You are invited to attend:

 

The Hakka Connection in Film: Mauritius and Calcutta

 

           

 SCREENING AND Q&A WITH THE FILMMAKERS: The Hakka Connection in Film – Mauritius and Calcutta  
Free Admission, Registration Required

The Taiwanese Hakka Association introduces two dynamic episodes on Mauritius and Calcutta of a ground-breaking Chinese Restaurant series  by the award-winning filmmaking duo, producer/director Cheuk Kwan and cinematographer Kwoi Gin.  

Mauritius

In the middle of the Indian Ocean sits Chez Manuel, a restaurant run by the owner’s wife Colette. In Colette we discover an innovative self-taught chef who serves up inventive new dishes combining Hakka Chinese, Creole and Indian flavors. Colette and Manuel, together with other members of the Hakka Chinese community, give us insights into the Hakka Chinese and their conservative traditions and values.

India East – Calcutta

Samson, Richard, Samuel, and Stephen Yeh were born in Calcutta and suffered from the aftermath of the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict. Today, the four brothers take turns running the New Embassy Restaurant in Calcutta and Hotel Restaurant Valentino in the Himalayan hill-station of Darjeeling. As they reminisce what it was like to grow up Hakka Chinese in India, the next generation’s emigration to the West has decimated the once vibrant and prosperous community.

About the Filmmakers  



Cheuk Kwan was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan and immigrated to Canada in 1976. In 1978 the community activist founded The Asianadian, a magazine dedicated to the promotion of Asian Canadian arts, culture and politics and the following year, helped lead a nation-wide fight for equality for Chinese Canadians. In 1995 Kwan joined the Harmony Movement, a national, non-profit organization dedicated to fostering harmony and diversity in Canada through public education. Kwan studied film at New York University in 1998 before establishing his own production company, Tissa Films. His ground-breaking Chinese Restaurant film series touches the heart of the Chinese diaspora in a way no one has done before or since.


Kwoi Gin has worked as cinematographer for numerous films and documentary including These Shoes Weren’t Made for Walking (1995), When Strangers Re-Unite (1999), 5 x 90: The Wake (2005) Re:Orientations (2016). As director of photography for Chinese Restaurants (2000-2003), Kwoi traveled more than 200,000 kilometers with filmmaker Cheuk Kwan to thirteen countries to capture the definitive Chinese diaspora story.

Hosted by the Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Society  Presented by the PCHC-MoM Society and Asian Canadian Writers Workshop   

Inquiries can be directed to <pchcmom.intern@gmail.com>