My Life in China

Filmmaker Kenneth Eng's documentary focuses on the life of his father, Yau King Eng, who grew up in Mao's China, but was forced to flee the country in 1966 when the Cultural Revolution brought social instability and famine. Yau escaped to Hong Kong and gained refugee status that enabled him to emigrate to the United States and settle in Boston. Although educated, Yau could initially only gain work in Chinese restaurants, but he would eventually open his own establishment. Unfortunately, that restaurant closed in 2001 and his wife later became ill with paranoid schizophrenia, after which Yau believed that his American Dream had failed. My Life in China follows Yau as he returns to Hong Kong to reunite with his family and then travels on to China to see if it would make sense for him to return to his homeland to live out his final years. In many ways, Yau is a man without a country—never truly experiencing assimilation as an American, out of touch with contemporary Hong Kong, and surprised over the lack of modernity in the rural Chinese countryside. While the film sometimes feels too much like a home movie, particularly during the Hong Kong family scenes, Yau is a charming and pleasant subject, and his story is interesting. A strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)