The Chinese Apparition in Minnesota

This paper outlines the creative process of The Chinese Apparition in Minnesota, how it is situated in different genres of documentary film, and the experience of mourning during physical displacement. The Chinese Apparition in Minnesota explores the sense of belonging and loss for young Chinese immigrants in America and Canada. Situated within realms of essay film, experimental cinema, and poetic documentary, the film meanders between documentary and fiction, recollection and dreams. Personal experiences of loss interweave with the public while differing definitions of home become indistinguishable. In the film, a young Chinese immigrant from Minnesota is trapped in Canada and unable to see their dying grandmother back home. As the Zhongyuan Festival approaches; premonitions masquerading as recollections, forgotten folklore, and reality slowly merge into one. The main character saunters like an apparition who does not belong, wandering into the dreams and memories of herself and her family