Overview
Flowers Gallery is pleased to present Luka Yuanyuan Yang's first solo exhibition, Time Capsule, in Hong Kong, featuring five short films created between 2019 - 2022.
Deriving from the artist's multifaceted research-based project Dance in Herland, encompassing films, photographic documentation, a collection of archives, a publication and feature-length documentary Chinatown Cha-Cha, slated for release in Chinese cinemas in late 2024, the films in Time Capsule explore Yang's longstanding reflections on the Chinese diaspora. By crafting stories where fact and fiction coexist, Yang challenges conventional historical interpretations and amplifies the voices of the forgotten, silenced, or misinterpreted, with years of study on Chinese migration sharpening Yang's ability to uncover narratives. What began as a 'time capsule' concept has evolved into a documentation where Yang preserves the fragmented memories of these communities.
Cantonese Tunes on Mott Street
This film centers on three Cantonese opera enthusiasts in New York: a Chinese immigrant from a Cantonese opera family, a Hong Kong immigrant who moved to New York as a child, and a Chinese refugee from Cuba. For them, Cantonese opera performances serve as both a sanctuary and place of community.
American Relatives
Set in San Francisco and Toisan, this film follows Pat Chu Nishimoto as she uncovers her late father's secrets. In 1980, she visits China for the first time and discovers a family of half-relatives. The direction then shifts to these Chinese relatives, who recount the history of their ancestral home, emphasizing the erosion of history and culture amidst rapid modernization.
Coby and Stephen Are in Love
Coby Yee, a 92-year-old retired nightclub dancer and icon from San Francisco Chinatown's golden age, and Stephen King, a man 20 years her junior found an unlikely love through matching outfits, dance, and art. Coby updated Stephen's wardrobe soon after they started dating, hand-making all of their clothes and ensuring that they never leave the house without matching outfits from head to toe. By becoming Coby's personal archivist, Stephen created photo albums and collages con- structed from glamorous images of her past and the present. As their final performance in Las Vegas approaches, Coby and Stephen start to prepare their last dance on the curtain call.
The Lady from Shanghai
Despite living in San Francisco for her entire adult life, 78-year-old Ceecee Wu has considered herself as "the lady from Shanghai." Her 101-year-old mother with amnesia shares this sentiment muttering "Where is this? Am I in Shanghai?". Ceecee, who doesn't read Chinese, reveals correspondence between her and her ex-husband from Shanghai that highlights how the two met through a dating website and formed a relationship which overcame the obstacle of language and geographical boundaries.
Tales of Chinatown
Starting with a walking tour through San Francisco's Chinatown, this film brings the viewing to the last surviving Chinese theatre following the scene from the 1940s film Lady from Shanghai directed by Orson Welles; wandering from iconic venues in San Francisco's Chinatown including Shanghai Low to Forbidden City Nightclub - the camera follows the walking our of Chinese American nightclub dancer Cynthia Yee, and includes a series of interviews with historians Wylie Wong and David Lei.
