Saturday, August 26, 2006

I am a big fan of Cheuk Kwan's Chinese Restaurants series. The films I have watched are Three Continents (covering Norway, Madagascar and Canada) and Beyond Frontiers (East India, Brazil and West India) which were brought in as part of the Singapore International Film Festival over the last two years.

Chinese Restaurants is a series depicting Chinese migration throughout the world. Kwan has travelled extensively and has sought out family-run Chinese restaurants across the world in order to tell their tale. Each story is captured neatly in a half-hour episode.

When I watched the films, I was fascinated by how well Kwan managed to combine the history of the cities he was filming in, the personal history of the restaurant proprietor as well as the evolution of the dishes served in the restaurants, similar to how the Chinese families themselves have adapted to the city in which they live.

And now, to my dismay, I have only just found out that ChannelNewsAsia has been broadcasting the first eight episodes of the series in August. At least I found out in time to catch the last weekend they're showing it.

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