My Father’s Choice

In this family portrait, Yan Ting Yuen links the personal story of her father to the major turning points in Chinese history in the last century: starvation in the 1950s, Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution in the 1960s, the exodus to the West in the 1970s and the eminently Chinese variation on capitalism that has emerged in recent decades. It’s the official version of history that her father is eager to quote to explain his choices. Choices that also shaped the lives of the filmmaker and her mother.
But gradually it becomes apparent that the choices were less rational and considered than you might think. Cost-benefit analyses and consultation with the rest of the family were not father’s style. He allowed himself to be carried along by the prevailing wind, at best. When Yuen asked why he wanted to go to Europe, following his brother, his response was that it struck him as a nice idea. Disenchanting, possibly. But are rational analyses really that much more sensible?

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