Music ROBIN LUNG (filmmaker): Way back in the 1940s, this one woman made an impact on a media industry that's still dominated by men.

Her name was Li Ling-Ai.

LORETTA LI (Niece of Li Ling-Ai): I remember her sitting in the living room with her cigarette holder and she said, I won the Academy Award for KUKAN!

ROBIN LUNG  She was a pioneer filmmaker.

Why hadn’t I heard of her before?

Music  Sound of computer keys Music ROBIN LUNG:  In 1993, a television crew interviewed Li Ling-Ai in New York City.

She was 85 years old.

INTERVIEWER OFF CAMERA: OK. Alright.

Pick it up at 'In such and such a year I finished my film and Ripley saw it.'

LI LING-AI: Alright, then we finished the film after many hardships.It was just at the war, uh, Second World War.

DANIEL KWOK (Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaiʻi): She was involved in a major storytelling of China for the world.

LI LING-AI: And then it was shown on Broadway.

There was a 200 feet picture on the Paramount Theater.

A Chinese stretching up to Heaven.

KUKAN!

Heroic courage under bitter suffering.

That was my theme.

KUKAN.

Heroic courage under bitter suffering.

ED CARTER (Documentary Curator, Academy Film Archive): KUKAN is the only documentary that's won an Academy Award for which we have no print.

No video copy, no film print.

ROBIN LUNG: It took me half a lifetime to discover Li Ling-Ai, and now a huge part of her story is missing!

ROBIN LUNG: So much history is disappearing from my grandparents’ and even my parents’ generation.

I'm lucky to find anyone who remembers Li Ling-Ai.

IRMGARD HORMANN (Friend of Li Ling-Ai):  She was just such an active person and then she was a drama queen.

We all know what drama queens are.

She was just always acting and drawing people to her because of her personality.

LI LING-AI: Confucius said long ago that you cannot change the world by a big idea, but you can change it one by one.

And I'm going to change it one by one because the other side of me Chinese.

ROBIN LUNG:  Did you ever hear of this movie?

WING YUNG EMERY (China Reporter during World War II): Hmm.

Iʻm surprised I never seen this movie.

Is this Li Ling-Ai?

ROBIN LUNG: Yes, that's her.

WING YUNG EMERY: And she made the movie?

ROBIN LUNG: Well she was involved with this cameraman in making the movie.

I'm not,   that's one of the mysteries I'm trying to figure out, what she did for the film.

ROBIN LUNG: Li Ling-Ai did not receive the Academy Award for KUKAN.

The Oscar went to KUKAN's cameraman and writer Rey Scott, a freelance photojournalist.

Li Ling-Ai is only credited as a Technical Advisor, and there's nothing written about her in the film history books.

PORTIA LI (Grand niece of Li Ling-Ai): I first heard about the film KUKAN when I was reading LIFE IS FOR A LONG TIME which is her Hawaiian memoirs.

PORTIA LI: She always smelled like, like mothballs in her apartment.

That's aunty right there.

PORTIA LI (reading from book): Japan bombed Shanghai in 1937.

Third sister, Li Ling-Ai, decided that the... ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: …decided that the story of the people of China must be told.

With the American photographer Rey Scott, she planned the story and sent him directly to Nanking.

Li Ling-Ai called her story KUKAN, Heroic Courage Under Bitter Suffering, The Battle Cry of the People of China.

PHIL HALL (Author, The History of Independent Cinema): KUKAN was unusual because it focused on the war in Asia.

In 1940 into 1941 most Americans were focused on the war in Europe.

The average American knew almost nothing about China.

For many people KUKAN was the first time they saw any image from war-torn China.

DANIEL KWOK: I think she was trying to win American sympathy.

At that time China was on the verge of being completely put under by the Japanese juggernaut.

LI LING-AI: I began to dream of this China that my father told me about, the China that I studied and discussed with people, the China that I had seen when I got back to visit the relatives.

ROBIN LUNG:  What I'm trying to find out is what her exact role was in the making of the film and if she deserved more credit than she got for the film.

DANIEL KWOK: I don't know whether she had anything to do with the inception of the film.

This is something that you have to find out.

Loretti Li (Niece of Li Ling-Ai): None of us as the years went by really knew her part in it.

I don’t know her part in it.

I, what does it say in, in, the print?

LI LING-AI: I wanted to help the China Relief.

Nobody helped China in those days, to get money for medical supplies.

And I went back to Hawaiʻi and I took a flying course, fly two-seat plane.

If I needed to fly medical supplies some day I would be able to volunteer my services.

Well this reporter called me, Rey Scott from Honolulu Advertiser.

LI LING-AI: And he was a master photographer.

He came from a very good St. Louis family, the Scott family.

ACTOR FOR REY SCOTT: Rey Scott, Honolulu: I figured that the only real way to live was to travel and let your camera pay your way.

I'd just gotten an assignment from the Associated Press to go to Spain as the Civil War was starting when I received a wire that my father was ill.

I left as soon as I could get a boat but arrived home just 2 hours after he'd died.

When all of dad's affairs had been settled, I shoved off for Honolulu and arrived there with just nine dollars in my kick.

LI LING-AI: I said, "Wait until I finish my lesson at the airfield.

Then I will drive out to your Advertiser office on my way home and see you and give you an interview."

By the time I got there, it was night, you know about eight o’clock or something.

ACTOR FOR MALE JOURNALIST: New York World Telegram.

As they talked, news of the bombing of Shanghai came over the wires.

The dispatch said, Shanghai is a living hell tonight.

Thousands of people lie dead in the streets now.

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: I know there's more to the story than that.

If you went you could get it.

Don't waste your time here on this stuff.

Go where the real story is.

There's a boat sailing Friday, I dare you to take it.

LI LING-AI: Then at four o’clock in the morning I took him to see my father.

My father was a busy doctor.

I said, "Father, I think maybe I should go ahead and make a film, because this boy is a photographer, and I need a photographer.

And maybe he won't give up his job, maybe he will, but anyway we need a good one.

When, when I offered a job and he said, no.

I said to him, "I may be yellow on the outside, but you're yellow inside."

You know, and that spurred him on to go, gave up his job.

ROBIN LUNG:  I found an interview with Rey Scott in this 1945 book.

He says that Li Ling-Ai paid for his trip to China, then introduced him to her influential relatives there.

They made it possible for him to meet anyone who could be helpful to him including Chiang Kai-Shek and Soong Mei-Ling, the leader and first lady of the Republic of China.

Rey travels to China three more times with the help of Li Ling-Ai.

But why would she invest so much money and trust in him?

WHO WAS REY SCOTT ANYWAY?

ROBIN LUNG: My search leads to the autobiography of famous film director John Huston.

After making KUKAN, Rey Scott served in World War II with Huston and was a hard-drinking Army buddy of his.

Rey even asked Huston to be the best man at his wedding.

But I can't figure out who Rey married, or if he had children.

I can't find his obituary.

Finally, I find a database put together by volunteer cemetery photographers.

Thanks to them, I discover that Rey Scott had four sons!

ROBIN LUNG:  So is it a good time to talk, or should I wait til you’re in a …?

MARK SCOTT: This is as good a time as any.

I’ve got a little better connection, if this works for you ok. ROBIN LUNG: I wanted to ask you quickly, Have you seen the film?

MARK SCOTT: Yes.

ROBIN LUNG: So do you have a full copy of it?

MARK SCOTT: Maybe.

ROBIN LUNG: I actually haven't seen the film.

MARK SCOTT: There might be a whole copy around somewhere that, um, I’ll just leave it at that.

ROBIN LUNG: That's great to know.

MARK SCOTT: At least one exists, let's put it that way.

MICHELLE SCOTT (Granddaughter of Rey Scott): I really only have a few memories of him which is sad to me, especially now.

MICHELLE SCOTT: So I remember finding those photos and just like, I could imagine, I got chills every time I find a new one or find a new clue about him.

I did feel a little frustrated I guess you could say just because, why hadn't my dad told me about this amazing part of our history?

ANNE SCOTT (Anne Scott, Daughter-in-law of Rey Scott): When I describe my father-in-law to people I say, oh yeah, he's kind of like an Indiana Jones kind of guy.

Just really adventurous and wanting to take on the world.

ANNE SCOTT: You knew about the film, but you also knew about some of the trauma that he had experienced during the war, and somehow you didn't go there.

I can never remember being around say the dining table and having KUKAN be a topic of conversation.

You know, I , I, it just never came up.

MARK SCOTT (SON OF REY SCOTT): There’s so many mysteries that we haven’t been able to find out.

Who was really involved and then he actually did it, how he got there, who planned how he got to go where he was going and none of that.

You know, never talked to you about any of that.

MICHELLE SCOTT: Is it straight?

MICHELLE SCOTT: We had these really old reels in the basement that were eroding away.

And I had no idea what they were.

ROBIN LUNG: It turns out that Mark’s brother, whose Michelle's father, has had a copy of KUKAN this whole time!

ROBIN LUNG: Hi Ray.

RAYMOND SCOTT (Son of Rey Scott): Hi Robin.

ROBIN LUNG: How's KUKAN?

RAYMOND SCOTT: Uh, getting ready to pack it up and ship it.

RAYMOND SCOTT: It was surprising to learn that, uh, this is the last copy of it.

ROBIN LUNG: We're going to be very excited to see it.

RAYMOND SCOTT: Right.

I got my fingers crossed.

ED CARTER (Documentary Curator/Academy Film Archive: You know it was kind of like in a Twilight Zone episode because nobody knew about KUKAN so to have somebody call me out of the blue and just ask about KUKAN, it was like, wait, this is, this is really weird.

All right, it's a little rusty.

Oh there's vinegar.

That's not good.

JOE LINDNER (Preservationist, Academy Film Archive): This print was in poor condition and we needed to act now.

All the fanciest digital tools for restoration don't mean anything if we don't even have an image to start with.

So we have to get the image and the sound off of those pieces of very fragile film first and we have to do it without totally destroying it because the materials are so fragile.

ED CARTER (Documentary Curator/Academy Film Archive: You can really do some amazing things with film that's pretty far gone.

So I’m confident that it’s going to take a lot of work and a quite a bit of money and time to do our best to get whatever the best result we can from it.

Of course, we want to make it available and show it to anybody’s who’s interested in it.

The Academy's certainly going to make a big splash to show the film when we do complete our work.

ROBIN LUNG: KUKAN may be studied and talked about now for years to come.

But what   about the woman behind the making of it?

How are people going to remember, her?

ROBIN LUNG: So what did she tell you about the movie?

Did she say anything about how she was involved in it at all?

FRANCESCA TODD (Francesca Todd, Friend of Li Ling-Ai): Oh yes to my knowledge and in the conversations I had with her she was the moving factor in it.

In fact I don't think it would ever have been produced without her.

FRANCESCA TODD: She tried to improve the image of Chinese in America, not letting anything stop her, safety, or other people, what they thought about Chinese.

LI LING-AI: I'm going to reach the people.

I want to reach the colleges.

Cuz I'm tired and sick of being called Chin Chin Chinaman.

Singing - Wun-Hi- Chin Chin Chinaman: Chin, Chin Chinaman, muchee, muchee sad.

Me afraid, allo trade, welle, welle bad!

Noee joke,   broke broke makee shuttee shop.

Chin, Chin Chinaman, chop, chop, chop.

ROBIN LUNG: Li Ling-Ai faced anti-Chinese racism that was legal.

The Chinese Exclusion Act lasted from 1882 until 1943.

It was designed to keep Chinese out of America and deny them citizenship.

Under the law, almost 400,000 Chinese travelers were interrogated.

Women traveling alone faced more suspicion.

They were often detained and even deported.

ACTOR FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICER: U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration & Naturalization Service, Ellis Island, New York.

In the matter of GLADYS LING AI LI.

ACTOR FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICER: State your age, date and place of birth.

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: Age 28, born May 19, 1908 in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.

ACTOR FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICER: You are of the Chinese race?

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: Yes.

ACTOR FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICER: You are a citizen of the United States?

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: Yes.

ACTOR FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICER: What is your father's name?

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: Khai Fai Li, he is a doctor of medicine at Honolulu.

ACTOR FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICER: What is your mother's name?

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: Tai Heong Kong.

She is a doctor of medicine at the same address as my father.

ACTOR FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICER: How old were you when you first left Honolulu and where did you go?

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: I was 23 years old.

I went to China ACTOR FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICER: State your occupation and present address.

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: I'm a play director and writer of plays.

I live at the Plaza Hotel.

JUDY WU (Judy Tzu-Chun Wu,Ph.D., Professor of American Studies, University of California, Irvine): For the second generation, they were born in the United States, but they weren't completely accepted as Americans.

So I can see someone like Li Ling-Ai having this sense of longing in some ways of being both American and Chinese.

So that during the 1930s when Japan invades China it really allows her to have a political platform to express both her loyalty and her commitment to both China and the U.S. RICHARD BALIN (Friend of Li Ling-Ai): I remember her telling me that it was so important for her, for the Western people to have a real idea about China from a Chinese person as opposed to somebody else’s idea of what it is to be Chinese or what it is to be China.

LI LING-AI: I know exactly what I am, and I let it flow.

The two sides of me are very handy -- the American side and the Chinese side.

Because the Chinese side, monkey no see, no hear, no talk.

But boy you keep on producing it.

ROBIN LUNG: I know almost nothing about my Chinese roots.

I'm a fourth generation American.

So I'm just as fascinated by WHY Li Ling-Ai made KUKAN as HOW she did it.

DESOTO BROWN (Bishop Museum Historian):  When we look now at the history of the film KUKAN, the lantern slides that are in Bishop Museum are the first steps towards what would become of that documentary film.

PORTIA LI (Grand niece of Li Ling-Ai): Ling-Ai most likely had motivation to send Rey Scott to China during that time period because her sister Betty was in Nanking.

She was a medical doctor.

And it was a great opportunity to get a story as well as if her sister is in danger.

If Betty's in danger, to get her out.

DESOTO BROWN (DeSoto Brown, Bishop Museum Historian: Rey gets to China, gets connected with Dr. Betty Li.

And from there he takes these pictures documenting what's going on as the city of Nanking is being attacked by Japanese forces.

PORTIA LI: My grandmother Betty, she did help save a lot of soldiers.

And I remember my father telling me she was not home much during the war because she was amputating a lot of the victims.

ROBIN LUNG: Li Ling-Ai says she was always worried about her sister Betty, who remained in China for the rest of the war -- nine long years.

Betty's son Andrew was a young boy at the time.

Now he's 81 years old and living in southern California.

ANDREW LI (Newpher of Li-Ling Ai): How come you're interested in this old stuff?

ROBIN LUNG: It's unheard of to have a Chinese woman involved in a production at that time.

And so I need to find details about how she did it.

ANDREW LI: Was that true or BS?

ROBIN LUNG: Was what true?

ANDREW LI: A lot of BS.

ROBIN LUNG: That she was involved in making the movie?

ANDREW LI: Yeah, Right!

ROBIN LUNG: You think it was BS?

ANDREW LI: You know maybe she take somebody advantage and then use it, use it as her name.

Maybe time was in her time, you know, maybe... ROBIN LUNG: Well why do you think she would BS that?

ANDREW LI: She talk too much, you know.

Talk, talk talk.

ROBIN LUNG: I show Andrew documents that back up at least some of Ling-Ai's stories.

But he still doesn't remember being with Rey Scott in Nanking, and he knows nothing about the making of KUKAN.

But there are some things he can't forget.

ANDREW LI (Nephew of Li Ling-Ai): After uh the plane raided the city, I uh, I followed the crowds to see what's happening.

I kind of remember all the flesh, all hanging on the telephone pole, the telephone wire.

I kind of remember that.

You could smell blood.

But that's daily life I guess, huh?

Smell, smell death.

CHRISTOPHER JESPERSEN (Christopher Jespersen,   Ph.D., Author, American Images of China: 1931-1949): The United States is getting reports of tremendous brutality uh rapes, mass murder uh tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Chinese during this time period.

And so for many people, they felt like something had to be done to stop fascist aggression.

DANKE LI (Danke Li,Ph.D., Author, Echoes of Chongqing: Women in Wartime China): One of the worst atrocities was the rape of Nanjing.

You know the Japanese soldiers, not only killed, according to the Chinese statistics, over 300,000 Chinese, but the female Chinese they encountered were raped and killed brutally.

DESOTO BROWN: And I think that that gives Li Ling-Ai also the feeling of, we've got to do more to get the rest of the world to understand what's happening there.

ROBIN LUNG: Hi, is this Eleanor?

ELINOR GRIEST: Is this Robin?

ROBIN LUNG: Yes, hi.

ELINOR GRIEST: Hi there.

ROBIN LUNG: Now how did you first um meet Li Ling-Ai?

ELINOR GRIEST (FRIEND, FORMER EDITOR OF READER'S DIGEST): In New York.

Uh She was a member of the Overseas Press Club.

ROBIN LUNG: Did she talk about the making of that movie with you?

ELINOR GRIEST: Well she did a little bit.

She said she was never able to get a copy of the film because the State Department had it.

And they said they lost it.

So I never saw it.

ROBIN LUNG: KUKAN was not a government film.

So why would the U.S. State department have a copy of it?

And if they did, how did they lose it?

On a hunch, I search for KUKAN in the National Archives database.

And it actually turns up!

The motion picture division of the National Archives has the first 35 minutes of the 85-minute film!

It's been in cold storage for decades.

NARRATOR FROM KUKAN: Scott knew China.

He had covered the war from the time invasion first struck the Shanghai front.

So Scott went back to China, this time with a motion picture camera, a camera destined to get the China story.

Music ROBIN LUNG:  Suddenly, I’m in a time machine that wouldn’t exist without KUKAN.

NARRATOR FROM KUKAN: The devotion of the Generalissimo to his lovely wife is one of the legends of China.

Today, millions of young women follow her example, training themselves for an active and creative role in national life.

ROBIN LUNG:  I can finally see the China that Li Ling-Ai wanted Americans to see.

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: Li Ling-Ai, Washington Post.

China is becoming more and more Americanized daily.

The country is a grand chop suey.

It is both modern and old-fashioned.

The ideal of peace is the secret behind China.

Through countless centuries, the Chinese have been trained in the ways of peace, and they are fighting today to maintain that ideal.

ACTOR FOR REY SCOTT: When the Japanese planes came I thought they were going to machine-gun us.

I tell you I was never so scared in all my life.

And if those pictures are blurred, it's because my hands were shaking.

Rey Scott, Boston Daily Globe ROBIN LUNG: When I see a shot of Li Ling-Ai in KUKAN, I feel like I've struck gold.

If Li Ling-Ai was in China with Rey Scott, and faced the dangers of war right alongside him, she deserved a part of that Academy Award.

ROBIN LUNG: Then I make another discovery!

One of Li Ling-Ai's nieces packed away her papers.

They've been in storage for years!

I spend weeks combing through photographs, letters and articles.

But I find nothing that places Li Ling-Ai in China with Rey Scott.

Was she hiding something?

LI LING-AI: I was married.

But I was a, a what do you call?

a vessel of a man, (laughs) you know the old-fashioned Chinese style?

I had avoided that before in China, and darn it, the pressure of society, I fell into it.

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: I was supposed to work only for his comfort and contribute only to his family – and be subservient to their honor and demands.

And so I decided to divorce him after he got another girl pregnant.

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: But people in Hawaiʻi kept telling my sisters that I was a flirt, etc., Etc.

I didn't bother to explain.

ACTOR BEATRICE DUNCAN: I never see Li Ling-Ai anymore.

She seems to have vanished.

ACTOR FOR MARY KRANTZ: Do you know that girl is really NEVER home.

I don’t know where she spends her time, but every time I called she was “out for the evening” or “out for the day.” ACTOR FOR BEATRICE DUNCAN: Strange girl, she is, and fascinating.

ACTOR FOR MARY KRANTZ: Li Ling-Ai is clever, and knows what she wants.

May told me how she would beg and steal money to give to Rey Scott.

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: So I had to make up my mind about my life and what to do with it, because I was working for an idea.

That idea was to bring the real story of China, to the American people.

I was sick of movies of China showing sing-song clubs.

I said to Rey, "Take pictures of the real people, fighting for China's freedom."

And so, in his crazy, nice American way, he did.

Music ACTOR FOR REY SCOTT: November 8, 1938, to Li Ling-Ai in Honolulu; Cable 200 via Liberty Bank.

Urgentest wish, sail 10th.

Rey Scott, Hong Kong.

LI LING-AI: And I did help Rey sell a picture of a Chinese coolie sitting on the curb eating his rice and the whole city burning in the back.

And he's eating his rice.

That's the story of China I want!

Life goes on regardless.

Sold it to one of the people here for, I think it was $250.

That was to furnish film.

ACTOR SHIP PURSOR: Passengers sailing from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi on December 9, 1938 aboard the S.S. Matsonia, arriving at Port of Los Angeles.

In cabin class, Rey Scott, age 33, male.

In first class, Gladys Ling-Ai Li, age 30, female.

PHIL HALL: Rey Scott and Li Ling-Ai had everything going against them.

Neither of them had filmmaking experience.

Neither of them had connections in the film industry.

They had no guarantee that if they made a film, they would be able to get an audience would get to see it.

JENNY CHO (Author, Chinese in Hollywood): Li Ling-Ai’s lack of experience in filmmaking probably helped her because she was fueled by passion and drive to get that story out there.

And she probably didn’t realize at the time how much of a risk how huge of an undertaking it would be to create a documentary film shot on location in China during the war.

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: I did everything to keep the precious film going overseas to Scott.

I even hocked the family jewels.

I was so desperate I had to.

ACTOR FOR REY SCOTT (reads from letter): July 14, 1939, Honolulu: Dear Glad, Am rushed as hell, got passport okay.

Am leaving in an hour or so on the Canada.

Paid your jewelry interest up until January so don't worry about that any longer.

Send that film to me care of American Consul at Hong Kong.

Write me there too.

Good luck to you honey.

I hope you've gotten your job and things worked out the way you wanted.

Now be good and WRITE THAT BOOK.

Love, Rey DANIEL KWOK: There was nothing personal between her and Scott right?

FRANCESCA TODD: She didn't say anything about any romantic involvement, but I wouldn't doubt it.

GLADYS HU (Friend of Li Ling-Ai): She had a lot of boyfriends.

ROBIN LUNG: Were they Chinese or Caucasians?

GLADYS HU: Caucasians usually.

OREON SCOTT (Son of Rey Scott): There was rumors in the family about a girlfriend in New York.

And it might have been an Oriental girlfriend in New York, um, but it was just a rumor, or family hearsay.

LORETTA LI: So you don't think they were lovers?

ROBIN LUNG:  I'm not sure.

I was hoping to find some letters from her.

We found no letters from Li Ling-Ai to Rey Scott and that was a little bit of a disappointment.

FRANCESCA TODD: At the time, to become involved with a Chinese just wasn't done.

CHRISTOPHER JESPERSEN: If they had a romantic relationship they would be concerned about publicizing that.

Hollywood had prohibitions on interracial romances in films.

There would be considerable skepticism or concern raised by an interracial couple.

JENNY CHO: It was illegal in California.

The anti-miscegenation law from 1850 to 1948 banned the marriage between a white person and an Asian.

CHRISTOPHER JESPERSEN: So I could see why Rey Scott and Li Ling-Ai would want to keep any kind of relationship of that sort quiet.

ROBIN LUNG:  But both of them pose for the press when Rey Scott brings back a baby panda named Li Ling-Ai.

CHRISTOPHER JESPERSEN: It’s going to be part of the same phenomena that is happening, the excitement and craze for things Chinese, the interest in what is happening in China, the sympathy and pandas of course are a symbol of China.

They're terribly cute.

Everybody likes a panda bear.

ROBIN LUNG: Rey’s color films of China bring more serious attention to the country.

In 1939 Rey uses them to campaign for U.S. intervention in China, and he screens them all across America.

Li Ling-Ai appears with him at one of the screenings in Milwaukee.

ANNE SCOTT: If the two of them were in a room together trying to sell a concept that must have been really formidable thing.

I just think that it would be pretty incredible.

ROBIN LUNG:  I can't figure out how much time Li Ling-Ai and Rey Scott spend together on the road.

In 1940, when Rey returns to China, Li Ling-Ai relocates permanently to New York City.

JENNY CHO: So Li Ling-Ai's move to New York, she was in the right place at the right time.

Li Ling-Ai’s move to New York coincided with all of this activism and these social events on behalf of United China Relief.

CHRISTOPHER JESPERSEN: So, United China Relief was created in February of 1941 with the idea of bringing attention to what was happening in China, raising money for the Chinese people and then distributing that money.

It could be anything to Chinese war refugees or Chinese children, Chinese orphans, Chinese Christian Colleges, Chinese medical aid.

JENNY CHO: All of these events raising money and awareness for China needed a poster child, and Li Ling Ai, being Chinese, being very attractive, talented, well spoken, having great Chinese clothes, she was perfect.

JUDY WU: You have women dressed up Chinese clothing, carrying a Chinese flag.

And that flag is there to help receive money, donations to help rescue, um, innocent women and children.

So having women carrying that flag has so much power as opposed to having Chinese-American men carry that flag.

It’s because men are absent that it communicates this message that means women need assistance, they need American humanitarian aid.

Chinese-Americans like Li Ling-Ai, they can be seen as these authentic spokespeople for, for the needs of Chinese people.

ACTOR FOR JOURNALIST (American Bureau for Medical Aid to China Publicist): The American Bureau for Medical Aid to China will open its World’s Fair Exhibit on Saturday June 15th.

Miss Li Ling-Ai, playwright and producer is in charge of the programs.

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: I'm not kidding myself.

They may think I'm only suited for a bunch of crazy people like artists and writers, but I'm living.

The road to the compound may be safe and secure, but that belongs to the old order.

Give me the new.

I want to feel the open wind in my face.

I want the chance to play the long shot.

LI LING-AI: I came to New York.

Now that's a situation.

Every Chinese doesn't think I'm no-good woman.

Every American thinks I'm easy mark.

And here I came to challenge the writing field.

LI LING-AI: So I was very poor.

I lived in the Lincoln Arcade with a small room the size of a closet, practically, and with a basin.

But nobody had a toilet.

So I had to use the public toilet.

So I'm an expert in standing up.

All right?

(laughs) Mentally and otherwise, ok?

LORETTA LI (Niece of Li Ling-Ai): I don’t think she had a lot of money.

I really thought she was poor for years.

She’d take the bus from New York to St. Louis to some women’s club that her agent booked her in for one Sunday afternoon.

And I’d say, “Gladys, you took the bus.” And she’d say, “Well I like to see the scenery and so forth.” But my feeling was that all these trips and the effort and so forth, there was a basis of poverty.

You know, everyone accepted the persona and the mythology that she created.

That’s was her creation.

A lot of people do that.

ROBIN LUNG: It's been almost three years since I located the Scott family's print.

And I've learned about many women like Li Ling-Ai who've paved the way for me as a filmmaker.

I owe it them to get KUKAN restored and make sure she's recognized and remembered for it.

A.J.

ROHNER (A.J.

Rohner, Film Preservationist): We've got five different sections of the KUKAN version you found.

So, I’m gonna show you the worst stuff up first.

ROBIN LUNG: Uh oh.

A.J.

ROHNER (A.J.

Rohner, Film Preservationist): This is the KUKAN title here.

ROBIN LUNG: Oh my gosh.

A.J.

ROHNER: Those are probably not going to be able to be preserved.

So this is reel 2 ROBIN LUNG: Oh reel 2 part 2.

This is the most important part.

This is the bombing of Chungking.

A.J.

ROHNER: And this is the one that's in the best shape of all of 'em.

Stopped at 41:48 ROBIN LUNG: KUKAN became famous for the big bombing scene at the end.

The only other copy of this scene is on a VHS tape that Rey Scott made over 25 years ago.

ACTOR FOR REY SCOTT: August 24, 1940.

Plenty of h-e-l-l has been popping over this war-time capitol.

Just a couple of days ago 360 bombers participated in raids on Chungking on two consecutive days.

Bombs exploding.

ACTOR FOR REY SCOTT:  Soon I could see fires starting, small flames, then roaring masses.

It was horrible.

But there was nothing I could do but keep on grinding and taking pictures.

DANIEL KWOK (Lived in Chongqing during the War): In Mandarin it's Píláo hōngzhà.

Fatigue bombing is that they would bomb just at your meal time, recurrent cycles so the population has no time to rest.

And my own father was, had lived through that.

DANIEL KWOK: I think the bombing of Chongqing had something to do with the naming of the film; Kukan.

Kukan really means bitterly persevering, in other words, persevering against all odds.

DANIEL KWOK: Post bombing, it's really tragic to come out.

You see human limbs and toes and fingers stuck to the walls or to telephone wires.

So it's in that kind of a beleaguered situation that the idea of Kukan, let's stick to it, overcome it, became the title of that film you are working on.

ACTOR FOR JOURNALIST, MALE SAN FRANCISCO:  Mr. Scott has 10,000 feet of colored war films, including the August 19th and 20th bombing of Chungking.

He has been requested by the State Department to show his films in Washington.

ACTOR FOR ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: WASHINGTON, January 2, 1941.

Last night we saw some very remarkable colored moving pictures taken in China by Mr. Rey Scott.

LI LING-AI: Mrs. Roosevelt heard about it, and she invited me to the White House to show the President the picture.

And courtesy, and all that chivalry, I said Rey, will you come?

You’re the photographer.

I went and then I made Rey talk.

But came a part I could not resist talking.

LI LING-AI: And then came the Gobi Desert where all the different races in the middle of China, Chinese with red, red hair.

Rey had shot the picture 'cuz it had, it stunned him too, you see.

He never saw this China before.

He never saw the suffering before until I told him.

ACTOR FOR REY SCOTT: At the end of 20 minutes, the operator turned off the film.

Mr. Roosevelt ordered the showing resumed.

And when I'd shown all the film I had, he kept me for 35 minutes more, asking me questions.

He amazed me with his accurate knowledge of the war.

ACTOR FOR ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: One sees China at peace.

Then the war comes and finally, the bombing of the present capital.

The remarkable thing is the calm with which the people seem to face bombing whenever it occurs.

ROBIN LUNG: Eleanor Roosevelt doesn't mention Li Ling-Ai in her newspaper column.

And I can’t find any photographs of the visit.

If the President's secretary didn't write Rey and Ling-Ai's names in the White House calendar that night, I might have doubted her story, just like many others did.

ROBIN LUNG: A collection of letters I find at Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library help corroborate Ling-Ai's account of how she found KUKAN's distributor, Adventure Films.

LI LING-AI: So I said to Rey to take the film there to have it edited.

Then they showed it.

Behold they began to claim they made it.

See it was my story and my work but I didn't fight I was very young.

I didn't tell my father, he'd say come home.

But Rey was the photographer, and I gave a big, big thing about his name and everything else because that's the only decent thing for me to do.

CHRISTOPHER JESPERSEN:  I do think the way Hollywood operated in the 1930s would have created difficulties for Ling-Ai to get a film made.

I think she would have needed the backing of either somebody better known, most likely a man, somebody who had some experience or connections.

PHIL HALL: If KUKAN has been presented as a Li Ling-Ai production, its credibility would have been in doubt because, remember, in 1941, many Americans wanted nothing to do with the foreign wars and if they saw KUKAN as Chinese propaganda, it would never have gotten onto a movie screen.

JUDY WU: I can easily see how she gets overlooked.

Right, she's someone who facilitates the making of the movie, but she doesn't really deserve true credit according to the people who want to take the credit from her.

She's there to provide cultural authenticity, she's there to provide cultural inspiration, but she's really not seen as a cultural producer, someone who's an artist in her own right.

ROBIN LUNG: Oh here it is.

Sold Jewelry to Aid in Chinese Movie.

Li Ling-Ai sold her imperial jade pieces of jewelry to finance the much-discussed picture of war-ravaged China, "Kukan."

Rey Scott said yesterday, that if it were not for Li Ling-Ai, he would never have made the picture.

JENNY CHO: She produced that film.

If you look at the duties of a producer, a producer finds the subject material, hires the talent, secures the funding, supervises pre-production, production, post-production, the release, and the publicity.

Li Ling-Ai did all of those things on KUKAN.

LI LING-AI: These others all claimed that they made it.

I didn't know what to do.

I didn't say anything.

I thought all right, that's my life.

And I will survive.

I will survive.

ROBIN LUNG:  In order to get KUKAN into theaters, Li Ling-Ai gives up control of her own film.

But she perseveres and she continues to promote it.

ACTOR FOR MAY DAY LO: June 24, 1941, New York City; Two for Honoluluans were spotlighted last evening at the world premiere of Kukan, first all color China film.

A large group of prominent newspapermen and women, motion picture executives and friends of China were among the special guests at the premiere.

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: We thought the picture would run about a week when it went on Broadway.

It's been going strong for two months now and it's still going.

ACTOR FOR JOURNALIST, MALE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: San Francisco.

At long last a documentary film   about China has come to town which doesn't seek to shock the spectator.

ACTOR FOR JOURNALIST, MALE BOSTON GLOBE: "Kukan" is no posed and re-enacted Hollywood war film, but the actual living description… ACTOR FOR JOURNALIST, FEMALE PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE: Los Angeles, the long line of customers waiting before the box office at the first showing is testimony that the fame of “Kukan” has spread far and wide.

People from all walks of life… ACTOR FOR JOURNALIST, FEMALE WASHINGTON POST: With a clear, clipped Yankee accent, Miss Li Ling-Ai brought tears to the eyes of her listeners with her account of China's magnificent struggle.

ACTOR FOR MAY DAY LO: Robert Ripley’s apartment in New York City was the scene of a cocktail party last evening after the premiere of KUKAN.

I happened to be along only because I was a guest of Miss Li Ling-Ai, a friend of Mr. Ripley.

ROBIN LUNG: Li Ling-Ai’s life completely changes when she befriends one of the most famous men in America.

EDWARD MEYER (Archivist, Ripley Entertainment): Throughout the ‘30s is really the golden age of Robert Ripley, he’s in movies, he’s on radio, he’s got six museums at the peak of his career.

ROBERT RIPLEY (from TV show): Thank you.

Why I’m taking some friends for a flight to gather some new material for the “Believe-It-Or-Not” pictures.

EDWARD MEYER (Archivist, Ripley Entertainment): 1937 Ripley’s actually voted the most popular man in America.

LI LING-AI:  I got a call from the secretary that Mr. Ripley would like to see you.

He saw you on the stage explaining how the picture was made.

So, I thought, uh on, why?

Why do they want to see me?

Ohhhh!

Nothing good’s going to come out of that (laughs).

LI LING-AI: So I went.. And I walk in the studio, Chinese, remind me of China and the palace.

I thought, on my god.

What kind of an American lives here?

And then in walked Ripley in his dressing gown.

And, uhhhohhhh.

Then I said to him, “Mr.

Ripley, what is it that you want?” You see, if you’re looking for a sweetheart, wife or mistress, I’m not it.” He almost fell off the chair.

He said, “I never heard a woman talk like you.” EDWARD MEYER: She’s an opportunist, there’s no doubt about that.

She sees how to get things done and she’s a strong-willed woman that gets them done.

When the time comes that Ripley can promote Li Ling-Ai, China Relief, Kukan specifically, he has a circle of fairly influential people in New York that he can push it on, and Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan radio, they were the Anderson Cooper of that era.

LI LING-AI: He gave women the breaks in their jobs.

Who would give me a break those days?

Who?

You see?

I was director of the Far Eastern department of Ripley, Incorporated.

And our conversation was always involved in certain things on China.

And he loved it.

And he was intrigued.

And he listened, whereas other people would say, “She talks too much,” or, “Who gives a damn about China?”, or, “The damned old Chinaman,” or, “That damned Chinese dame.” I went through the whole damned thing.

It didn’t bother men.

I had a Chinse attitude, monkey no see, no hear, no talk.

ROBIN LUNG:  KUKAN is promoted as Rey Scott's film, and most of the press for KUKAN is about Rey's daring deeds in China.

Rey's interviews are treated as hard news, while Ling-Ai's stories are relegated to the Womens' section of the papers.

Still, she thinks of all kinds of ways to publicize KUKAN.

She gets a famous stylist to create a KUKAN hair-do, poses for an animal lovers' magazine.

She’s mentioned in gossip columns and photographed for the Washington Post.

ROBIN LUNG: But the Associated Press gave her national coverage when she told them that the Chinese invented the strip tease.

ROBIN LUNG: In my mind she's like supposed to be battling the prejudicial images of Chinese.

And she's totally irresponsible.

LORETTA LI: Well that's another one of Gladys' stories.

To her the Chinese invented everything of course.

But she loved that.

She loved to like tweak the slightly scandalous reaction of her family and her local people and that's what she enjoyed a lot.

Not being proper and uh conventional.

DANKE LI: She used her beauty to attract attention and to raise money and it would not go well with, with a Chinese.

Yi-zi means those talented women who sold their talents, like singing and dancing.

They still would be regarded as a prostitute because you are selling something you know related to your personality or to your body.

ROBIN LUNG: I wanted Li Ling-Ai to be the kind of heroine that no one could deny.

But I can't find proof that she was in China with Rey Scott during the filming of KUKAN.

In a letter, Rey infers that he filmed Li Ling-Ai in Los Angeles before he started filming in China.

So I have to conclude that an editor just spliced Li Ling-Ai's image into the film.

It's a huge disappointment to me.

Rey risked his life in China, while she stayed safely in America.

ACTOR FOR REY SCOTT: November 16, 1941.

War between the United States and Japan is possible within the next 30 days.

President Roosevelt's order withdrawing marines from China is a definite tipoff that trouble is near in the Far East.

Explosion during Pearl Harbor attack DESOTO BROWN(Historian, Bishop Museum): Once the war started, suddenly you're cut off.

You can't travel any more.

You can't travel across the Pacific.

Until the war's over you're stuck in many places where you are.

So Li Ling-Ai and Rey Scott are in New York, that of itself would have been a terrible trauma, Oh my god, what's happened?

Li Ling-Ai's thinking what's happened to my family at home?

ACTOR FOR CHARLOTTE: Dearest Ling-Ai: My thoughts have been with you constantly since that fateful morning.

I've been thinking of your family and know just how you feel.

Knowing you as I know you, I'm sure you're doing plenty of work and not sitting still.

ROBIN LUNG: I get frustrated because I want her to be the hero like in you know our version of the American movies.

The woman goes and fights right alongside the man and is doing everything equal.

DANKE LI: But I still think she’s a hero because she proposed this project to Scott, and she’s behind the scenes raising money and plan for the project.

I still think she’s the hero, she’s only the unsung hero.

DANKE LI: I never say any documentary film which has such a high opinion and which recognized women’s contributions to the war effort.

I can really can see Li Ling-Ai’s spirit behind the film, especially regarding the comments about the importance of women’s participation.

ROBIN LUNG: In February 1942, the Academy honors the documentary category for the first time.

But neither Rey Scott nor Li Ling-Ai attend the ceremony.

Rey receives a special award for his extraordinary achievement in producing KUKAN.

A couple of months later he signs a contract that gives United Artists complete control of KUKAN for three years.

Then he joins the United States Army as a combat cameraman.

RAYMOND SCOTT (Son of Rey Scott): I know he was involved with the campaign in the Aleutians and he was at Anzio in Italy.

He was shooting film and guys were dropping right and left, I mean just getting killed right and left while he was standing there shooting this film.

I think he had some tough experiences there.

ROBIN LUNG: Rey returns from the war exhausted and "shell-shocked."

Alcoholism, months in a mental hospital and a suicide attempt.

By the time he pulls his life back together again, it's the 1950's.

Adventure Films has gone out of business and the owner is deceased.

Rey has to sue the estate to get prints of KUKAN out of storage.

ROBIN LUNG: So what happened between Rey Scott and Li Ling-Ai after the war?

The only clue I can find is Li Ling-Ai's phone number written in Rey Scott's 1980s address book.

Maybe he tried to call her.

But Li Ling-Ai never got a copy of KUKAN, and she probably didn’t see it again after the 1940s.

KUKAN NARRATOR: Through long, cruel years of war to the democratic, progressive, new China worth fighting for.

CHRISTOPHER JESPERSEN: I don't think Kukan would have been hidden away.

I think it would have been set aside as an artifact from an earlier period that was no longer relevant after the Chinese Communists came to power.

PHIL HALL: So most likely, the prints were destroyed, which is not unusual because what are you going to do with films that nobody wants anymore?

ROBIN LUNG: Here’s some stills from the film to give you an idea of what the film looks like.

It’s a color film of China.

LORETTA LI: You know, it’s funny as you say about the basic curiosity, I mean, I don't think anyone in our family ever saw this film.

ANDREW LI: KUKAN, what is this?

You know, I never even see the movie.

KUKAN, yeah.

ROBIN LUNG: If people can't see KUKAN, how will they appreciate who Li Ling-Ai really was?

After working for more than a year on the Scott family's print, the restoration lab sends me a shocking email.

Much of the print that they've been able to scan is cracked and faded.

There's hardly any color left.

What's worse, 20 minutes of KUKAN is completely missing from the print.

ED CARTER (Curator, Academy Film Archive): We can’t, even with all the pieces we have now, we can’t reconstruct a version that would be, would have the image quality to be able to be screened in a, you know, public screening.

ROBIN LUNG: It’s sort of a frustrating thing to spend all this time finding the film first of all, and then restoring it.

I mean I think I figured out six years have gone by, and then not having anything to show for it.

ED CARTER (Curator, Academy Film Archive): We can’t get upset about every single project, or we’d just go crazy.

Cuz we have hundreds, you know hundreds and hundreds of films that we work with.

You know, it’s like being a doctor you know,   you can’t break down because one patient dies you know.

ROBIN LUNG: The Academy's efforts to preserve KUKAN come to a screeching halt, there will be no Hollywood re-premiere.

I spend months afterward feeling like a complete failure.

No one's going to pay attention to KUKAN now, and Li Ling-Ai's story will disappear forever.

I search for another print of KUKAN.

Every day, online, for weeks.

But nothing comes up.

All I can find are some letters that Li Ling-Ai wrote to a close friend in the 1950s.

She's in the middle of writing a book about her parents -- and it's not going well.

ACTOR FOR LI LING-AI: Dear Ethel, I'm in the middle of one of the toughest rewrite jobs in my manuscript and I feel like throwing the whole manuscript in the incinerator, and am now wondering if I even know how to write English.

The gall of me to have even begun this project.

I am not an authority in anything - a great educator or emancipator, or wife of a big general – so my work is certainly not important to anyone but myself.

However, as my little mother used to say, "God gave you a mouth, it is not just for eating."

So if only one protégée feels one one-hundredth of what I do, it may be better than nothing.

ROBIN LUNG: It's as if Li Ling-Ai reached out to me across the decades to say, "don't give up."

The VHS copy of KUKAN might now be the only full version of the film in existence.

I wonder if anyone outside of Hollywood would be interested in it.

ROBIN LUNG: It's my first trip to China -- a study tour of World War II history sites, and a chance to trace some of Rey Scott and Li Ling-Ai's footsteps.

Music TRANSLATER:  Now let's welcome Miss Robin Lung.

(Applause) ZHOU YONG, speaking Chinese: Ms. Robin Lung brought this film to China.

And today, for the first time, we will view the film in China.

NARRATOR FROM KUKAN:  They watched the agonies of the blazing city -- their city, where their homes are now rubble and ruin, where the small possessions of their simple lives are ashes.

ZHOU YONG, speaking Chinese: This film is important to China, but it's especially important to Chongqing.

China is still missing a lot of knowledge about this part of history.

Before we had seen some footage of Japanese planes bombing Chongqing.

That was almost always shown from the perspective of Japanese planes, looking down.

But this time the bombing was documented from ground view, from the bombing alarm to the people running to hide, then the planes bombing, the great fires burning, to the entire rescue-worker process.

This was the first time I had ever seen this entire process.

So this film is precious.

ROBIN LUNG: So this is the original location of the American Embassy where Rey Scott filmed the bombing of Chongqing, the historic footage that was in KUKAN.

And uh I can't believe this building still exists.

I never, I never hope, I never hoped to find the building still here.

I never thought we'd find this.

ZHOU YONG, speaking Chinese: Scott was in the spotlight.

He deserved this.

But without Li Ling-Ai this could never have been accomplished.

This is her value and what we respect her for.

Heroes come in different sizes.

A little woman can be a big hero.

ROBIN LUNG: Ni hao and Aloha.

(applause) Nine months later, I return to Chongqing with a copy of KUKAN.

KUKAN will be officially brought to China with the signing of this contract, so that all China's citizens may watch and learn from it in the years to come.

(Applause) CHINESE FEMALE REPORTER: ....KUKAN!

CHINESE MALE REPORTER: KUKAN.... ROBIN LUNG: The event is covered by newspaper and television journalists from Chongqing and Beijing, two of China’s largest cities.

Suddenly there's a groundswell of interest in Rey Scott and Li Ling-Ai and the story of how they both produced KUKAN.

ANNOUNCER: And here as custodians of our Believe-It-Or-Not sketchbook for tonight are Robert St. John and Li Ling-Ai.

ROBERT ST.JOHN: Good evening everybody, good evening and welcome again to our Believe It Or Not television studio.

LI LING-AI: Ni hao ma.

ROBERT ST.JOHN: What does that mean, Li Ling-Ai?

LI LING-AI: That's Chinese for Hello.

ROBIN LUNG: Li Ling-Ai continued to push boundaries and promote China long after World War II ended.

The book she wrote about her parents was published in 1972.

Because of it, I know much more about her parents' lives than I do about hers.

In the 1990s I worked just three blocks away from where Li Ling-Ai lived.

But I never even knew she existed.

And now after seven years of constant searching, so many of my questions about Li Ling-Ai remain unanswered.

I'm a little reluctant to pass her story on.

Maybe I'm scared to let it go.

But I think about all the chapters in history that might be lost if not for one woman's voice.

And I remember what her mother used say: God gave you a mouth, it is not just for eating.

LI LING-AI: People punish you in this town when you get to 40.

In China, they reward you.

That’s the difference.

Then you get to 90 and you know what?

I tell everybody I’m 105, so don’t worry.

Then that means, (laughs).

INTERVIEWER: Well I guess you can stop rolling now.

LI LING-AI: Yeah.

THE END THE END