Hives

In 2014, in a small Chinese city, Grade 11 student Shan feels suffocated by her strict mother and finds escape at a local milk tea shop. There, she’s captivated by Jiayi, an edgy cashier who once comforted her with a yellow duck. After hearing Jiayi’s tragic past and dream of becoming a model, Shan gathers the courage to kiss her—only to panic when Jiayi kisses back. Shan flees home into a fiery clash with her mother… until the next morning, when the sound of the yellow duck returns...

  • Shen Shen
    Director
  • Shen Shen
    Writer
  • Xino Wang
    Producer
  • Shen Shen
    Producer
  • Qiuhan Chen
    Key Cast
    "ShanShan"
  • Yujie Chen
    Key Cast
    "Jiayi"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    麻疹
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    lgbtq, drama
  • Runtime:
    25 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    July 16, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    30,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    China
  • Country of Filming:
    China
  • Language:
    Mandarin Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digtal
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Busan international village film festival
    Busan
    South Korea
    October 14, 2026
    East Asian
Director Biography - Shen Shen

Shen Shen is a Chinese Canadian filmmaker growing up in Canada and graduated from University of Toronto later studied screenwriting at Beijing Film Academy. She has been working in the film and television industry of Beijing as screenwriter, creative producer and director for the past 10 years particular in creating cross-cultural stories in the forms of films, web series and documentaries.
In 2015, She was part of an international production crew of the China Hollywood coproduction film The Great Wall directed by Zhang Yi Mou.
She wrote and created a feature film project The Dream Shop and was selected for the 2018 Shanghai International Film Festival Feature Pitch Program. She’s currently working on her first feature film project.

Filmography:
- 2021| Writer/ Director of short film Love in the Time of Corona
- Selected for 2022 Singapore World Film Carnival
- 2018| Writer/Creator of feature film project The Dream Shop
- Selected for the 2018 Shanghai International Film Festival Pitch program
- 2014| Writer/Director of short film Beauty And The Clown
- Selected for 2014 Interfilm Berlin International Short Film Festival
- Selected for 2014 Canadian National Screen Institute Short Film Festival
- Selected for 2014 Shorts Vision Film Festival of Ningbo, China

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Director Statement

This film was inspired by a true story of a Chinese fashion designer who recalled a high school crush on a girl that left her so anxious she broke out in hives—until a school nurse told her those feelings were completely natural. It brought me back to my own teenage years abroad: isolated, closeted, and weighed down by an unspoken crush on a female classmate. I kept everything inside, teetering on the edge of depression, until I slowly found the courage to break free and carve my own path.

Through this story, I want to capture not only the identity struggles of an adolescent girl but also her courage to resist family and societal pressures and embrace her true self. More importantly, queer stories from China are rarely seen on screen, either at home or abroad. As a Canadian filmmaker of Chinese descent and part of the queer community, I feel a deep responsibility to share these voices and bring their experiences to a wider audience.