overblik
This film is about haunting memories of Asia's late 20th-century modernization. The story departs from a 1965 United States embargo on the hair trade, known as the "Communist Hair Ban". Yet, in every wig resides a ghost from the imperial past.
Wigs were vital for the rise of the Asian economy in the post-war era. In the heyday of the 1960s, it was the number four export in Hong Kong's export-orientated industrialization. Between Mao's China - the largest source of hair supplies, and the insatiable Western market, Hong Kong functioned as the gateway. In 1965, U.S. Treasury Department imposed an embargo on "Asiatic hair", to cut off foreign currency to Communist China in the hair trade. The highly racialized category of "Asiatic hair" was later revised as "communist hair", to enable the wig industry to develop in U.S. allies including mainly South Korea and Japan, which led to a significant reconfiguration of light industry in East Asia. Departing from the moment of the communist hair ban, through stories of movement, diaspora and migration, this project examines the role of Hong Kong as a transient space that mediates and sanitizes the connection between different worlds, and the relationship between U.S. Imperialism and East Asia order in the Cold War era.
Produced by: Ruoyao Jane Yao
Director of Photography: Yavuz Selim Isler
Cameraman (Hong Kong): Fai Wan
Sound Recording: Franco van der Linde
Casting Director: Sai-wang Lau
Makeup: Ika Kartika
Color Grading: Bob Lemm
Voice-over:
Jia Zhao, Hamza Junaid, Tommy Tse
Cast:
Zoenie Liwen Deng, Ruoyao Jane Yao, Zoe Tang, Michael de Ross, Sidney Vereycken, Sai-wang Lau, Jo-Lene Ong
Produced by:
Geodesic Studio, Vines Films
Thanks to
WAAG Society, Amsterdam
16mm Film Transfer and Scanning
Andec Filmtechnik, Berlin