Review: Clan of the Painted Lady

Chiu at the age of three with her Indian nanny in Kolkata, India

Hakka culture is not widely known, as there isn't much academic study of it, and not many Hakka families preserve much of the language. They were nomadic people that are believed to have originated from the north of China and migrated south due to famines and war. From Hong Kong they spread out across the globe to places like Mauritius, India, Canada and the United States.

Vancouver filmmaker Jennifer Chiu is Hakka, originally from Kolkata, India where her parents were born. Even though they got married in Vancouver, they moved back to India where Chiu was born, though when she was very young, she moved back to Vancouver with her mother and siblings; her father stayed behind. He would come back once a year, and then there were years where he didn't come back at all.

The butterfly motif is used through the film

Chiu wanted to find out where she was from and in 2009 went back to Kolkata with her parents. It sparked her interest in finding out more about her Hakka identity, and about four years ago embarked on this very personal documentary called Clan of the Painted Lady. It made its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

The Painted Lady refers to the butterfly, also known as Vanessa cardui, which is the most widespread of all the butterflies, and found on every continent except Antarctica and South America. This butterfly is the motif that is woven throughout the film, from caterpillar to larvae to chrysalis and then butterfly.

Meanwhile Chiu examines what it means to be Hakka, and what others are doing to preserve this culture. She asks her parents, and visits her uncle and other Hakka families in Toronto, goes back to Kolkata and Tangra, where her family had a tannery, and Mui Yan in Guangdong.

For the most part, many of the younger generation don't seem interested or as passionate about learning more about their Hakka culture, much to the disappointment of their parents. In one scene, a son, helping his mother make wontons, says the preservation exercise is focused on the past, whereas he'd rather look forward; he doesn't seem to think Hakka is very useful.

Chiu shot in Canada, India and China

Meanwhile two sisters take over their parents' Chindian (Chinese-Indian) restaurant after their chef father had a stroke in Toronto. Their mother tearfully recounts how she would take the street car to the restaurant at lunchtime and help out for 45 minutes before returning to her work in time, and look after five children. One of the daughters, also tearful, admires her mother's work ethic and wants to be like her.

Chiu gives good insight into the Chinese-Indian community. There's a scene of three elderly Indian women who recall looking after Chiu's family. She told the audience afterwards that three generations of these Indian women's families and looked after her family's three generations.

Her family did well with a tannery business in Tangra, as Hindus believed cows were sacred, so it was only non-Hindus who could handle leather. Tanning leather means using a lot of chemicals to treat the leather, and the waterways near the factories were polluted.

The Indian government cracked down on these factories, ordering them to either shut down or move into a designated industrial area. At this point her father retired and moved back to Vancouver for good. The factory space is still there, but is deserted, while relatives who have stayed behind believe it's better to continue in India than start from scratch in Canada.

Chiu learned more about her family

There's an interesting scene of a Chinese man teaching Indians how to do Chinese lion dancing. He says people ask him why he teaches Indians, but he says they are the only ones interested -- no young Chinese people are keen on learning. He feels lion dancing will always be Chinese, and believes it's more important to pass it down to someone than to let the art form die off.

After the film Chiu asked how many people in the audience were of Hakka heritage and she was thrilled to see so many hands go up. When asked how she felt about her identity after making the film, Chiu said it was not the end as she had hoped, but really the beginning.

What was also thought-provoking was, why are they called Hakka (guest family) by other people -- what did they call themselves? And where were they originally from? Chiu believes that what ties Hakka people together is their stories of migration, how they got to where they are now.

Clan of the Painted Lady

Directed by Jennifer Chiu

101 minutes