The female lead actress Li Hua Li nicknamed "Evergreen Tree" was a major star of the Chinese film industry during the 1950s and 1960s, mostly working in Hong Kong. During an interview in the 1990s, she admitted that she refused to do the kissing scene that was highly publicized in the press, but not because she had the right in her contract. She said she couldn't stand the strong onion smell of the lead actor's breath.
Frank Borzage and Victor Mature set up a production company but this was the only movie they made together.
China Doll (1958) started shooting started August 15, 1957. Principal photography took place in 1958 with location shooting at Saugus, California, in and around the Kunming Airfield. To faithfully recreate the Kunming Airfield, documentary footage from World War II was incorporated.
China Doll (1958) (a.k.a. Time Is a Memory) is a 1958 romantic drama film set in the China Burma India Theater of World War II and starring Victor Mature and Li Hua Li, in her first and only credited American screen role. It represented a return to films for director Frank Borzage who had taken a 10-year hiatus before tackling this poignant, yet "offbeat" film.