''My Name Is Han'' is a 1948 black-and-white
short
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docudrama
Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event".
Docudramas typic ...
produced by the
International Film Foundation for the
Protestant Film Commission
The Protestant Film Commission, also known as the Protestant Film Office, was an American film agency which promoted Protestant religious and moral values in Hollywood cinema. Representing 200,000 American Protestant churches with approximately 34 ...
. Shot on location in China and using only native Chinese non-professional actors, the film focuses on the work of Christian missionaries in China through the depiction of a minister, a doctor, a teacher, and an agricultural specialist.
[ The plot centers around Han, a farmer who is battered by war, destruction, poverty, and hardship, yet refuses to accept the healing power of faith. But as he sees the effect of church teachings on his wife, his children, and his neighbors, and even benefits personally from Christian doctrine, he begins to accept Christ into his life. The film was the second in a series of short films developed under the auspices of the Protestant Film Commission for noncommercial release to denominational churches across the United States and Canada.
]
Plot
Han, a Chinese farmer, tells his story through voice-over narration. He and his family, along with many others, were forced to flee during wartime as bombs rained down on their villages. Finally they are able to return, taking a long and weary journey on foot back home. While his wife still insists on giving thanks to God before they eat their meager meals on the side of the road, Han wants nothing to do with religion; he feels it is "foolishness". They return to their village and find the stone mission church still standing while their own home is in ruins. Han's peach orchard is also destroyed, as the trees were uprooted for firewood and the earth strewn with sand. Grimly, Han and his older son toil in the fields every day while his wife and younger children work on restoring the house. While Han's wife continues to be upbeat and buoyed by her faith, Han is bitter about all the troubles that have befallen him. As she and the children happily go to church on Sunday morning, he declares, "My religion is work".
Han also suspects the motives of the church missionaries. He listens in to a lecture and finds the missionary an intelligent man, but cannot believe that he really wants to help him. When the missionaries invite his daughter to attend the mission school, Han at first refuses but gives in when he sees how happy it makes his daughter. She learns to write and though he himself cannot read or write, he proudly keeps her writing in his pocket. The mission also helps the farmers by providing topsoil for them to begin planting again.
One day Han's young son finds an unexploded cartridge in their yard and playfully hammers it into the ground. It explodes, wounding him badly. Having no experience with prayer, Han is distraught. The boy is taken to the mission hospital, where the head doctor shows Han around and assures him the wound is not fatal. Han is amazed by how clean the mission hospital is and also how happy the children are there as they heal from their injuries. After spending two days in the hospital, Han returns to his field and cannot believe his eyes. All his neighbors are pitching in to plow and plant his field. He tells the minister that he cannot possibly pay them, and wonders what motivates them to help him. The minister explains that faith in Christ is expressed through deeds. Just as Christ helped others, it is one's Christian duty to help neighbors in need. Having seen the effect of faith on his wife, children, and neighbors, Han considers adopting it for himself. In the final scene, when his wife serves the meal and pauses to thank God for their food, Han also bends his head in prayer.
Production
''My Name Is Han'' was the second in a series of short films released by the Protestant Film Commission
The Protestant Film Commission, also known as the Protestant Film Office, was an American film agency which promoted Protestant religious and moral values in Hollywood cinema. Representing 200,000 American Protestant churches with approximately 34 ...
for screening in denominational churches across the United States and Canada.[ It was produced by ]Julien Bryan
Julien Hequembourg Bryan (23 May 1899 in Titusville, Pennsylvania – 20 October 1974) was an American photographer, filmmaker, and documentarian. He is best known for documenting the daily life in Poland, Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany between 1 ...
's non-profit International Film Foundation.
Casting
Only native Chinese are seen in the film, including Chinese Christian missionaries. The roles of Han and his wife are played by T'ang, a clerk in the Peiping Union Medical College, and Mrs. T'ang, the latter being cast as a condition for allowing her husband to appear in the film. Neither had any acting experience.[ The characters of Han's children and other youth were played by students at the American Board of Foreign Missions school. Extras on the film were "mainly ex-shop keepers and refugees from the Communists".][
]
Filming
The film was shot on location in the Chinese province of Hopei
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...
. Principal photography was completed in six weeks during 1947 by an American film crew. The People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...
and the National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...
were locked in battle close by throughout the filming, and the crew was warned not to venture out at night lest they be caught in the crossfire.[
]
Release
The film premiered in Protestant denominational churches in 100 cities in the United States and Canada on June 15, 1948. Following the premiere, the film was distributed to many more "churches, ministers' meetings, to youth groups, forums and church-sponsored meetings on labor-management problems".
The film's release coincided with the launch of a year-long study program on Christian missionary work in China by Protestant churches. In an ironic coda, a few months later Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
established his communist regime and expelled American missionaries from China.
Critical reception
The ''Christian Advocate
The ''Christian Advocate'' was a weekly newspaper published in New York City by the Methodist Episcopal Church. It began publication in 1826 and by the mid-1830s had become the largest circulating weekly in the United States, with more than 30 ...
'' called the film "sincere, genuine and appealing". Lindvall and Quicke described the film as "extremely well photographed" and said that it "effectively portrayed Christian witness in China with an economy of dialogue and detail". The ''Akron Beacon Journal
The ''Akron Beacon Journal'' is a morning newspaper in Akron, Ohio, United States. Owned by Gannett, it is the sole daily newspaper in Akron and is distributed throughout Northeast Ohio. The paper's coverage focuses on local news. The Beacon J ...
'', which devoted a two-page pictorial spread to the release, said the film "packs more of a punch than many a Hollywood double feature".
Awards
''My Name Is Han'' was named best film with a religious theme by the Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
Film Council in 1948.
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:My Name Is Han
1948 short films
1948 films
American docudrama films
Documentary films about Christianity
Protestant missionaries in China
Films shot in China
American black-and-white films
1940s American films