which is extremely easy to do.
In order to appreciate this movie, one must learn some not-so-favorite part of the traditional Chinese culture that most Chinese would rather not let others know.
The traditional Confucian teaching discriminate against non-Chinese and consider them as barbarians, so when three centuries ago in China, the corrupted Ming dynasty was overthrown by the ethnic Manchu minority and replaced by the Qing dynasty established by the Manchu, most Chinese found it unacceptable. In an attempt to overthrow the Qing dynasty and restore the Ming dynasty, Chinese gangsters were accepted by the public because even the Chinese gangsters were better than barbarian rulers, according to the traditional Confucian teachings.
The secret societies of gangsters were finally succeeding riding of the Qing dynasty by teaming up with Dr. Zhong-Shan Sun and his nationalist party, but Dr. Sun's revolution is consequently tarnished as a result, and the gangsters ended up controlling the unions, such as that of longshoremen and teamsters. Since Dr. Sun is revered by both the nationalist and communist alike, neither party would want to mention this dark chapter in the Chinese history, and this cause of why unions were dominated by gangsters and criminals were carefully and willfully avoided.
The exploitation of workers was severe because those gangsters were criminals to begin with, and workers' struggle for fair treatment did not succeed until the establishment of the People's Republic when those gangsters were finally arrested. This movie described the workers' struggle for fair treatment against the gangster dominated union bosses is an honest reflection of the part of workers' struggle in the Chinese history that most Chinese would rather avoid to talk about, though what caused this at first place was not mentioned.
