Authentic Chinese Etiquette in Film

Filming of Pearl S. Buck’s Chinese drama, “The Good Earth,” ... Every day the watchful eye of General Theodore Tu, lent to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as technical expert by the Chinese government, follows the shooting.

Hollywood Film Shop Etiquette

HOLLYWOOD, June 9. If censor Will Hays were Chinese,
he would say "M'hi Gum Jo!" (You can't do that!)

Motion picture directors, attempting to sneak in a risque scene here and there, have heard the edict with painful regularity. Now they are hearing it in Chinese… “Mhi Gum Jo!”

Filming of Pearl S. Buck's Chinese drama. “The Good Earth,” caused it. Every day the watchful eye of General Theodore Tu, lent to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as technical expert by the Chinese government, follows the shooting.

For instance, if Louise Rainer sought the inside walk beside Paul Muni as Postians decree, General Tu would admonish her with “M'hi Gum Jo!” “Get behind him,” he would say. “A Chinese wife walks dutifully and respectfully behind her lord and master.”

Upon meeting a friend, Muni must shake hands with himself- not the friend. “Chinese do that because it's more sanitary,"” said the general. Every action is bound by rigorous Chinese etiquette. Walter Connolly, as Muni's uncle, learned this when he wished him a Happy New Year in a scene. He bowed politely.

“M'hi Gum Jo!” The older man couldn't bow to the younger. The “Patterns of Filial Piety” specify that the younger man must bow.

Other rules require children to address parents with honorable prefixes. Also an 8-year-old boy must be sedate, and set an example of dignity for a brother only two years his junior.

Even Lo, the water buffalo, came in for technical advice, A Chinese person wouldn't call the animal by his name, Tu said. He must be addressed as “friend.” – By Alexander Kahn, 1936

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