Chinese Restaurants
Chinese Restaurants tells the story of the Chinese Diaspora through its most recognizable and enduring icon – the family-run Chinese restaurant. In this thirteen-part series, Canadian filmmaker Cheuk Kwan takes us on a tour of restaurants around the world, bringing us into the lives of extraordinary families as they share moving stories of struggle, courage, displacement and belonging, and what it means to be “Chinese” today.
Visit remarkable families in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, India, Israel, Madagascar, Mauritius, Norway, Peru, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turkey. Meet the many faces of the Chinese Diaspora as they celebrate their unique identities, forged by political and economic forces, their ancestors’ legacies and the vibrant cultures of their chosen homes.
ARGENTINA
In this episode, we meet 77-year old Foo-Ching Chiang who came to Buenos Aires in the 1960's and became the "Spring Roll King" of Argentina. His Casa China is a restaurant and cultural center, bridging Argentinean and Chinese cultures. Chiang's fervent ideal of internationalism is tempered by his own solitude. While his family lives elsewhere in this planet, he lives his remaining years amidst the melancholy music of the seductive tango.
BRAZIL (South)
In this episode, we meet Lee Ho Shau and his future wife Wong Yim Sheung who swam from China to Macau, for freedom, during China's Cultural Revolution in the 1960's. They made their new life in Sao Paolo dedicated to perfecting the fine art of Chinese cuisine. On the eve of the World Cup final, their son, Luis, recounts his passion for soccer and what it means to grow up Chinese-Brazilian. As Brazil won its championship, the streets of Rio de Janeiro exploded as Luis celebrated with tens of thousands of fans.
CANADA
This episode takes us to Saskatchewan, Canada. Chinese workers came to Canada in the 19th century to build the trans-continental railroad, but by 1923, the country had kept Chinese immigrant workers out, as their services were no longer required. Against these odds, Jim Kook came to the Prairie town of Outlook, Saskatchewan, as a "paper son" using a dead Canadian's identity. The gregarious "Noisy" Jim soon became the most popular man about town and ran his New Outlook Cafe for forty years until his recent death.
CUBA
In Havana's Chinatown, the Lung Kong is a charitable clan association run by Alejandro Chiu. The association also runs a home for Chinese elderly and supports itself by operating a Chinese restaurant on the side. Back in Barrio Chino, we go beyond the "Chinese Fantasy" created by the Cuban government to discover the legacy of a community that dates back to 1847 and has now become truly Cuban.
INDIA (West)
In this episode, India West, we meet the brothers Nini and Baba Ling who grew up in a Chinese-Indian family. While Nini inherits his father's Bombay restaurant, Ling's Pavilion, his brother branches out into Delhi, opening the Imperial Garden. Both establishments enjoy success by strictly using the freshest ingredients in their cooking. As Nini contemplates his retirement, Baba is forging ahead with the ambitious construction of Nanking, the re-incarnated name of a landmark restaurant his father established in 1947, the year India gained independence.
MADAGASCAR
In this episode we visit Restaurant Le Jade in Tamatave, the port city with a large Chinese population dating back to the 15th cnetury. More traces of Chinese settlements are revealed as the filmmaker visits the oldest Chinese immigrant on the fourth largest island of the world.
MAURITIUS
Here In the middle of the Indian Ocean sits Chez Manuel, a restaurant run by Manuel's wife Colette. In Colette we discover an innovative self-taught chef who serves up inventive new dishes combining Hakka Chinese, Creole, and Indian flavors. Colette and Manuel, together with other members of the Hakka Chinese community, give us insights into the Hakka Chinese and their conservative traditions and values.
NORWAY
In this episode we travel to Tromso, Norway, the land of the midnight sun where Michael Wong and his wife Ting have opened one of the very few Chinese restaurants inside the Arctic Circle, the Lille Buddha. As the owner couple promotes their Hong Kong-style efficiency on the Norwegian waitresses, the Chinese kitchen staff openly discusses their lives as Chinese restaurant workers in Europe - how they first entered Europe illegally and the loneliness away from home.
PERU
Lima-born Luis Yong is a medical doctor who took over a rundown restaurant, San Joy Lao, in the city's Chinatown. The charming and outgoing doctor hosts Chinese cooking shows on TV and promotes the marriage of holistic Chinese medicine and health-conscious Chinese cuisine. As Peru celebrated the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Chinese coolies, and as subsequent generations of Chinese focus on the importance of education, Yong is becoming a legend in Lima's rejuvenated Barrio Chino.
SOUTH AFRICA
In this episode we journey to The Golden Dragon, started in 1947 by community activist Lam Al Ying. Golden Dragon is Cape Town's first Chinese restaurant. Ying's widow and his daughter now continue his legacy. Through the mother-daughter team we glimpse a country struggling to address the bitter injustices and betrayals of its apartheid past. Strangers in a strange land who kept to themselves, the divided Chinese community is only now shaking off its confusion to claim its place in the new South Africa.
TRINIDAD and TOBAGO
In this episode we travel to the hills of San Fernando in Trinidad to the Great Wall, the most famous Chinese restaurant on the island. This is a rags-to-riches story of owner Maurice Soong, whose passion for quality and service has won him widespread affection and respect. As they dance to the infectious calypso music of the island's annual Carnival, members of the Soong family reflect on how their assimilation and personal choices will affect Maurice's beloved restaurant.
TURKEY
Istanbul's China Restaurant is the oldest Chinese restaurant in Turkey. Its founder, Wang Zhengshan, fled China with his family in a dramatic trek over the Himalayas in 1949 when Chinese Communists took power, thereby earning a place in the urban legend as the man who "walked from China." Wang died in 1961, leaving his widow Fatima and eight children struggling to survive. Now, as Fatima contemplates retiring, the restaurant faces an uncertain future.
ISRAEL
Haifa's Yan Yan Restaurant was established by Chinese-Vietnamese refugee Kien Wong. Wong is a devout Christian who evangelizes Chinese migrant workers and expatriates. His children, meanwhile, variously negotiate their complex identities as Christian Chinese Israelis in a Jewish homeland surrounded by Arab states, rocked by Palestinian uprisings and steeped in religious orthodoxy – in a country where religion and ethnic identity are powerful sources of tension as well as solace.
LEARN MORE:
To learn more about the series, visit www.ChineseRestaurants.tv.
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