[2] There were eight Chinese male passengers traveling in third-class aboard Titanic, all of whom were professional mariners heading to New York to work on a fruit steamer.

[6][7] Chinese migration to countries such as the United States and Canada in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries were defined by anti-Chinese immigration laws, which may explain why the survivors stories were forgotten.

"[1] According to Professor Lily Cho, who participated in the production of The Six, the film uses popular interest in Titanic to highlight the "long history of anti-Asian racism."

The idea of making a film about Titanic's Chinese passengers was originally suggested to Jones by Steven Schwankert, a marine historian who had collaborated with him on the 2013 documentary The Poseidon Project.

[10] According to Schwankert, Jones was initially skeptical about covering a subject as well-documented as Titanic, but the question of how so little was known about the six Chinese, compared to the other survivors, stuck with them.

[11] Historian Renqiu Yu, who participated in the production of The Six, notes that the pervasive Anglo-Saxon perspective of Titanic has allowed little room for survivors such as the Chinese.

[15] The filmmaker's initial focus on Titanic shifted as their research uncovered more about what happened to the survivors in the years after 1912, with Jones noting the effect that their experiences still had on their families and communities over a century later.

Lovia Gyarkye, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, called it, 'a clear-eyed examination of global racism and various nations’ anti-Chinese immigration policies,' that presents a 'penetrating argument for looking beyond written history for narrative reconstruction.