Lotus Flowers
2022, Film, duration 08:45 minIn this short film, I ask my mother to teach me how to fold the lotus flower napkins that we used to have on our restaurant table setting. During the folding tutorial, we talk about different connotations surrounding the lotus flower and memories of our restaurant Choong Kee (撂记).
In the film I ask her whether she has ever seen a lotus flower in real life. She answers that she has seen them in Malaysia, in the wild. She followed that wild lotus flowers should never be picked, as those who try get caught in the surrounding quicksand and drown. In this I heard a metaphor for the diasporic experience– many Asian families venture to the West in search of a better life, only to get stuck with no way back.
In the film I ask her whether she has ever seen a lotus flower in real life. She answers that she has seen them in Malaysia, in the wild. She followed that wild lotus flowers should never be picked, as those who try get caught in the surrounding quicksand and drown. In this I heard a metaphor for the diasporic experience– many Asian families venture to the West in search of a better life, only to get stuck with no way back.
Conversation:
Yin Yin Wong, Jenny Tong
Sound editing:
Aleksander Johan Andreassen
Translation:
Dorothy Cheung
Yin Yin Wong, Jenny Tong
Sound editing:
Aleksander Johan Andreassen
Translation:
Dorothy Cheung