Chinese-American films

The Farewell, an autobiographical film about a Chinese-American woman, has won rave reviews in the US and earned its leading actress, Awkwafina, a history-making Best Actress win at the Golden Globes. The much-lauded movie has a 98% “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In comparison, on Douban, a popular review site in China, just 60% of the audience gave it a positive review.  Some viewers applauded the film for giving non-Chinese viewers an accessible introduction to a rich, complex culture. But many comments were highly critical, with some viewers going so far as to say they found some of the scenes offensive. The unfavorable reviews, from moviegoers who have watched the film thr

As a fourth-generation Chinese-American who grew up in Hawaii, Robin Lung had always had many Asian role models around her. But as a filmmaker, writer and director, she had always felt they didn’t have enough representation in books, films and on television. In her search for a strong Chinese female character, Lung stumbled upon the late Gladys Li Ling-ai, a second-generation Chinese woman born in the early 20th century who, like her, was a Hawaiian. One thing stood out about Li. In her memoir Life is for a Long Time, she mentions that she produced a documentary called Kukan – “heroic courage under bitter suffering” – a color film shot in China in the 1930s during the second Sino-Japanese w