Depiction of Chinese Schindler falls short

The Chinese TV drama The Last Visa, starring Chen Baoguo, is inspired by the late Chinese diplomat Ho Feng Shan's heroic deeds during World War II. Ho (above left) served as the Chinese consul general in Vienna between 1938 and 1940. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A China Daily adviser since the paper's inception in 1981, Ho Manli first brought her father's story to light and has spent years on research and documentation.

She is candid in her evaluation: "I managed to watch three episodes of this series online and couldn't go on because it is so laughably unrealistic. This is an embarrassingly bad soap opera with poor production values, an obvious lack of understanding of both the European and Chinese history of that time, and ridiculous cartoonish characters."

According to Ho Manli, this television period drama inaccurately conflates historic events which took place over the course of seven years－when persecution of Jews escalated from terror and coerced expulsion from Nazi-occupied territories to the Final Solution, the extermination of Jews.

When her father was saving lives in Vienna from 1938 to 1940, the Nazis were trying to expel Jews and the dilemma for Jewish refugees was finding safe haven, Ho Manli says.

As if real drama were not enough, the TV retelling turns it into a lurid melodrama. The portrayals of the Viennese, of the Jews, of German officers, and even of the Chinese diplomats are all caricatures, Ho Manli says.

"There is a certain formality and European sophistication particular to the Viennese and to the Germans, not to mention educated Chinese－especially those in the diplomatic service of the Nationalist China era－who behaved with cultural refinement and strict decorum. It's nothing like what is depicted in the show," she says.

Xu Jiang, a critic, also found it jarring that the main Chinese characters, who were supposed to hail from Shanghai and Nanjing, speak with a distinct Beijing accent.

"Even the look and hairdo of Pu Jizhou, the protagonist, is a far cry from period authenticity," says Xu.

"The German soldiers marching in Vienna walk like American movie stereotypes. Shouldn't the actors be at least shown Leni Riefenstahl's documentary Triumph of the Will to learn how to goosestep?"

"One of the main Jewish characters in Schindler's List is a composite of several people. However, in depicting Oskar Schindler, the other major characters and the story itself, director Steven Spielberg hewed closely to history," Ho Manli says, by way of comparison.