Key facts about Fang Lang and Wing Sun Fong
- Wing Sun Fong was listed as Fang Lang on Titanic and was born in Taishan, Guangdong, on June 21, 1894.
- He travelled with seven other Chinese sailors on ticket 1601. They were fare-paying third class passengers, not Titanic stowaways.
- Six of the eight Chinese passengers survived the sinking.
- Fang Lang is traditionally identified as the young Asian man Lifeboat 14 found alive on floating wreckage, but specialist research says that identification is not firmly established.
- Fong later settled in the United States, became a citizen in 1956 and died in Chicago in 1986 at age 91.
A 17-year-old seaman travelling with seven Chinese colleagues
Wing Sun Fong was born in Taishan in Guangdong Province on June 21, 1894. Titanic’s records list him under the name Fang Lang. He was a seaman and was travelling with seven other Chinese sailors connected with the Donald Line vessel Annetta.
All eight men boarded Titanic at Southampton as third class passengers using one group ticket, number 1601. Later stories sometimes described the Chinese men as stowaways, but specialist passenger research shows that they held paid passage. The group was travelling toward New York in connection with maritime work and planned to join Annetta for a voyage onward to Cuba.
Six of Titanic’s eight Chinese passengers survived
Fang Lang was one of six Chinese passengers who survived Titanic. The survival rate within this small group was unusually high, but the record of exactly how each man escaped is incomplete. Their names were also rendered in different forms on manifests and newspaper lists, which complicated later research.
The surviving men did not remain in New York. After Carpathia arrived, they were transferred into the immigration and shipping system and soon continued toward the Donald Line ship Annetta. Their experience was very different from that of the famous first class survivors who were immediately surrounded by reporters and relatives.
Was Fang Lang the man rescued from floating wreckage?
One of Titanic’s best-known late rescue stories involves Lifeboat 14. Fifth Officer Harold Lowe returned toward the wreckage after the sinking, and the boat recovered a young Asian man who had survived on a floating door, board or piece of furniture. Later accounts describe him reviving and taking an oar.
That survivor has long been identified as Fang Lang, and modern retellings often state the identification as certain. Current Encyclopedia Titanica research is more cautious: Fang Lang definitely survived, but the identity of the man picked up from the wreckage is not firmly established. This site therefore treats the Lifeboat 14 connection as probable rather than proven.
His life continued through ships, Europe and the United States
After Titanic, Fong appears to have continued maritime work in the Caribbean and later in Europe. He eventually entered the United States legally as an immigrant in September 1920. He lived in the Chicago area, tried merchant work and a laundry business, and later worked as a waiter in Milwaukee.
Fong became a U.S. citizen in 1956. He married in Hong Kong the following year, returned to the United States with his wife and later had a son. After a divorce in the 1960s he returned to Chicago, where he had relatives and became part of the city’s Chinese community.
His own family learned the Titanic connection years after his death
Fong did not make Titanic a central part of his public identity in later life. Specialist research records that his son did not grow up knowing that his father had survived the disaster, although family stories mentioned an earlier shipwreck and survival on wreckage.
Wing Sun Fong died in Chicago on January 21, 1986, aged 91. Renewed research into Titanic’s Chinese passengers and the documentary The Six later brought much wider attention to his life and to the other Chinese men whose stories had largely disappeared from popular Titanic history.
Sources used for this biography
Recent specialist research is especially important here because the names of the Chinese passengers vary across records and the famous Lifeboat 14 identification remains uncertain.
- Encyclopedia Titanica: Fang Lang / Wing Sun Fong Updated specialist biography covering his identity, group ticket, rescue uncertainty, later life, citizenship and family.
- Encyclopedia Titanica: Chinese Sailors on the Titanic Research on the eight Chinese passengers, their group ticket, later records and the uncertain identity of the man found on wreckage.
- The Six documentary Documentary project tracing the six Chinese survivors and their lives after Titanic.
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Frequently asked questions
Was Fang Lang his real name?
Titanic listed him as Fang Lang. Later records identify him as Wing Sun Fong.
Was Fang Lang a stowaway on Titanic?
No. He and seven other Chinese sailors travelled as fare-paying third class passengers on a shared ticket.
Was Fang Lang rescued from a floating door or board?
He has long been identified as that survivor, but current specialist research says the identity of the man recovered by Lifeboat 14 is not firmly established.
How many Chinese passengers survived Titanic?
Six of the eight Chinese passengers survived.