Why do some search to find their “roots” while others don’t give a damn? Director/writer of “Clan of the Painted Lady” Jennifer Chiu, a British Columbian, delves into her Hakka culture and her own family history to determine where it originated and where it is travelling to. Like the Painted Lady butterfly that embarks on a 9,000-mile migration around the world each generation completing a leg of that migration not knowing the beginning or end of the migration the Hakka’s have a history of migration but unlike the Painted Lady butterfly they do not know their final destination.
Chiu was born in Kolkata to Hakka parents eventually migrating to suburbia in British Columbia’s Lower mainland. The Hakkas had origins in Northern China and facing war, poverty and social marginalization they migrated the Southern China further migrating primarily to Canada, Jamaica, Mauritius and India.
Chiu searches for others believing Hakka culture is worth saving fearing its disappearance connecting with Hakka in China, India, Vancouver and in The Greater Toronto Area, the largest Hakka community in Canada. She discovers activists seeking to promote a distinct Hakka community, but the younger generation may interpret the promotion of Hakka culture as slavery to the past and an unwillingness to move forward. This is a breaking of the intergenerational bridge of Hakka culture which signifies the beginning of the end of that culture. Are the Hakka drawn into the melting pot and is the younger generation of Hakkas happily immersing itself in the pot?
Through family/friend/community activist interviews and Super 8 footage in Canada, India, Jamaica and China she weaves her lens on Hakka culture in these countries.
When the fundamental existential questions begin raising their heads the documentary veers for brief moments into seemingly less on point kitchen table chit chat and a bit too much personal family focus having questionable relevance to Hakka culture. Her visit to the tannery district of Kolkata, Tangra, might well be the most fascinating segment of her documentary. Tangra is the epicentre of Hakka owned leather tanneries, As Tangra suffers a shutdown by the Indian government economic circumstances dictate the younger Hakkas have little intention of remaining in India. Strangely Tangra Hakka youth have no interest in learning the Hakka Lion Dance so it is Indian youth replacing them. A stark reality that the intergenerational bridge rapidly appears to be collapsing. A small group of Hakka youth are filmed discussing the future and it is one of migration to opportunities. The daughter of the Lion Dance instructor would appear to be an exception wishing to remain in India.
What is clear is that the Hakka are on the edge of losing their identify in the face of their disinterested younger members while a handful of Hakka community activists in Toronto and Vancouver work to promote Hakka culture to save it from irrelevance. Is the Hakka culture worth saving? The answer will only be answered in the future. Unlike the Painted Lady butterflies, it has no final destination. Hakka youth may stop migration of Hakka culture to the next generation cold.
“Clan of the Painted Lady” has its world premiere on 6/9 October2025 at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Documentary Film Rating 71/100.
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