Director

32’17/Color/Digital. 2024-Ongoing

Tusán is a essay film. By interviewing Peruvians with Chinese ancestry about their family history, in combination with ethnography, it tells the story of early Chinese laborers who were forced to leave home for distant places due to social reasons.

The original meaning of Tusán is “native”, and Peruvians refer to Peruvians with Chinese ancestry as “Tusán” based on the meaning of Cantonese and the pronunciation of this word. In traditional Chinese culture, this word means to be born, raised, or rooted locally. The dispersion caused by social unrest is indirectly changing the relationship between various people and land. For example, in the movie, the concept of China actually becomes a literary concept in the minds of these Tusanes at the moment their ancestors left the land of China. They have preserved their cultural customs through these concepts passed down from their ancestors, but they have never been to China, and the relationship between people and land is actually blurred at this moment. I accidentally came across a historical document from the 19th century about Chinese laborers in Peru, which drew my great interest in this period of history. Therefore, I decided to go to Peru for myself, start an investigation on this historical materials, and finally complete this essay film. I attempt to reconstruct and connect this special history that has been overlooked, and forgotten by people through the family memories of different Tusanes and revisiting the specific locations in historical photographs with the images. I also try to respond to the relationship between individual destiny and social destiny based on this specific history. The turmoil they have experienced still lingers and unfolds in today’s social history.