Tough

Filmmaker Jennifer Zheng was brought up in Belfast with English as her first language. Here she embarks on an animation-supported conversation with her mum about just how they both arrived at their current situation. The elder lady recalls how, at four years old, the cultural revolution in China saw her parents sent to re-education camps and them brought up in a Communist regime about which she has fairly fond memories. Moving to the UK opened up quite a few gaps between mother and daughter, not least linguistically as Jennifer speaks very little Chinese and her parent not much more English. Using a slew of fairly identifiable, colourful and often quite striking artwork, we follow their journey from Chairman Mao to British suburbia whilst the continuing narration explores, exposes and tries to explain some of the misconceptions about what it means to be Chinese, British, white and how some terms that are not necessarily factually interchangeable can be perceived to be - without any hint of malice or ignorance. It’s also quite a touching chat as you sense a certain sadness from both suggesting that along the way both have lost something of the traditions that one had and one might like to have better understood.