Premiere & Discussion: Home of My Heart

A young woman yearns to preserve what inevitably loses to time. A village with a unique history spanning three shores whose people paid in tears and blood for their own. One great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter’s path to finding her roots and why her ancestors sacrificed so much for her. A people’s Story and Home in danger of being destroyed forever. 

With endearing and infectious determination, Melody’s quest will take her from Hong Kong to San Francisco and back to China, to find the lost pieces of her people’s story and fit them into a completed puzzle for the world to preserve. From more than a hundred years ago until today, those kith on each far away shore would look out to sea with pangs of something more than homesick- where their hearts belong. 

In 2016, the village forced to adapt to modern times is on the brink of drastic changes. Melody’s ancestral home, and all the sweet memories which it holds for her, is soon to be demolished. Ignited by this hopeless urgency she embarks on a path to preserve what she can before it’s too late. 

Things began in Tai Shan, a small region of Southern China which produced 70% of the earliest Chinese immigrant workers in the United States. During the great California Gold Rush which began in 1848, Tai Shan people often left their families and homes behind in painful search for fortune, so that they could hopefully bring back a better life for their families and homes.

Why did they sacrifice and what came of it?

On the road, Melody meets a museum owner curator, an author and a scholar who share their unique stories and have more in common with each other than they could’ve imagined. With shared feelings and determination to preserve their story, she is not alone and they walk together on paths in the same direction. Melody continues to hope that more people in her oftentimes lost and distracted generation will care more for the value of history, and its importance in learning about the self. 

Back in Hong Kong, the modern day villagers continue to celebrate their tradition and togetherness despite every adversity and force of change. Mundane or opulent, old or new, Melody is convinced that none of those matter, true richness is in the warmth and love of belonging; a neighbours smile, a home away from home, always welcoming with open arms. In this race against time to preserve a precious collectiveness, this documentary humbly attempts to document her journey to document this collectiveness- to preserve their hearts.

Selected for The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Film Expo 2018 in Washington D.C.

*Language: Cantonese and English with Chinese and English subtitles
*Age limit: Nil
*Duration: 90 minutes
*Show type: Film Screening