Luka Yuanyuan Yang's Profound Reflection on the Chinese Diaspora
Luka
Yuanyuan
Yang
Filmmaker, visual artist, photographer. Born Beijing 1989. The stories of Chinese immigrants that history forgot.
Her practice blends documentary techniques with archival research and cinematic reimaginings, uncovering threads of diasporic history. She gives voice to communities and individuals who have been forgotten, silenced, or misinterpreted.
"Despite living in San Francisco for her entire adult life, 78-year-old Ceecee still sees herself as the lady from Shanghai. Her 101-year-old mother with amnesia shares this sentiment, muttering: 'Where is this? Am I in Shanghai?'"
In October 2024, Flowers Gallery Hong Kong presented Time Capsule, the first solo exhibition in Hong Kong by visual artist and filmmaker Luka Yuanyuan Yang. Five short films produced between 2019 and 2022: an intimate exploration of migration, memory, and identity within the Chinese diaspora. Chinese restaurants in the UK as symbolic time capsules, preserving the cultural limbo experienced by immigrants. The 78-year-old woman in San Francisco who still sees herself as the lady from Shanghai. The Cantonese opera enthusiasts in New York for whom performance is sanctuary. The retired nightclub dancer and her partner exploring love and nostalgia. The Chinese-American woman uncovering her father's hidden past.
Yang's work evolved from her long-term research-based project Dance in Herland, which encompasses film, photography, archival collections, a publication, and her upcoming feature-length documentary Chinatown Cha-Cha. During a year-long research trip across the United States in 2018, she became captivated by the rich history of migration and adaptation in America's Chinatowns. From 1882 until the 1950s, due to the Chinese Exclusion Act and racial discrimination, Chinese Americans were largely confined to Chinatowns. Yang's films trace what survived inside those boundaries, and what was lost.
"By preserving fragmented memories and amplifying silenced voices, Yang challenges dominant historical narratives and reclaims agency for immigrant communities."
Flowers Gallery Hong Kong · Time Capsule, 2024Her research began with Anna May Wong and the experiences of Chinese women performers in 20th-century American arts: whose stories had been forgotten or misunderstood by history. By following her protagonists on the streets, through their communities and into their homes, Yang constructs cinematic spaces where personal and collective histories converge. The bodies of her subjects are living archives. Their memories and unspoken emotions are concealed in their steps, their fingertips, their gazes.
Traces the history of Cantonese opera in overseas Chinese communities, highlighting the performance art's role in fostering belonging among immigrants.
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, performance is both sanctuary and community.
Ceecee Wu and her mother Stella Wu, who left Shanghai in the 1940s and eventually settled in San Francisco. Despite living there her entire adult life, 78-year-old Ceecee still sees herself as the lady from Shanghai. Her 101-year-old mother with amnesia mutters: Where is this? Am I in Shanghai?
Co-directed with Carlo Nasisse. The extraordinary love story of a retired Chinatown nightclub dancer and her partner. Love, nostalgia, performance. Screened at The New Orleans Film Festival and in The New Yorker.
A Chinese-American woman's journey to uncover her father's hidden past, bridging histories between San Francisco and Toisan. The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882–1943) and the lingering echoes of displacement.
Herland
The book picks up where the films end, serving as both a reflection and a complement while creating a new narrative. Hundreds of archival materials from photo albums, rare oral histories, creative writings and interviews with scholars. Over nearly a year of editing, the team felt like revisiting 20th-century San Francisco and Cuba, tracing history through the neons of Chinatown and the echoes of Cantonese opera.
Design by Studio Pianpian He and Max Harvey, who used papers in various colours to separate different oral history backgrounds: the book itself becomes a vessel of collective memory. Shortlisted for Forms of Publication 2026. Reviewed in Something Curated.
Xu De Qi Art Studio: a conversation from the Antakly Projects archive with a Chinese artist whose practice explores identity and culture.
Chen Fei in conversation with Antakly Projects on his painting practice and the visual language of contemporary Chinese art.
Artist Jiawei Zhao on practice, identity and the Chinese diaspora experience in conversation with Antakly Projects.
Artist Yuge Zhou in conversation: a practice at the intersection of memory, place and the Chinese-American experience.
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✦ Explore all our interviews →"Her meticulous research and deep empathy for her subjects allow her to construct cinematic spaces where personal and collective histories converge."
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© Luka Yuanyuan Yang, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
© Luka Yuanyuan Yang, courtesy of Flowers Gallery