A 21st century poetic coming-of-age journey across time and places, A Letter to Chinatown follows Daniel as he navigates identity, family, and belonging in the British-Chinese diaspora.
A documentary film project recorded over 10 years in Manchester, Oxford, London and Hong Kong. A 21st century coming of age story, we meet Daniel He a decade on from ‘British Born Chinese’ (2015), no longer living in his family takeaway, but preparing to graduate from Oxford University. Within a matter of weeks, life rapidly propels him from train to train, city to city and headlong into adulthood. ‘A Letter to Chinatown’ is a poetic, philosophical and emotional journey across time and place, in search of self and belonging.
British Born Chinese (2015) is about Daniel and Kevin, two school boys born to Chinese migrants and living in Manchester. It engages their everyday struggles of reconciling their Britishness with Chineseness through their experiences at school, as volunteers at a community centre, and at home.
The film uses an ethical approach driven by dialogue and close involvement with the film’s subjects to understand the vulnerabilities through which the boys navigate their place in the British society.
It not only uncovers new dimensions to understanding the ways the subjects experience their lifeworlds, but also seeks to reduce the epistemic violence of dominant visual forms of representation.
Director: Andy Lawrence
Lead Researcher: Andy Lawrence
Producers: Elena Barabantseva/Andy Lawrence
Camera: Andy Lawrence/Ben Cheetham/Tom Turner/Daniel He/Kevin But
Sound: Kieran Hanson/Ben Cheetham/Tom Turner/Daniel He/Kevin But
Editing: Kieran Hanson
A link to the Vimeo OD version on the F4F website:
You can buy a full version of “British Born Chinese” here: go to article
BARABANTSEVA, ELENA AND LAWRENCE, ANDY, “ENCOUNTERING VULNERABILITIES THROUGH ‘FILMMAKING FOR FIELDWORK,’”
MILLENNIUM: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES 43(3): go to article