Look Who it Was Random video

Chinese Britain on Film | BFI

4,366 views · Published 17 November 2014 · 3:19 · Indexed 27 September 2026

Channel: BFI · 2014 · Film & Animation

Watch on YouTube

Chinese Britain on Film | BFI. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/subscribetotheBFI.

View the collection on the BFI Player: http://player.bfi.org.uk/collections/chinese-britain-on-film/

Chart the representation of Britain's Chinese communities in film, from exotic Other to more authentic self-portraits, in a collection of rare, strange, witty and touching films.

Explore the history of Chinese representation in British cinema over two contrasting collections. Tales of Old Chinatown includes films from the 1900s to the 1930s, an era coinciding with a 'yellow peril' moral panic in the press and pulp literature. Shaped by Britain's colonial conflicts, these films act out western anxieties of a nefarious Chinese 'Other' - usually with white actors in Chinese roles.

The 1900 Boxer Rebellion inspired the earliest films here, but the dominant Chinese figure of the age was fictional: the evil oriental mastermind represented here by Dr Sin Fang - a barely-disguised version of Sax Rohmer's sinister creation Dr Fu-Manchu. Slightly more sympathetic portrayals came later, notably in Piccadilly (1929) and other films with Chinese-American star Anna May Wong, though their protagonists invariably met tragic ends.

The films in Chinese Voices mark the emergence of first-hand accounts of British-Chinese life. Slowly waking up to an increasingly multicultural nation in the 1960s and 70s, British TV featured occasional reports from Chinese communities. But it wasn't until the 1980s that British-Chinese writers and directors began to film their own stories, using comedy, drama or documentary. Warm, tough, funny and poignant, these films at last give more authentic voice to the British-Chinese experience.

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BFI
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BritishFilmInstitute
Follow us on Google+: https://plus.google.com/+britishfilminstitute/

More from this channel