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Clip description
Anna Yen says in a voice-over, ‘Once upon a time, long ago, in a land far, far away’. The story she tells is about Yen’s grandmother’s region becoming famous for silk growing. There are extreme close-ups of silk passing through the eyes of needles and then layers of bolts of hanging colourful silk, as Yen in an old-fashioned garment moves fluidly among the silk. She speaks about the women in the silk factories becoming marriage resisters.
Curator’s notes
At the start of the film, Yen asks the question, ‘Why do we need stories? Is it so we can understand our own lives better?’ At several points throughout the film, she narrates, ‘Once upon a time, long ago, in a land far, far away’, a phrase familiar for signifying a fairytale, a fable, an allegory. Yen uses it also to indicate a different direction or ‘chapter’ in the film.
This chapter is about the marriage resisters, women who worked together in the silk factories and lived away from their families. They bonded together in sisterhoods and did not want to marry. Many of the women who were forced to marry and stay with their husbands, committed suicide. This foreshadows the story of Yen’s own mother, who was a 'modern woman’ who had come to Australia to be a student and not marry.
