Screening of Journey to Beijing by Evans Chen
Friday, February 10, 2023
12:00 AM (Pacific Time)
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About the Movie
Hailed by "Sight and Sound" as a "remarkable documentary [offering] the all-round best account of the issues surrounding the hand-over of Hong Kong," JOURNEY TO BEIJING features a 4-month philanthropic walk from the territory to Beijing, through which writer-director Evans Chan views the rainbow-hued cross-currents of a Hong Kong gearing up for July 1, 1997--when Britain handed the city back to China.
In this humorous and bittersweet look at the last leg of a sweeping historical journey that dates back to the 1842 Opium Wars, JOURNEY interviewed walkers such as an aviator who once flew post-Mao strongmen Deng Xiaoping, a woman who witnessed the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and a man testing for his love for his wife through separation. Interposed with scenes from the walkathon as it passes through Mao's birthplace, the Yellow River, Tiananmen Square, and the Great Wall are glimpses of a mutating Hong Kong-- artists (Helen Lai, Joanna Chen) and environmentalists (Christine Loh, Lew Young); gay rights worriers (Stanley Kwan, Julian Chan) and concerned politicians and observers (Martin Lee, Philip Bowring, Lee Yee). "In the same ball park...of a Chris Marker film" (Tom Rayns)
This event is organized by Global Hong Kong Studies @ University of California.
Sponsor(s): Asia Pacific Center, Center for Chinese Studies