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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Exploring multicultural themes such as identity, isolation, and alienation, Floating Life tells the story of Mr and Mrs Chan, an aging couple from Hong Kong who move to Australia with their two youngest sons prior to China's takeover of the island in 1997. They stay with a daughter who has already begun a successful career. Meanwhile, their eldest daughter lives in Germany while the eldest son remains in Hong Kong. The Chans are forced to confront some difficulties due to their dislocation and their position between two cultures, but retain high expectations.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Sharing Sensations with a Community of Strangers : The 68th Sydney Film Festival
2022
single work
column
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , January no. 100 2022;'Mask wearing, social distancing and QR code check-ins may have become normalised practices in our everyday lives, but in the context of an international film festival they remain novel (and at times onerous) additions to the cinema-going ritual. During the 68th Sydney Film Festival last November, these new customs gave me cause to reflect on the evolving cinema experience. In the era of cinema closures, lockdown viewing and adapted festival formats, with future metamorphoses inevitable but as yet unknown, we’ve been forced to confront what we value about cinema-going, about cinemas as public spaces and the experience of being part of an audience.' (Introduction)
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Migrant Experiences
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , no. 52 2009;
— Review of Floating Life 1996 single work film/TV -
Giving Spaces/Spaces of Giving : Accommodation in Floating Life
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 3 no. 1 2009; (p. 107-119) 'While the rhetoric of border security and protection has always been present in public debates about immigration in Australia, the Tampa crisis in 2001 appears to have amplified its significance. What I propose here is a shift from the rhetoric of border protection to the rhetoric of hospitality, from the borders of nation and national identity to the borders (or limits) of hospitality. I argue that the discussions about immigration in the Australian context need to be reconfigured: to move away from immigration as a 'problem' that threatens Australia's border security and national identity towards extending the possibilities of hospitality and its implications for relations between migrant subjects and their 'host' nations. This article examines these debates in relation to the film Floating Life (Clara Law, 1996), which charts the transnational journeys and border crossings of a Hong Kong Chinese family, shifting between Australia, Hong Kong and Germany. Floating Life suggests that the hospitality offered to Asian migrants in Australia is haunted by the historical conditions in which Asian migration was encouraged in the years following the abolition of the White Australia policy. I argue that accommodation might be a productive means by which hospitality can be reconfigured. Floating Life explores how practices of accommodation are negotiated and performed in the shadow of official discourses of hospitality. The film's representation of communication technologies demonstrates how, in spite of spatial boundaries, relationships between diasporic communities can be nurtured and maintained.' -
Hong Kong-Australian Imaginaries : Three Australian Films by Clara Law
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Hong Kong Film, Hollywood, and the New Global Cinema : No Film Is an Island 2007; (p. 91-106) -
Floating Lives : Cultural Citizenship and the Limits of Diaspora
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 1 no. 2 2004; (p. 101-121) 'Focusing on the diversity of experience evoked by notions of cultural belonging ... [this essay] argues against the prevalent tendency within diaspora studies to engage in a rhetoric of cultural essentialism. The literatures of diaspora deserve to be read as documents of unique and complex cultural experiences rather than mere illustrations of archetypes.' (p.101)
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Migrant Experiences
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , no. 52 2009;
— Review of Floating Life 1996 single work film/TV -
Floating Life : The Heaviness of Moving
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , February-March no. 12 2001; Senses of Cinema , June no. 83 2017;
— Review of Floating Life 1996 single work film/TV -
Floating Lives : Cultural Citizenship and the Limits of Diaspora
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 1 no. 2 2004; (p. 101-121) 'Focusing on the diversity of experience evoked by notions of cultural belonging ... [this essay] argues against the prevalent tendency within diaspora studies to engage in a rhetoric of cultural essentialism. The literatures of diaspora deserve to be read as documents of unique and complex cultural experiences rather than mere illustrations of archetypes.' (p.101) -
Asian-Australian Cinema, Asian-Australian Modernity
2000
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , no. 65 2000; (p. 190-199) -
Giving Spaces/Spaces of Giving : Accommodation in Floating Life
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 3 no. 1 2009; (p. 107-119) 'While the rhetoric of border security and protection has always been present in public debates about immigration in Australia, the Tampa crisis in 2001 appears to have amplified its significance. What I propose here is a shift from the rhetoric of border protection to the rhetoric of hospitality, from the borders of nation and national identity to the borders (or limits) of hospitality. I argue that the discussions about immigration in the Australian context need to be reconfigured: to move away from immigration as a 'problem' that threatens Australia's border security and national identity towards extending the possibilities of hospitality and its implications for relations between migrant subjects and their 'host' nations. This article examines these debates in relation to the film Floating Life (Clara Law, 1996), which charts the transnational journeys and border crossings of a Hong Kong Chinese family, shifting between Australia, Hong Kong and Germany. Floating Life suggests that the hospitality offered to Asian migrants in Australia is haunted by the historical conditions in which Asian migration was encouraged in the years following the abolition of the White Australia policy. I argue that accommodation might be a productive means by which hospitality can be reconfigured. Floating Life explores how practices of accommodation are negotiated and performed in the shadow of official discourses of hospitality. The film's representation of communication technologies demonstrates how, in spite of spatial boundaries, relationships between diasporic communities can be nurtured and maintained.' -
Reconciliation Between Generations and Cultures : Clara Law's Film Floating Life
2001
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Otherland , no. 7 2001; (p. 157-168) -
An Interview with Clara Law
Kathryn Millard
(interviewer),
2001
single work
interview
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , April-May no. 13 2001; 'I remember seeing Clara Law's film Floating Life at the Sydney Film Festival in 1995. I was charmed and amused by its particular take on suburban Australia, moved by its musings on the quest for a sense of home. And drawn to its sense of poetry and design. I re-visited other films by Clara Law. The almost breathtakingly beautiful Temptation of a Monk (1993) and the intriguing Autumn Moon (1992). I spoke with Clara recently about her new film, The Goddess of 1967.' (Author's introduction)
Last amended 13 Feb 2015 09:05:49
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