GO BACK TO CHINA

Trust fund princess Sasha Li lives on daddy’s bankroll, so any disturbance to the filial order means goodbye credit cards, rent checks and luxuriating in L.A. as an aspiring fashion designer. Befitting a Chinese daughter, she’s expected to help with the family business and coexist with the children of dad’s many mistresses. Sasha finds herself at the end of her financial rope, and finally acquiesces to dad’s incessant beckoning and moves to Shenzhen, China, where she will prove her worth at the stuffed animal factory that made her family’s fortune.

Emily Ting’s GO BACK TO CHINA is a semi-autobiographical film reflecting on estranged sisterhood and acts of emotional revenge between daughter and father. It’s a refreshing light-hearted, candy-colored comedy as comforting as the Santa dolls that bring the Li’s factory to life, and as whimsically opulent as the Shenzhen mansion, which is so exorbitant Sasha needs to take selfies with it. In her feature lead debut, Anna Akana earns her place in a lineage of Asian American actresses represented by co-stars Lynn Chen and Kelly Hu, while director Ting proves again that personal filmmaking can be buoyant and bright. — Brian Hu

Expected attendees: Emily Ting (Director) and Lynn Chen (Actor) for Sat, May 11 screening. 

Co-presented by Community Youth Center of San Francisco (CYCSF), Red Envelope Giving Circle