A documentary produced by the Bureau of Cultural Heritage on "Free China,” a historic Chinese sailboat, is scheduled to have its premiere on the main channel of Taiwan Public Television Service at 8 a.m. on Jan. 5.
The film documented the three-year-long process in which the Bureau under the Ministry of Culture brought back the historic boat from San Francisco, where it was abandoned for over six decades and almost ended up being dismantled, to Keelung Port. A grand ceremony that took place on July 11 last year to mark the return of the boat has also been included in the documentary.
The documentary recorded the feat of six sailors sailing across the Pacific Ocean on the boat in 1955. The three surviving crew members - Paul Chow, Hu Loo-chi and Calvin Mehlert - were interviewed in depth. With images from that time, it described in detail how the six brave men found the wooden sailing boat, their ensuing remarkable incidents and the challenges they faced during their voyage across the Pacific.
The film documented the complicated process of rescuing the Chinese junk by many people, including the three crew members, Dione Chen, daughter of a deceased crew member, Bureau of Cultural Heritage Director Wang Shou-lai, Legislator Chiu Wen-yen and several Taiwanese and foreign cultural experts and scholars. They had all worked in different places to help "Free China” return to where it had first set sail.