Loading Docs 2017 - East Meets East

Web (Full Length) – 2017

Chinese people can be very inconsiderate. They chatter very loudly on the bus. Sometimes the bus driver will take issue, and tell them not to talk, but they can't understand, so they keep chatting.
– Fang Ruzhen on her fellow Chinese bus commuters

[Julie Zhu] says like her grandparents, many elderly Chinese people come to New Zealand to help care for their grandchildren while their adult children work. Because they migrate in their 60s, 70s, or 80s, it's almost impossible for them to pick up a new language or try to assimilate in the usual ways.
– NZ Herald article on East Meets West, 26 March 2017

To me, this was a unique story of immigrant grandparents who come here to take care of their grandchildren while their adult children work, knowingly sacrificing the familiarity of their own homes and language for their future generations to thrive.
– Director Julie Zhu

I also wanted to make this film to foreground these characters who usually occupy the backgrounds and peripheries of our communities, and really make an effort to humanise who they are...
– Director Julie Zhu