Despite the scene being deleted during the movie's global release in 1997, it was included in a special edition released on DVDs. According to the website jamescamerononline.com, Ling revealed that he spent two weeks shooting the floating scene in Mexico in October 1996 and acted again in February 1997 in another scene to establish the character on the ship.
This little-known story was revisited in The Six, a documentary released in China in April 2021.With Cameron serving as one of the producers, the documentary, for the first time, explored the untold story of six Chinese survivors on the ill-fated British liner and their struggles against racial discrimination during that time.
"It's a very interesting film because no one has ever followed the six Chinese passengers who were on the Titanic," Cameron says. "They all survived, which is pretty incredible because they kept their wits about them.
"It's also a fascinating story that history buried them like they didn't exist. It took some detective work to figure out who everybody was and track down their descendants and relatives."
The director reveals that they conducted forensic testing to re-create Jack and Rose's conditions in a hypothermia lab in New Zealand and discovered that Jack's struggle while waiting to be rescued was similar to that of the Chinese passenger who tried to keep his upper body above the frigid seawater.
For a lot of Chinese viewers, the end of the relationship between Jack and Rose is one of the most memorable aspects of the movie.
When asked if he had ever imagined the possibility of both of them surviving, Cameron responds with a smile: "They probably would have a big fight and not even get married."
"Their love felt like a real love to me, one that could last a lifetime, but we'll never know. As an artist, what I was trying to say is that love is tested in tragic circumstances. I don't think the film would have been as successful if Jack had lived and they had held hands and walked off into the sunset.
"Because ultimately it's not a film about Jack. It's a film about her. It's about how he changes her. So, it's really a film about a young woman becoming herself and becoming independent and living the life that she imagines. That's the whole point of the film. So, he had to die," Cameron says.
Despite the movie being made over two decades ago, Cameron says he believes that its themes are timeless, and would evoke empathy in modern audiences and make them imagine how they would deal with such a perilous situation.
