Evening star., 1942-09-15
Free Enterprise
China's War Aim,
Miss Ii Declares
Film Actress Speaks
At Tea Given by
University Uomen
By Frances Lide
By Frances Lide

China is fighting for her bowl of
rice-to eat it when and how she
chooses, says pretty Miss Ii Ling-ai
Chinese motion picture actress.
Or in America, she explains, you
would say for free enterprise" or
independence" or even stubborn
ness" The sort of stubbornness, she
adds, that has kept China fighting
! for the past five years and that also
has kept her from being bitter.
That Chinese and Americans are
/ fundamentally akin, or-as She puts
it-that I'VE are brothers when we
meet mentally and spiritually"-is a
favorite theme with Miss Ii, whose
own education and career have COM
bined the culture of both.
Film Opens Tomorrow.
Here to make personal appear
ance in connection with the show
ing of "Kukan, the Battle Cry of
China which opens tomorrow at
the Pix Theater, she addressed
members of the Washington Branch,
American Association of University
Women, at tea yesterday after
noon and was to be the guest of the
Women's National Press Club at a
luncheon today.
A documentary story of blasted
China, the film was inspired by the
Chinese actress who persuaded Rey
Scott, the photographer. to under
take the assignment and then went
to work to raise the money for the
expedition.
Miss Ii, who was born in Homo
lulu, graduated from the University
OF Hawaii and went to Peking to
carve out a dramatic career. de-
clared she has "one foot in America
and one foot in China" And, as she
went to a school founded by New
England missionaries she adds that
she has "a strain of Yankee in me.
too"
Witty and mischievous, she enjoys
answering questions with a quip.
China ''IS Everything"
China, she refers to as "one grand
chop suey." China is everything,
she EXPLAINS combination of the
old-fashioned and the modern,
poetry for the poet, philosophy for
the philosopher. Shanghai night
club or a land OF courage and high
ideals.
OF her own age, she remarks: "I
am as old as you wish to think-or
as young as you wish to imagine"
She emphasizes that both the
Chinese and Americans are hum
orous people. Referring to the
popularity of comic strips here.
she says: There are no funnies in
China, but they live them just the
same"
But Miss Ii is all seriousness when
she talks of China at war.
"Kukan," the theme of her pic
ture, Is freely translated as heroic
courage" she explains, although
more literally it means action grow
ing out of bitter suffering"
But the Chinese have not let |
bitter suffering make them bitter,
she points out
NO Resentment Felt.
When the Japanese dropped
bombs which were made In Amer
lea, the Chinese didn't become re-
sentful toward America, she de-
clared. They simply picked UP the
bomb fragments and threw them
back as hand grenades.
And when there was no equipment |
left, the Chinese used illusion" as
weapon.
The sort of illusion" she ex-
planned. which made them build
paper airplanes to fool the enemy.
When the Japanese were over
their airf1elds they couldn't tell
that the paper planes weren't real
so that wasted their bombs In try
ing to destroy Chinese illusion
Ingenuity and an ability to "do
things for themselves" is another
trait Americans and Chinese hold
in common, she said.
And people who do things for
themselves will survive" she added.