Post: 策展人的话 From the curator

2011年5月30日

海外国族
华裔酷儿的性、身份与种族

客座策展人:Doris Yeung,阿姆斯特丹亚洲影展 curated by Doris Yeung, CinemAsia Film Festival Amsterdam
作为一个海外的华裔酷儿,我很兴奋于今年有幸被电影节邀请,负责其中一个环节。作为华裔和酷儿对海外漂流的我们意味着什么,这种感受我希望与祖先土地上的同胞手足分享。
现在约有超过五千万出生在海外的华人后代,分布在世界各国,从塞拉利昂(约20名华人)到美国(约330万)。印度尼西亚是海外华人最多的国家,有超过800万华裔居民。无论他们是像郑和手下的水手一般乘船出航,还是随20世纪珠江三角洲地区的移民潮迁徙,抑或是现代移民,总之,中国文化是世界最为知名的文化之一。海外华人是最早的使者,带着中国美食和传统习俗将中国文化带向全世界,带进人们的日常生活。也是他们,最早将异域文化观念随着他们回乡省亲而带入中国。他们是大陆与外界的桥梁,通过贸易、婚姻、科技和艺术促进了交流。
酷儿电影即是海外华人传入的火种。酷儿电影在西方成为同性恋权利倡导运动的一部分。LGBT群体希望在银幕上看到关于他们生活和爱情的故事,可行的方式就是他们自己来制作并放映。1969年纽约石墙运动后,出现了最早的旧金山和纽约的LGBT电影节。在这些电影节上,酷儿电影制作者终于有了一个可以交流观点、理念和艺术设想的平台。
Richard Fung是一名加拿大华裔,他1986年的的作品《中国字》是一部开创性的作品。正是和他一样的华裔酷儿先锋电影制作者们,为一代华裔酷儿电影视频制作者铺就了道路,从美国加拿大出发,走向澳大利亚,走向欧洲,走向东南亚,去用影像探索他们的身份。
中国LGBT群体刚刚开始这个叙事的传统,开始克服文化、历史和政治的束缚。希望海外华裔酷儿的电影和视频作品可以成为另一架跨越历史与当下的桥梁。

OVERSEAS NATION
Sexuality, Identity and Race of the Queer Chinese Diaspora.

Being of the Queer Chinese Diaspora myself, I was excited and honored when I was invited to curate a section about it at the festival this year, My hope is to be able to bring a small piece of what being Queer and Chinese means in the rest of the world to our fellow brothers and sisters in our ancestral land.
The Chinese Diaspora sometimes called “Overseas Chinese” is diverse with over 50 million people of Chinese descent being born in almost every country in the world, from Sierra Leone ( Chinese population. 20) to the U.S with 3.3 million people, to Indonesia, the most populous overseas Chinese country with over 8 million inhabitants of Chinese descent. Whether they came by boat like the sailors of Admiral Zheng He’s fleets, or from the 20th century waves of immigration from the Pearl River Delta region or from modern day immigration, as a result, the Chinese culture is one of the most well known cultures of the world. The Overseas Chinese were the first ambassadors of Chinese culture to the outside world bringing Chinese food, traditions and customs into the lives of everyday people around the world. They were also the first to bring foreign culture and ideas back to their ancestral villages in China when they went home for visits. They were a bridge between the Chinese on the mainland and the outside world facilitating exchange through trade, marriage, science and art.
The Overseas Chinese have done the same with Queer cinema. Queer cinema evolved as a part of the Gay rights movement in the West as LGBT people wanted to see the stories of their lives and love on the screen. The only way to do that was to make and show these films themselves. Thus started the first LGBT film festivals in places like San Francisco and New York after the New York Stonewall riots of 1969. At these festivals, Queer filmmakers finally had a forum to voice their opinions, ideas and artistic visions.
Amongst these queer pioneering filmmakers were those of Chinese descent like ChineseCanadian Richard Fung (with his groundbreaking 1986 work CHINESE CHARACTERS shown here at BQFF)) who paved the way for a generation of Queer and Chinese film and video makers first in the U.S and Canada, then Australia, Europe and Southeast Asia to explore their identities through film and video.
China is just starting this tradition of LGBT storytelling starting to overcome cultural, historical and political traditions and hopefully the film and video works of the Queer Overseas Chinese can become another bridge from the past to the present.