Farewell China (1990)

"Don't come home"

Farewell China was a 1990 film directed by Clara Law and filmed primarily in New York. The film showed the difficulty many illegal immigrants without a safety net of family or community suffer, especially when emigrating to one of the most expensive cities in the world.

After years of trying, Li Hong receives her visa and travels to New York City ostensibly in order to study. Her husband, Nan Sheng stays in China with their baby son, Sansan. At first, Nan Sheng receives seven letters from Hong a month. The letters stop coming after she begs him to come home and he tells her tough it out and stay. Eventually Nan Sheng takes the dangerous illegal route to the states to find Hong. It doesn’t take long for him to discover the squalor and danger she lived in and the despair that riddled her life. With the help of Jane, a teenage Chinese American prostitute, Hong begins the arduous search for his wife.

The story of cultural identity and the dangers illegal immigrants faced, especially in 1990s New York City and the boroughs, was compelling. Arriving in a foreign land, with limited English skills, no money, and no connections was a recipe for disaster. However, Law lost me in the implementation of the elements. The over-the-top 15-year-old prostitute with a heart of gold who helped Nan Sheng did not hit as authentic. It was also disturbing when he worked as her pimp, “Chinese little girl. 15-years-old. Beautiful, clean, and sexy.” Nan Sheng stumbling across live sex shows and utter filth and overwhelming crime felt like a bad stereotype of the city. Although admittedly, 1990 was a peak year for crime. And people illegally in the country don’t go to the police for fear of deportation. The ending also let me down as it felt contrived and out of left field.

Aside from reservations I had about the storytelling, the acting was quite good. Tony Leung Ka Fai conveyed Nan Sheng’s longing, perseverance, and breaking points. The story of Maggie Cheung’s Li Hong was told primarily through flashbacks. Her character went from hopeful for a better life to the threshold of utter despair taking its toll on her sanity. Nan Sheng would come to understand how traumatic the words, “Don’t come home,” could be.

As much as I enjoyed Autumn Moon by Clara Law, I was unable to connect to Farewell China the same way. The very real horrors and sense of isolation and loss immigrants can feel was diminished by the melodramatic approach.

9 May 2025
Trigger warnings: Insects. Sexual content and full nudity, especially at a live sex show. Sex with an underage girl.

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