Clan of the Painted Lady

In this engrossing documentary, director Jennifer Chiu reaches into her family’s history to explore the Hakka — a people, a language, and a culture. Thought to hail from the north of China, the Hakka settled in the south of the country, where they were known as the “guest people”. In the face of social marginalization, many of them dispersed to places such as Mauritius, India, Jamaica, and Canada — including BC’s Lower Mainland, where Chiu spent much of her childhood. The director’s reach is as expansive as her peoples’ migratory spread: Using found Super 8 footage, she explores the Hakka’s history in India, and through candid, probing interviews with relatives and community leaders she brings forth decades of a narrative that has been obscured for far too long. Chiu has made a warm, congenial film that is never weighed down by its explorations of family secrecy, the costs of assimilation, and the very uncertain future of Hakka culture.