Finding Jia

Happy Bellies Happy Jia started from a night of conversations with a small group of friends where we retold our childhood stories to each other. We were all in our late-twenties and funnily enough, were all children of immigrant parents. Previous to this moment, I had not spoken about my childhood with anyone. I had felt a deep shame towards it. Mei’s story resembles my own in many ways - growing up in Australia with freshly immigrated parents, living at the back-office room of the family store, feeling alienated from the world outside and ashamed of the world inside. I remember how empowering it was to hear one another’s stories, to hear feelings and experiences I thought only happened to me. We all shared a feeling of disconnection and conflict with our identity. We had held resentment of our parent’s culture, chased the Western one in an attempt to find belonging and gone on our own journeys to understanding and embracing both. In the early hours of the morning, when we said our goodbyes, we left each other with a sense of healing and rejuvenation, a cleansing of the soul. We all felt understood and seen, connected to each other. A feeling that was missing when we were children. These are the same feelings I want my viewers to experience. This is what sparked the idea of Happy Bellies Happy Jia.

I experienced these same emotions watching films like Minari, Floating Life & Everything Everywhere All At Once. These films paint a portrait of the messy and obscure lives of immigrant families with warmth, humour and honesty. Seeing characters and lives that resembled mine helped chip away my shame for who I was and replaced it with compassion and pride. These films inspired me to share my own story so that I may one day do the same for someone else. HBHJ is my contribution to this movement for more diverse storytelling, shedding light and normalising the diasporic Asian existence, building empathy for characters that haven’t been traditionally seen or visible on screen.

As an adult, I can now see my childhood more and more through the perspective of my parents. I see how much hardship and sacrifice they went through in the hopes for a better life for me and my brother. I want to convey this through the lens of Mei, a child who has yet to recognise her parent’s resilience. However, I don’t want to stray away from their flaws and the moments where they have deeply hurt us and fallen short as parents. It is through Mei’s growth that she begins to understand and see her mum for who she is – a mother doing her best for the family she loves. This is how Mei reaches forgiveness and appreciation for her mother.

HBHJ was written with the belief that something personal can be experienced universally. Although the context of the story is one that is culturally specific, it is not what the core of the story is about. It is a story about family, belonging and connection- what makes a place home. It sees Mei reconnecting with her family and home, and finding newfound appreciation for things she once had felt shame towards. It sees Mei’s mum, Xinyue, on a different side of the same journey. Stubborn in her own strong cultural beliefs and values, we see her also learn to integrate and appreciate the differences and change that come with her new home. This story is one that will resonate with anyone no matter who they are and where they grew up.

I hope for this film to be a love letter to diaspora communities – to the parents who have left their homes in search for a better life for their children, and for those children who grew up navigating between cultures trying to find home for themselves. My hope is for this film to let them know that they are seen and are not alone.