Jenn Thảo Nguyễn

[excerpt from in-class Midterm]

Evans Chan’s Bauhinia, while also examining diasporic existence between Hong Kong and the United States, occupies a distinct position within De Man’s cinematic taxonomies and can thus be considered diasporic on its own terms. Commissioned as part of a 10-episode drama series by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), Chan based his contribution in New York City, where he resides. In an unprecedented turn, the tragedy of September 11 prompted the filmmaker to rework his script, recast actors who had left the country, and integrate the event into the film, enriching it with its historical and emotional resonance. Bauhinia is deeply multivalent, aligning with Naficy’s definition of “accented cinema.” The film carries both an exilic quality—as Chan is “obligated to produce and distribute [his] work in the fissures of the Western market”—and diasporic and postcolonial elements, as its protagonist, a young Hong Kong woman, navigates a multi-sited identity. She embodies the instability of diasporic life, particularly through her longing for home, complicated by an unexpected pregnancy in the context of 9/11.

Bauhinia further articulates the liminality of diasporic existence through Chan’s engagement with form, evoking Laura Marks’ notion of the “phenomenological experience of living in between two or more cultures.” The titular character is frequently depicted wandering listlessly through New York’s streets, gazing contemplatively at the skyline and Ground Zero. These moments prioritize mood and embodiment over narrative, emphasizing her unmoored state as she reflects on the value of her art amid mass destruction and contemplates what nationhood and home might mean for the child she carries. This estranging effect is intensified through a nightmare sequence, where unsteady camera movement and visual obfuscation capture Bauhinia’s distress in her doctor’s office. Such “haptic images” foreground the sensory experience of the diasporic subject and exemplify the “accented structure of feeling” that characterizes Chan’s cinematic practice.

At the same time, Bauhinia engages with De Man’s “transnational” and “postcolonial” categories, as the film’s text addresses Hong Kong’s cultural cross-contamination and socio-political history. It explores China’s one-child policy through the experiences of those seeking exile in America and raises questions about narrative legitimacy in relation to individual desires for migration. Bauhinia’s partner’s mother exemplifies regional prejudice within a nation, and the protagonist’s choice of an English name asserts her Hong Kong identity, rooted in a former British colony. In these ways, Chan’s Bauhinia occupies a uniquely distinct position within the cartography of “diasporic cinema,” overlapping in some respects with Clouse’s Enter the Dragon while also charting territories beyond previously defined taxonomies.