives at a premiere of the film Allied in Shanghai, China on November 14, 2016. Photo: AP

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A still from a scene in Hong Kong in Guillermo del Toro’s “Pacific Rim”. The film, inspired by Godzilla movies, was criticised by some in China for its geopolitical undertones, but the director argued that it was simply popcorn entertainment. Photo: Warner Bros

Charlie Hunnam (left) and Rinko Kikuchi in a still from “Pacific Rim”. Photo: Warner Bros

A still from “Pacific Rim”. Photo: Warner Bros

Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro signs posters from “Pacific Rim” in Los Angeles, California, in 2013. Photo: EPA/Michael Nelson

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Jessica Chastain as Mason “Mace” Brown in a still from “The 355”, co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg.

(From left) Diane Kruger as Marie, Jessica Chastain as Mason “Mace” Brown and Lupita Nyong’o as Khadijah in a still from “The 355”, co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg. The US-China co-production, which also featured Fan Bingbing, was a box office flop.

Co-writer/director Simon Kinberg (left) and Jessica Chastain on the set of The 355.

Fan Bingbing as Lin Mi Sheng in a still from The 355, co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg.

(From left) Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o and Diane Kruger in a still from The 355.

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Jackie Chan as Benny Chan and Johnny Knoxville as US gambler Connor Watts in a still from US-China co-production Skiptrace (2016). Photo: Intercontinental Film Distributors

Fan Bingbing as Samantha (left), the daughter of Jackie Chan’s partner, and Johnny Knoxville as American gambler Connor Watts (right) in a still from “Skiptrace”.

Film director Renny Harlin in Hong Kong in 2019. Photo: Edmond So

Jackie Chan as Hong Kong detective Benny Chan in a still from “Skiptrace”.

Fan Bingbing in a still from “Skiptrace”.

How Bait 3D, an Australia-Singapore shark movie co-production, became a monster hit at the Chinese box office

A still from “Bait 3D”.

Sharni Vinson (left) and Xavier Samuel in a still from “Bait 3D” (2012), which took the Chinese box office by storm.

“Bait 3D” has “the requisite mix of gore, bad CGI and ‘Jaws’ jokes”. 

Adrian Pang as Jessup in a still from “Bait 3D”.

How Hollywood’s 55 Days at Peking turned China’s Boxer rebellion into a racist Western

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}55 Days at Peking (1963) paints the historical event as an Orientalist Alamo, while white actors ‘yellowface’ as the main Chinese characters

55 Days at Peking (1963) paints the historical event as an Orientalist Alamo, while white actors ‘yellowface’ as the main Chinese characters