EDITION: U.S.

October 16, 2011

Kevin McKiernan
Foreign Correspondent, Author, Documentary Filmmaker
The "Two" Martin Luther Kings
Posted: 10/14/11 12:00 PM ET
The controversy over the paraphrasing oI Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "drum major Ior peace"
quotation, which is etched in stone on his new memorial in Washington, D.C., raises the larger
issue oI how the iconic civil rights leader will be remembered in history. For me, it recalls the
Iirestorm oI criticism my daughter Caitrin Iaced in China a Iew years ago, Iollowing the U.S.
invasions oI Iraq and AIghanistan, when she translated and staged an American play about Dr.
King in Beijing. She had hoped the play would soIten Chinese criticism oI U.S. Ioreign policy by
showing a "positive side oI America," and she was pleased when the Ministry oI Culture
approved the script. As an American producer abroad, she Ielt a "responsibility to King's
legacy." She was especially determined to highlight his opposition to war, which she Ielt had
been ignored or watered down in recent years.
Instead, the project became embroiled in discussions about appearances: clothing Iavored by the
slain civil rights leader, whether the Chinese actor playing him should grow a moustache and
whether it was realistic Ior the actor playing JFK to smoke a cigar on stage. Some diIIerences in
interpretation were cultural, Ior example, whether it was appropriate Ior Chinese actors to wear
black Iace to represent King, Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X and other AIrican-Americans.
While black Iace is considered unacceptable on a U.S. stage, Chinese productions had employed
it in the past as a sign oI respect (the makeup was not used in this play).
A more serious dispute took place when the Chinese director wanted the play to suggest that
someone in Dr. King's inner circle might have been responsible Ior his assassination, a theory my
daughter argued had no historical basis. The director insisted the issue was one oI artistic license.
"Theater is art," he said, "not history."

Initially, it was my daughter's hope -- perhaps a naive one -- that Dr. King's belieI in non-violent
change would inspire China's 56 minorities, much the way Ghandi's philosophy had done in the
struggle Ior equality in the deep south in the 1960s. But the director said the play's message was
an American one and he explicitly rejected such comparisons. Intent on presenting a U.S. period
piece, he Iestooned the Chinese stage with the Stars and Stripes and placards in English that said
"Jim Crow Must Go." In one scene a black and white a television set showed an image oI
Marilyn Monroe.
In the end she came to believe there are "two Martin Luther Kings" in U.S. and Chinese
understanding. The best known is the I-Have-a-Dream King, the young clergyman who gave the
Iamous speech on the National Mall in 1963. He is the one the world remembers as the champion
oI a colorblind society. She calls him "King #1." But today many people, according to Caitrin,
ignore the "other" King, the prophet oI non-violence whose thinking by the time oI his death had
evolved -- to world peace. He had become convinced that war robs the poor, that Iighting in
Vietnam and pursuing social justice at home were incompatible goals. That's "King #2," she
maintains; schoolkids and the public should remember this viewpoint, too:
"I could never again raise my voice against the violence oI the oppressed in the ghettos," Dr.
King declared in 1967, " without having Iirst spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor oI violence
in the world today -- my own government."
It is unlikely that such words will ever be carved on a monument on the National Mall. Back
then they earned King the condemnation oI editorial writers, members oI Congress and many oI
his own allies in the civil rights movement.
The negative reaction was not unlike what my daughter Caitrin encountered in China. When she
asked Chinese people whether King #2's message oI non-violence could help reIorm the Chinese
government, a common response Irom Chinese people was that their government didn't need
reIorming. One man turned the question around. Pointing critically to the U.S. invasion oI Iraq,
he suggested that Dr. King's message oI peace "ought to be brought back to the USA."
China is not the USA. And 1967 is not 2011. But time and place do color our take on history,
and to some degree the 30-Ioot Martin Luther King monument in Washington, D.C. is a
Rorschach test: my daughter Caitrin and the rest oI us see in its colossal image what we bring to
it. President Obama, who is scheduled to deliver the dedication speech on October 16th, will
remember Dr. King, a Iellow Nobel laureate, in his own way. Caitrin will be there in the
audience, and I'll be interested in getting her take.

Kevin McKiernan is a long time foreign correspondent and documentary filmmaker. His film
Bringing King to China opens at the DOC NYC Film Festival on November 3rd.

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