China Mission: The Chester Ronning Story

China Mission: The Chester Ronning Story

China Mission: The Chester Ronning Story
| 57 min
Free
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Tom Radford's documentary chronicles the life of Chester Ronning, best remembered for his close and longstanding relationship with China. Over the course of his life, Ronning worked as a cowboy, ambassador, college president, missionary and a member of the Alberta legislature. But throughout all of his careers, his lifelong ambition was to explain China to the western world. His story is a rare example of the meeting of East and West in a compassionate, remarkable man.

This film contains scenes of violence. Viewer discretion is advised.

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China Mission: The Chester Ronning Story, Tom Radford, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

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Credits
  • director
    Tom Radford
  • producer
    Michael Scott
  • executive producer
    Lydia Semotuk
    Michael Scott
  • commentary
    Stanley Jackson
    Tom Radford
  • photography
    Robert Reece
    Ron Orieux
    Harry Nuttall
    Richard Westlien
  • sound
    Garrell Clark
    Ann McGaw
    Ed Smith
    Lesley Topping
  • editing
    Christopher Tate
  • sound editing
    Christopher Tate
  • re-recording
    Clive Perry
  • narrator
    Cedric Smith
  • music
    Roger Deegan
 See also
Politics and Government
Developing Countries
All subjects
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Add a new comment
  • bedriedger

    The comments above are obtuse and confusing. They do nothing to inform the reader of the film. Chester Ronning was well loved in China, and I would be very surprised if the Chinese government would not allow this film to be shown. It seems the facts as he saw them are indisputable, and resulted in the course of history, the Boxer rebellion, the rise, and fall of Chiang Kai-chek, the universal ostracism of Communist China by the West, and it's eventual recognition, in significant measure assisted by Chester Ronning. If it casts the legacy of Imperial China, and of the Kuomintang in a bad light, for beheadings and abandonment of children, is that undeserved? And the film does not shirk from showing violence on the part of Western forces in China either. Clearly these things informed the character of Mr. Ronning. He was a gentle soul, and always worked toward peace.

    bedriedger, 8 Jan 2016
  • amier

    I'm also curious as to what, precisely, is so offensive about this film. Specific comments would be helpful, Cora123 and PandaBear.

    amier, 31 Oct 2012
  • PanadaBear

    This video is extremely offensive to China. Hey Canadians, if you want to learn about China, go to China! And go with an open mind! Not by watching Canada propaganda like this and the Yangtze River video. NFB - let's stick to making movies about Canada.

    PanadaBear, 22 Dec 2011
  • Meme2

    @Cora123 - I am curious why you think this film is offensive.

    Meme2, 13 Nov 2011
  • grannylin46

    What a amazing person with a amazing story . A wonderful documentry thank You NFB.

    grannylin46, 30 Sep 2011
  • kruscito

    @Cora123 and inquiring minds --> We don’t allow comments to automatically appear on the website for a number of reasons—primarily being we are a government agency and we cannot and will not allow blatant hate speak (this consists of personal attacks or racist remarks) to be posted, even if it’s for a few minutes before we pull it down. We will post any comment that falls within our comment policy, which you can check out here: http://www.nfb.ca/about/faq/#faqblog5

    kruscito, 26 Sep 2011
  • Cora123

    Why do you have to monitor the comments before publishing them? Can't you just erase them afterwards and send a warning to the writer?

    Cora123, 24 Sep 2011
  • Cora123

    I think this is actually quite offensive. I rarely see movies about China that are made in Canada that can also be shown in China. What a pity.

    Cora123, 24 Sep 2011

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