By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) recently released the final films in its third Heritage Heroes series, which explores the stories of everyday heroes from the Asian American, Native Hawai’ian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities.
One of those films tells the stories of Jin Ai “Zhen” and Jiang “Lun,” two Chinese American women who live in the same apartment complex. Jin last year made headlines, after a Seattle police officer was fired, following evidence that he and his partner aggressed Jin and her blind, 90-year-old uncle—whom she caretakes—hurling racist slurs and unfounded accusations at them, and regularly harassing them. Lun also experienced racism and harassment at the hands of the couple.
Georgia Fu
Los Angeles-based filmmaker, Georgia Fu, created a 19-minute documentary of the women behind the headlines. Called “Yuan Fen: Finding Each Other,” the documentary focuses not on the harassment, but on the support these women found within their community and each other. She spoke with Northwest Asian Weekly’s Carolyn Bick about the documentary’s creation, and how it affected her as a person and filmmaker.
Northwest Asian Weekly
I read a little bit about you and your work on your website. I wanted to ask: When did you first realize that you wanted to be a filmmaker, and what drives you as a Taiwanese American filmmaker?
Georgia Fu
I think I’ve always been interested in film since I was a kid. I was born in Taiwan. I immigrated to the U.S. when I was about 2 or 3 with my parents. I’m an only child, and my parents worked all the time, seven days a week, so I think film was a way for me to understand—a) it was to keep me entertained, and b) it was to understand American culture, because obviously my parents were heavily influenced by Taiwanese culture. I think when you’re growing up without parents from the same culture that you’re living in, you turn towards the media to understand it.
I can’t speak for every Asian family, but I think in our Asian family, there was a lot of things left unsaid. I think communication was not my parents’ strong suit. So I think film is also a way to explore emotions, to communicate with something on a deeper level that sometimes is hard to say in everyday life.
NWAW
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, especially if you’re used to not really speaking out, or keeping things more hidden, close to the vest, I suppose.
Fu
Communication is like a muscle. You have to constantly be practicing it. I think the beauty of life is there’s always something to be discovered. I think sometimes in Taiwanese culture, things can be communicated in really beautiful ways, through acts of service or through food.
I think you also have to teach yourself how to listen and understand the way in which people express themselves and also understand where they’re coming from. I think growing up between dual cultures was really helpful with that and trying to navigate, “What is this culture? What are these people saying? Where are they coming from? What, maybe, are my parents trying to express?”
NWAW
That’s actually a really great segue because that was something I was thinking about all throughout watching the film. I noticed that it wasn’t a verbal expression of this really strong and deep bond amongst these four women. It was just—you could just see it. It just existed. And I think that that is a good expression of what you’re talking about. I loved how the film brought that out.
I’m going to ask a question about that towards the end of our interview, but I did want to go back and talk about the film itself and ask what drew you to Zhen and Lun’s case. And how did you even hear about it?
Fu
So funny enough, it was through Mia [Niu at the Chinese Information and Service Center (CISC)]. There’s this program called Heritage Heroes that’s funded by TAAF and every year, they’ve profiled various Asian Americans. They had partnered with CISC in Seattle.
Originally, they were maybe thinking Mia, the girl that works at CISC, because she’s younger, she’s an immigrant. But in talking to Mia, I felt like, in talking to her about the work that she does, I felt like there was really a bigger story. And it was Mia who told me about Zhen’s case.
I’m based in Los Angeles, so we flew up to Seattle, met Mia, we met Zhen, we met Lun, and we met Joyce [Shui, Zhen’s lawyer]. Initially, it was actually going to be a doc about Mia and Zhen and that contrast between … generations of Chinese immigrants. [Zhen’s generation] were more working-class, they came here immigrating to find better work opportunities.
Mia’s part of this really interesting new wave of young Chinese students. She comes from a different socioeconomic background, she has a different education level. Her parents are probably more like Zhen’s [generational background]. And I think you see what a drastic change China’s gone through, just between two generations
So, initially, it was about [the generational change], but then it’s such a deep subject that I think that would have required more research, more time.
We also interviewed Joyce and Lun, and I was like, “Well, you know, through their stories, you can kind of weave together this tapestry of just like the various ways that being female and Asian American—it’s such a wide range of experiences you can have. And I thought of trying to weave together everyone’s story and then having them intersect in this case.
NWAW
In the film, I think Lun mentions that the United States was like a dream world, is what she said. But, of course, there’s always this weird undercurrent of still being different or “the outsider,” “the other,” etc., throughout her whole life, because of how she looks.
I looked at your other work as well, and it seems you’re really interested in exploring what it means to be an AANHPI woman in America.
When you were doing this film, was there anything that changed you as a person or a filmmaker? And how is it different from what you’ve done before?
Fu
Oh, yeah, that’s a really interesting question. Usually, most of my work is in narrative fiction, so I’ve just been doing docs in the last couple years. But what I loved about this doc is it really combined my undergrad NYU degree in cinema studies and East Asian studies.
I think in a funny way, it made so much sense that I would be interested in that subject. And I think being an Asian woman and an Asian American woman, you have a feeling or a sense of how society looks at you.
I think in your head, it sometimes differs from your own definition of how you see yourself in your head. But I think for every woman, there’s a lot of expectations about how you appear to the greater world. And I think women, we’re always inundated with a lot of signaling about our outer appearance and the way we’re perceived and our mannerisms and everything.
What fascinated me originally was to sort of see, yeah, I guess it was that contrast in the way Mia immigrated to how Zen immigrated. My experience with a lot of these Chinese kids that have come over to study—it’s just how bright they are, how much they throw themselves into the culture and to the language. Mia made me feel even kind of old with her vernacular. I think it was interesting to see that contrast, and I think that’s why the film sort of took that slant.
There’s a part where Joyce tells a story about how when she started working as a lawyer, she’d be on the phone, and then when you see her, she’s completely different [from] what you’d imagine a lawyer to look like.
And I have to admit, I had the same bias, too, because I first talked to Joyce on the phone and she has this really great, deep, raspy voice that evokes a certain image in your head that, combined with [being a] lawyer, you just think she’s going to be a certain way.
And I think in person, she’s quite contradictory to what you would get, if you were to Google a picture of a lawyer.
So it tells you that, even within myself, I have these biases, too, towards other women, and that it’s within all of us. Hopefully, by doing this kind of work, it’s also a way to question yourself first.
You can’t pretend like you are better than or above or smarter than. I think you have to question whether these are within you, because I think we’re all human. And I think if you understand that it exists within all of us, that’s where you could start from a place of learning how to change and acknowledgement.
[Her answer in the film] tells you about her awareness, about how she’s perceived, because I think every woman has an idea of how they’re seen in the world. She’s a very bright woman, so she knows.
But I was like, “Oh my God, she knows what I thought!” So it was kind of funny.
NWAW
What was the most challenging part of working on the film for you? And—and it doesn’t have to, because not every challenge has to be a reward—was it rewarding in any particular way, or was it just hard?
Fu
I think we were very lucky. I can’t say that it was that hard. I shot the film with my husband, so we were a two-man crew.
I think in the shooting, the actual shoot was quite easy. Everyone was super generous with their time, very giving, very open. So I have to really thank the subjects in the film.
CISC was great. I think we rented too much equipment, so I think we just made life hard for ourselves. I think we were too ambitious, and we were just two people.
I was doing sound, I’m not a sound person. I did sound at NYU grad film, because it’s part of the film program, but it’s not my specialty. In terms of the creative, I think editing is always hard, because docs are so much about editing.
You can rewrite your story in narrative fiction, but in documentary, you’re really writing your story, because you go in with a plan, but you really don’t know what footage you’re going to have. You don’t write it. I think sometimes you write a general script and outline, but there’s still so much to be discovered in the editing.
Luckily, the producers were quite patient with the editing process. I think, originally, they were hoping for something shorter. I give them credit that, in the end, they were open to a 19-minute doc.
They were originally looking for something like 5–8 minutes. But I think it’s really hard to tell a story that’s as layered as this.
And, you know, I didn’t want to just lean into the racism and the neighbors, because I didn’t want that to define the woman. I wanted to make sure that, “Hey, these are just women who all have their own struggles, their own stories, and what unites them is the fight against an awful situation.”
But even in that situation itself, it’s just so hard. I think it’s much clearer when you write it in words, because you can explain, but you have to look at the footage and see, “How can you tell the story visually?”
So it just needed more time, I think, to really tell the nuance.
NWAW
I thought there was a really powerful message about belonging in that film, not just in the U.S., but anywhere following periods of turmoil. And I wanted to ask if you’d say that’s accurate, and perhaps what some of the other messages and feelings you hope to bring forward in this film were.
Fu
I think we’re always going to be a world full of tribes and differences. And I think, again, it’s going back and asking yourself, “What inherent biases do I contain?”
It’s much more interesting to be curious about people than it is to insult people, to put other people down, just to make yourself feel better. That’s the cheapest way to make yourself feel better, make your tribe feel better, make your background feel better. And I understand that we live in a world where a lot of people are suffering, and a lot of people are going through a really hard time.
I think, sometimes, listening, sitting through a 19-minute doc to listen to someone’s story, to be curious about someone’s story, you’ll find some commonalities—I would hope, because if we don’t find commonalities between each other, as humans, I guess we should just give the world to AI.
As humans, we do have to find connection. I think connection is important. It’s how we still thrive and grow as a species.
“Yuan Fen: Finding Each Other” and all other films in TAAF’s Heritage Heroes series can be found on Amazon Prime Video.