Mediacorp CNA’s My Stolen Chinese Father: Victims of U.K.’s Racist Past is the story of three people living in the aftermath of Britain’s decision, suddenly and secretly, to deport Chinese merchant seamen to Singapore and China after World War II.

The Exiles tells a crushingly inhumane story of regular families torn apart and lives ruined, tragedy spread across generations and continents by British betrayal and cruelty. For Peter Foo, living with the consequences of Britain’s racist past, the situation “is a bloody disgrace”.

“This country accepted that it did happen, but there are no apologies for any of us,” Foo tells filmmaker Tom St John Gray in The Exiles’ episode, My Stolen Chinese Father: Victims of U.K.’s Racist Past, nominated in the ContentAsia Awards 2023 category for Best Factual Programme for multiple markets.     

The episode – one of two that make up The Exiles, a series produced for Singapore’s CNA/Mediacorp – has its roots in a newspaper article on the plight of Chinese seamen at the end of World War II. 

After years of loyal wartime service, the seamen were suddenly and secretly deported from their homes in Liverpool, and shipped to Singapore and China. Their British wives and children were left without explanation or information. 

Decades later, declassified documents from the U.K. National Archives revealed the full extent of what the British government of the day had done. The revelation, St John Gray says, “was no comfort to the women who went to their graves believing they’d been deserted, or the heartbroken children who grew up and grew old thinking their fathers had abandoned them”.

“In the U.K., veterans are revered for their wartime courage and sacrifice but here was a group of Chinese seamen who had faced the horrors of the Battle of the Atlantic, only to be neglected by the very country they were seeking to protect. Why is this story known to only a very small group of people? What impact did these actions have on the lives of the seamen, their wives and children?,” St John Gray says of the inspiration for the series, which he then took to CNA executive producer, Mark Pestana.  

“As a documentary filmmaker, I was drawn to so many facets of these secret deportations. One aspect that played over my mind was the fate of these men after they were left stranded and penniless in Singapore and China. Where did these men disappear to? Did they start their lives over with new families in Singapore and China? Are their descendants today even aware of their plight?,” he says. 

The story ticks multiple boxes for CNA, Singapore national broadcaster Mediacorp’s dedicated news brand, which serves domestic viewers as well as a wider regional/international audience. 

“I was confident that these stories would resonate with audiences anywhere in the world; they have drama and intrigue, and offer viewers an insight to the contributions and struggles of Asians during the war years,” Pestana, CNA’s deputy chief editor, documentaries, says. 

“This was a story that demanded our attention and challenged us to craft a series that would do justice to this shocking betrayal,” St John Gray adds.  
The second episode of The Exiles is set in post-war Australia, and came from the initial research on the Liverpool deportations. “Apart from newspaper reports, court documents and some rare archival footage, there was relatively little information about these Asian deportations in the Australian public domain, so this felt like an equally important and timely story to tell,” St John Gray says. 

Of the approx 400 kids abandoned in the U.K., The Exiles’ Liverpool episode focuses on Foo, whose mission is to tell as many people as he can about the deportations; Yvonne Foley, who has spent decades searching for clues of her missing father and continues the quest despite the disappointments; and Barbara Ong Janecek, who now lives in Canada. 

The stories are woven together with a strong maritime theme, “to remind the audience of a sense of movement, displacement and fluidity,” St John Gray says. “In all the places we filmed [U.K., Canada, Singapore], we searched for interesting and relevant maritime locations – ferries and boats, lighthouses and beaches, abandoned docks and waterways.” 

Crosby Beach, just outside of Liverpool, proved to be an ideal location. “It has a long secluded beach, dotted with hundreds of Anthony Gormley statues of men, who disappear and reappear as the tide changes. This became a potent metaphor for the stolen lives of these Chinese seamen, appearing and then disappearing from view.”

Janecek closes her contribution to the Liverpool episode walking along a cliff-top Chinese cemetery in Canada, remembering her lost father and her deceased mother. She gazes out to sea against a golden sunset, soaring birds and crashing waves, wondering aloud about her attachment to the ocean and her unknown father. “It’s such a puzzle, where you can’t find the pieces. You can’t complete the puzzle. I’m getting very old now. Will I know anything more before I die?,” she asks. It’s one of St John Gray’s favourite scenes.     

That moment was hard won. Before approaching anyone, St John Gray and his team – including researcher Junaini Johari and history consultant Dr Ernest Koh – immersed themselves in the circumstances to “ensure we were as knowledgeable as possible... As sensitive subject matter, it was important that we understood the many facets of these stories before we engaged surviving relatives,” he says.

“These stories of deportations from Liverpool and Australia are bound up in significant amounts of pain and trauma that still resonate today,” he adds. While not everyone wanted to appear on camera, they were willing to share information. 

St John Gray says gathering the Australian profiles “was a very different affair”, leading the team through countless archives for named lists of the Chinese and Malay men who were deported from Australia to Singapore and Hong Kong, based purely on skin colour. Eventually, St John Gray connected with six family groups. 

Asked what he most likes about the finished programme, which premiered in March this year, St John Gray says: “During the making of this series, it was clear that these stories were unknown to the wider public, and so the production team carried a collective sense of responsibility in making something that was genuine, sensitive and truthful.” 

“It was editorially tough at times telling such a complex part of history, whilst also intertwining deeply personal stories and experiences,” St John Gray says. “These are stories from the dying embers of a colonial world, driven by elements of racism and discrimination, and it was important that we presented this uncomfortable past in a truthful and clearheaded way. I feel proud that we, as a team, have been able to help keep these stories alive and share them with a wider audience, so that we never forget what happened.” – Janine Stein  

Published in ContentAsia's September 2023 magazine