During the summer of 1941, 300 young American men and women secretly trained in the jungles of Southeast Asia, preparing to face the Japanese Air Force in combat over the skies of China and Burma. Within weeks of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, their heroic exploits captured the imagination world. The Chinese called them Fei Hu for the shark's teeth painted on their planes. The world knew them as the Flying Tigers.

For years after the Flying Tigers disbanded in 1942, they had been known as a mercenary air force in the service of the Chinese government. Finally on July 4, 1991, in a ceremony honoring the Flying Tigers, the United States Government belatedly admitted the truth - the Flying Tigers had been created by secret order of President Franklin Roosevelt. Months before Pearl Harbor, the Flying Tigers were created to help the Chinese defend their cities from relentless bombing by the Japanese, who had invaded China in 1937.

Three hundred men and women were recruited from within the ranks of the U.S. Armed Services. Pilots, aircraft mechanics, propeller specialists, doctors, nurses, clerks and even a chaplain joined what was called the American Volunteer Group. They signed a one-year contract to protect the only supply route open for the United States to deliver war materiel to China - the Burma Road. They boarded ships from the West Coast in the spring and summer of 1941, travelling as missionaries, planters, and circus performers. Their disguises were meant to mask their true mission and protect FDR's secret effort to keep China from falling to the Japanese without provoking a war with Japan.

The ninety-minute video utilizes extensive interviews and film footage shot by the members of the Flying Tigers. Fei Hu: The Story Of The Flying Tigers tells the story of how in the midst of the jungles of Burma, Claire Chennault, the commander of the Flying Tigers, shaped a hard-drinking, brawling bunch of inexperienced airmen into a fighting unit with a war record second to none. Interviews with Chinese, British and Japanese pilots corroborate the story of the air battles over Rangoon and the cities of China. Interviews with non combatants, the nurses, the mechanics and the staff members of the Flying Tigers tell the dramatic story of ordinary people responding to extraordinary situations. Newsreels and the John Wayne feature film, "The Flying Tigers," demonstrate how the legend of the Flying Tigers was born. Fei Hu: The Story of the Flying Tigers is a tribute to the small group of men and women who fought against overwhelming odds, and lifted the spirits of both the American and Chinese people during the darkest days of World War II. The documentary reveals the human side of historical events.

KEY PERSONNEL

Frank Christopher is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker who has been producing Emmy-winning documentaries for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for more than ten years. The documentaries of Frank Christopher, including the Academy Award-nominated film, In the Name of the People, the Emmy-winning program, In the Shadow of the Law, and the recently released feature-length documentary, Fei Hu, The Story of the Flying Tigers, have been seen by television audiences on four continents. Frank Christopher produced, directed, wrote and edited Fei Hu: The Story of the Flying Tigers.

Frank Boring, American playwright and writer, was born in Taipei, Taiwan. His father, James Boring, worked with Chennault in China during the war and later in Taiwan. As the result of his father's involvement with Chennault and his own experiences growing up in Taiwan, Frank Boring was uniquely qualified to tell the story of the Flying Tigers to American and Chinese audiences. Frank Boring performed the role of producer and English-language interviewer.

Mei-ling Hsu was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and now works in Seattle, Washington as a molecular biologist. Ms. Hsu volunteered to serve as the co-producer for the film out of her deeply felt commitment to telling the story of the suffering of the Chinese people during the defense of their homeland in World War Two, which has been largely been ignored outside of China. Ms. Hsu conducted all of the Chinese-language interviews, helped with fundraising and coordinated the film production in Taiwan.

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