Dumplings
(AN EXPERIENTIAL FILM)
A pair of hands wraps wire inside a dumpling.
This is one of my imagined metaphors for maternal love — something so heavy and profound, I sometimes don’t know how to hold it. Growing up in a Christian household only intensified that weight.
This experimental film explores the burden and complexity of maternal affection within Chinese Christian families, through the symbolic lens of fortune cookies. It draws a contrast between Christianity — introduced by Syrian missionaries and later used as a colonial tool by the British — and fortune cookies, a cultural invention carried to the U.S. by East Asian immigrants.
Through the tension between Western and Chinese influences, the film opens a space to question, reflect on, and reframe the experience of motherly love.
Through the tension between Western and Chinese influences, the film opens a space to question, reflect on, and reframe the experience of motherly love.
Made in 2023