Far East Deep South - Chronicles Chinese in Mississippi

In this film, we follow the Chiu family as they travel from their home in California to a small Mississippi town where the grandfather says their ancestors are buried. They discover not only the graves but also the ancestors’ surprising connections with the community of white and black residents who shopped at their store. The film, released in 2020, is 1 hour and 19 minutes. Directed and screenplay by Larissa  Lam. The trailer is available on YouTube:

FAR EAST DEEP SOUTH OFFICIAL TRAILER - YouTube

     The film is available to PBS members with PBS Passport (America Reframed series: season 9,-episode 8), and on Kanopy, a streaming service free through many public libraries. PBS Passport is available to anyone who donates $60 or more in a year to PBS TV stations, and offers access to many productions. To check for Kanopy availability, search the internet for Kanopy + the name of your public library, or contact your library. Kanopy offers many films, including Chinese films.

Chinese Families In the Delta - Several short videos online, including news accounts, tell the stories of Chinese people who settled and stayed in the Mississippi Delta. Although they often were not socially accepted in their communities, their grocery, laundry, and restaurant businesses helped to build the economy of poor areas. And they provided goods and services to Black people as well as white--at a time and place this was not the norm. Click the link below  for Untold Story of America’s Southern Chinese for the stories of those who raised their families in the Delta. -9 min: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NMrqGHr5zE&ab_channel=AJ%2B

Honor and Duty: The Mississippi Delta Chinese is a 3-part, 80-minute documentary film produced by the Heritage Series, LLC, a company that specializes in educational programs about U.S. ethnic minorities and their contribution to U.S. history. The film is divided into three time periods: 1870 to 1940, 1941 to1945, and 1946 to the present. The film’s trailer and more information on the film is available at https://www.heritageseries.us/honor-and-duty.

     E. Samantha Cheng, an experienced journalist and documentarian, is the co-producer of the film and Co-Founder of Heritage Series, LLC.

John Jung - For a deeper dive into early settlements of Chinese in the southern U.S. (1870s–1950s), search the internet for Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton and other books and articles by the late John Jung, who was a member of USCPFA’s Long Beach chapter. For a broader view, search for History of Chinese Americans.

From the Winter & Spring 2021 Issues

Musing about Past and Present on the Silk Road, from Sylvia Krebs.  Read it here.

Chinese TV Drama Looks at Women Turning 30 by Mike Revzin.  Read it here. 

Can U.S., China Cooperate on Climate Change?  by Mike Revzin.  Read it here. 

50 Years Ago: Ping-Pong Diplomacy Changed the World  by Mike Revzin.  Read it here.

One of our members, Carolyn Bloomer has written an article on streaming Chinese movies.

Here are the reading guides for several of her suggestions arranged in order of date of production.

Angels Wear White (2017), Human Flow (2017), China Heavyweight (2012), The Equation of Love and Death (2008), Little Red Flowers (2005),  Waiting Alone (2004), Big Shot’s Funeral (2001), King of Masks (1996), Rickshaw Boy (1982), Four Classic Chinese Animations (1963-1982).

 You Can Download the Winter 2021 Issue.

 You Can Download the Spring 2021 Issue.

 You Can Download the Summer 2021 Issue.

 You Can Download the Fall 2021 Issue.