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Clip description
Anna Yen in voice-over explains that she went to Hong Kong to ask grandmother about her own mother but grandmother claimed to be too busy when her children were growing up. Yen asks her to tell stories about herself instead. The grandmother’s life was difficult. Her parents lost everything in a big flood. There are stylised re-enactments of a child being taken away and historical footage of China as Yen tells us of her grandmother being sold and working in opium dens. Yen plays her grandmother searching for something with chopsticks in a river. She finds a ring, places it on her finger, and continues to search.
Curator’s notes
There are many visual and aural ideas used in this clip. Yen tells her grandmother’s story in Cantonese and plays her grandmother, walking – bent over in a river – towards the camera. Blue is a visual motif, with the water and blue smoke. Between Yen and the camera there is a slack rope. The rope reappears several times in the film, as does the ring she finds at the end of this clip. Both have significant meaning. The stylised re-creations used here are haunting and the voices, effects and music on the soundtrack adds to their poignancy.
