I’ve been to more than 40 countries around the world
Every time I go to a place
I’d go and see
How the Chinese live
I’ve been taking pictures for 53 years
What I’d like to mention
Is something that modern people are not familiar with
But still happening
Or is dying
I usually take pictures of immigrants
The older generation
They came single to make a living
One thing they must have in their home is a chopping board
A kitchen knife
This is a typical overseas Chinese
I pay attention to those details
Rice cookers, meals
Fridges, electric stoves
They are all part of being poor
A couple having dinner in a small room
Sitting in front of a bed
The largest number of overseas Chinese in the world are from Taishan
In modern Chinese society
The word “Tangren” is seldom used
Unless they are from Taishan, Guangdong
Where can I find Tangren food around here?
Tangren food? There is no Tangren at all
Cuba is a special place
I didn’t know there was China town in Cuba
Where you can speak Taishan dialect and everyone understands you
Later I met a white woman
Is this your name?
Caridad Amaran
Her biological father died
When she was very young
He mother took her to China town to beg for food
Fang Biao took them back home from the streets
She speaks very good Taishan dialect
She sings Cantonese opera
And she knows stories in Cantonese opera
Like “Bai She Zhuan”, “Hu Bu Gui Zhi Wei Qi”
What’s on her daily menu?
She’d say, Stir-fried ribs with fermented black beans and bitter melon
Dang Gui soup, Bei Qi Dang Shen chicken soup
These are all Taishan dishes
“He (foster father) taught me this song when I was eight”
She sometimes scalds like a Cantonese woman
Hands on her hips
Fierce
One time I went to a town in eastern Cuba
A hostel owner came to me and asked
Are you Chinese?
I said yes
He pulled out his wallet
And showed me a picture of a Chinese man
Crying as he talked
He told me the man on the picture was his (foster) father
His closest man
“My birth father didn’t care for me”
“My mother married this Chinese man”
This generation misses their parents 62 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:40,400 They’d cry talking about them
Eyes get red
I never felt this way before
Not even in China
Though they don’t speak Chinese
They are mixed-blood
But they have Chinese heritage
And they are proud of their Chinese heritage
The picture (of their ancestors)
Must be held near their heart
And I kept this tradition throughout my shooting
No one knows the fear that an overseas Chinese face
Than I do
I come from this social stratum
My family had a grocery store when I was little
When I was 19 I went to a school in Canada
But actually I worked illicitly in a restaurant
That is the place
Where I picked up Taishan dialect
Then I started talking to overseas Chinese
The older generation
Most of them were poor
Hiding in ship’s hold across the ocean
Jumping off the ship and swimming into a new country as illegal immigrants
Working very hard as farmers, miners
Making a living with their washing boards and cutting boards
To bring bread back to their family
And they might have family back in China
That means they had to provide for two families
Finally they retired
Their retirement life was playing mahjong
Now there is Internet
The life of overseas Chinese changed a lot
Especially after 1990
The economy of China took off
Why don’t I focus on the well-off Chinese
The respected ones?
Because you can see just about every aspect of their life
On the Internet
My heart is with the older generation
The earlier overseas Chinese
On many islands on the South Pacific
Including Tahiti
Lives Hakka people
I want to find a partner
If possible
I’d do an overseas Hakka series
I am seventy years old
How much time I’m left with?