My father survived the sinking of the Titanic
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 24 August 2021
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When the RMS Titanic sank in 1912, after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, roughly 700 passengers survived by escaping in the ship's lifeboats. Among them were six Chinese sailors travelling in third class. Unlike other survivors, their stories remained untold for decades. They faced racism and a hostile immigration system when they reached America. Viv Jones speaks to Tom Fong, the son of one of the Chinese sailors. He only found out what had happened to his father after his death.
Photo: Tom’s father, Fang Lang. Credit: LP Films.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Viv Jones. |
| 0:40.0 | The story... The stories of the survivors of the sinking of the Titanic have been widely recorded and re-told. |
| 0:50.0 | Over 1,500 people died after the famously un-sinkable ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on a cold night in 1912. |
| 0:58.0 | But what's not widely known is that among the 700 or so passengers who survived, six were Chinese. |
| 1:05.6 | Their miraculous rescue was not the end of their ordeal. |
| 1:08.8 | Once they reached America, they faced prejudice and a racist immigration system. |
| 1:15.0 | One of these six men was recorded in the passenger list as Fang Lang. |
| 1:20.0 | He was only 17 when the disaster happened. |
| 1:22.0 | I've been hearing his story from his son. He was only 17 when the disaster happened. |
| 1:23.0 | I've been hearing his story from his son, Tom Fong. |
| 1:27.0 | It's sort of hard to believe that. |
| 1:29.0 | I'm the direct descendant. |
| 1:31.0 | It was something that happened over a hundred years ago. |
| 1:34.0 | Tom lives in the American state of Wisconsin, where he runs a Chinese restaurant with his family. |
| 1:39.0 | Tom's father married late in life and had Tom when he was 65. He died in 1985 at the age of 90. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.