Wagner, mother of five children, speaks both German, her native language, and mandarin with a local accent. Now 86-year-old, she has been living in China for over half a century. While her fellow-villagers have long taken her as one of them, no outsider who sees her in this ordinary southern Chinese township can hide his or her curiosity upon her. This explains why the shooting of The Smile of Fanny, a feature film based on the real life of Wagner and her husband Du Chengrong -- their romance and the unbelievable ups and downs -- has drawn wide attention in both China and Austria.

The Romance Between an Austrian Girl and a Chinese Policeman

In 1931, Du Chengrong, a young police officer from Hucang of China's Zhejiang Province, was sent by the provincial Civil Affairs Department to the police school in Vienna, Austria, to take a training course of two years.

After class and during the breaks of their intensive studies, Du and his classmates often went skating in the school's skating rink. As a novice at skating, Du tumbled frequently on the ice. Having no heart to stand by, Wagner, a skillful skater, offered to take Du through the basics -- starting with how to keep the balance and change steps. After learning this frank and open-minded girl was the eldest daughter of Conrad Wagner, his instructor at the police school, Du choked with nervousness. However, kindness and friendliness emitted from the blonde girl's eyes helped Du overcome his shyness immediately. Since then, the pair of young people was frequently seen hand in hand, either skating on the rink or strolling along the street.

From Du, for the first time Wagner heard of Hangzhou, a "paradise on the earth," and the West Lake, a "jewel fallen from heaven" as legend has it. Wagner was amazed by the young foreigner, for both his elegant and smart carriage and his fantastic stories. While deeply fascinated by the picturesque scenery and enchanting social customs of that remote oriental country, Wagner led Du to revel in Tales from the Vienna Woods by Johann Strauss Jr. As time went by, they fell in love with each other without their being aware of it.

Harsh Turmoil of War

By the end of 1933, after completing his term of studies, Du left Austria for China. Confronted with her father's fierce opposition, her mother's dissuasion, and her classmates' suspicion, Wagner replied with quiet bluntness: "This is my great love and I feel very happy." Conrad Wagner could not deny the fact that the young Chinese was a talented student and a wonderful police who was praised highly by his teachers. One of them said to Conrad Wagner: "If Du wants either of my two daughters, I will certainly agree since he is such an excellent police." Finally, the stubborn old man yielded and nodded his agreement on his daughter's marriage.

In December 1934, Wagner boarded the steamer Rose that was about to bring her to the remote and unfamiliar China. While bidding her parents farewell, she promised to return home to see them within five years.

On February 24 of the next year, the red-carpet wedding was held at Xinxin Hotel in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang Province. On the wedding day, Wagner got a Chinese name Hua Zhiping, adopted from a Chinese idiom meaning "meeting by chance but becoming lifelong bosom friends."

From 1935 to 1949, Du and Wagner experienced turmoil caused by war and frequent change of jobs, leading a vagrant life. In a letter to her mother Wagner described the ongoing War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression: "Day and night, it seems that we have to run for shelter forever during endless air raids. Our life has been finished. The dead and wounded are everywhere. My health is worsening day by day. Our house was razed by a bomb falling on the next-door building…"

Finally, Japan surrendered in 1945 and World War II ended. Du was transferred to Hangzhou to act as headmaster at the city's police school. The postal service between China and Austria, once suspended, was also back to normal. Letters from home in Austria said that Wagner's two brothers returned safe and sound from the battleground, but her father already passed away. Ten years had passed since Wagner gave her parents her promise at the dock to be back in five years. Now she had become a mother of three children born in the war-ridden years.

Their peaceful life in Hangzhou did not last long. Very soon war clouds hung over China once again. In 1946 the peace talks between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party broke down and the civil war burst out. As a result, the country's economy turned from bad to worse. When their fourth child came into the world in July 1949, Du was no longer able to feed his big family in the city. In deference to his father's wish, six months before the liberation of Hangzhou, Du moved his family to Hucang, his home village.

Rural Life in the Years of Upheaval

Wagner became an ordinary peasant woman thereafter and she had to learn the farm work that she had never touched before. To improve the children's nourishment, she raised pigs, chickens and rabbits at home. She even learned how to make cloth shoes and produced a dozen pairs of them each year for her family. In frigid winter evenings, sitting in a room without a fire, Wagner told the children Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales while sewing by a dim oil lamp. Her unruffled voice and her motherly love made them temporarily forget the harsh reality.

Wagner and her family lived a rural life rich in colorful local customs and cultural tradition. The varied galas, including the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Moon Festival and numberless other folk activities such as strolling around a fair, play-acting, dragon-boat racing, the performance of lion dance and dragon lantern dance, and so on, all fascinated her and drew her close to the villagers. They enriched Wagner's life at the same time. Besides Chinese festivals, Wagner also led the children to celebrate Christmas Day at home in accordance with the European convention; during this festival season, they received Christmas gifts from Vienna regularly.

The small and remote Hucang village did not escape from the disastrous "cultural revolution" taking place in 1966, which swept across the country and lasted for 10 years. Wagner found her family in a desperate predicament. She was forbidden to speak German at her own home. All her carefully collected photos, documents as well as books and newspapers in German were confiscated. Du was labeled a "counterrevolutionary" and was either denounced at public meetings or paraded with humiliation through the streets every now and then. Once when Wagner checked bruises on his body, Du said: "Occasionally I thought of committing suicide. But I cannot bear the idea to abandon you and the children. No matter how they treat me, I shall never act the fool. I give you my words here." If there had been no deep love between them, it is hard to imagine how they would have survived the catastrophe.

In 1974 Wagner turned her back on the opportunity to return to Austria. In the letter to her brother Wagner explained: "I don't like the idea to go back alone, leaving my family behind in China." In fact, as far back as in the 1950s the Austrian government allowed her to return with two of her children, which was objected by the Chinese government. "If so, I shall not go," Wagner said. In her opinion, the family is inseparable, especially when her husband was having a hard time.

In a letter to her brother in February 1973 Wagner described her life in the village: "Entertainment does not exist here. People have no idea about ballet, skiing or skating…I kept three pigs, so I can get 10 jin (around 11 pounds) of feed every month for each pig. Besides, I have 15 chickens which I locked inside the house for a whole month to save their lives from the chicken pest epidemic in my village."

"My Home Is in China"

Life was going forward. Following a thaw in the relations between China and the United States, Austria was listed among the first group of Western countries which established diplomatic relations with China in the 1970s. Du was rehabilitated in 1979. Once again, after 44 years, Wagner heard the familiar Blue Danube from the radio. Another good news was that Du Qianghua, their eldest son who graduated from a university in Beijing, got his promotion and became an engineer in Kunming, Yunnan Province. The old couple enjoyed their belated happy life. However, they went through another severe trial in 1989 when Du was diagnosed to have cancer.

Du solaced the children and told them: "I am quite satisfied with my life. First of all, I got your mother's true love; second, I am thankful to all of you who have done your filial duties. So I can die without remorse." Du said to his beloved Wagner, "Don't feel grieved. Believe me, I can stand up again and accompany you to visit the Great Wall and to revisit Hangzhou."

Wagner's story moved a lot of Chinese and was made known to Austrians through the Austria-China Friendship Association. In 1990, accompanied by her eldest daughter Du Lihua, Wagner visited her native country that she had left for 56 years at the invitation of the mayor of Vienna. In 1995, as the heroine of the TV series Marries with China which was jointly screened by Austria and China's Zhejiang Province, Wagner returned to Vienna, her hometown, a second time. Meanwhile, her household wares, including three wooden clubs used to beat clothes in washing, a steelyard, a dragon lantern, shoes and clothing, were displayed on the Chinese Folk Customs Exhibition in Vienna. Furthermore, Dr. Thomas Klestil, federal president of the Republic of Austria, received her in the presidential palace. Staying in the room that once was the Queen's bedroom, Wagner said with a little unease: "I didn't do anything special; I just tried my best to keep a family from frequent disasters."

When she was asked why she didn't stay in Vienna, Wagner replied: "My home is in China. The children are waiting for me and I must go back."

The Smile of Fanny is jointly shot by Chinese and Austrian studios. Vice Mayor of Vienna Sepp Rieder commented: "In a remote country with very different culture and life, Wagner managed to integrate herself with the local people. Her story not only showcases the friendship between the Austrian and Chinese peoples, but helps the public rediscover the values of the conjugal love and family harmony."

(Edited and translated by Shao Da for china.org.cn from sources including 光明日报 [Guangming Daily] and 北京青年报 [Beijing Youth Daily], August 7, 2002)