I was scrolling through Weibo during my lunch break here in Melbourne when I saw the red carpet photos from the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival. There was Bai Baihe looking elegant in that emerald green dress, standing next to Wang Chuanjun – the whole ‘Spring Tree’ crew beaming with that particular pride artists get when their work travels well beyond home borders.
My finger immediately went to play the trailer, only to be greeted by that soul-crushing spinning wheel of death. Then the message: ‘This content is not available in your region.’
You know that feeling? That mix of pride and frustration? Pride because ‘Spring Tree’ – this beautiful-looking film about returnees to Chengdu finding connection – is representing Chinese cinema on an international stage. But frustration because here I am, a Chinese diaspora who genuinely wants to support our cultural exports, literally being blocked from engaging with it.
The film’s premise itself hits close to home for many of us overseas. Bai Baihe’s character Fang Chunshu returning to her hometown after life in Beijing, Wang Chuanjun’s character coming to Chengdu from Shanghai – these stories of movement between cities mirror our own experiences navigating between cultures. There’s something poetic about a film exploring geographical displacement being… well, geographically displaced from many of us who’d most relate to it.
I remember calling my cousin in Chengdu last week – she’d just watched the film’s premiere coverage and was raving about how the cinematography captured her hometown’s light in a way she’d never seen before. ‘The golden hour scenes along the Jinjiang River,’ she said, ‘make our city look like some magical realism novel.’ Meanwhile, I’m squinting at pixelated screenshots she sent me, trying to imagine what she meant.
This isn’t just about ‘Spring Tree’ either. Last month it was that new historical drama everyone was discussing, before that it was the reality show that spawned a thousand memes. Each time, the same cycle: excitement when I see the trending topics, followed by that familiar sinking feeling when I click play.
What’s funny is how universal this experience has become among my overseas Chinese friends. We have this unspoken understanding – someone will message the group chat with ‘Hey, has anyone managed to watch…’ and we all know exactly what they’re going through. Last week, my friend in Vancouver described trying to watch a variety show so buffery it felt like ‘watching through a snowstorm.’
There’s this particular loneliness to it too. While our friends and family back home are sharing inside jokes about last night’s episode or analyzing character arcs, we’re left piecing together the plot from Weibo summaries and screenshots. It creates this subtle cultural distance that grows wider with every ‘content not available’ message.
The irony isn’t lost on me – here’s ‘Spring Tree,’ a film literally about finding connection across geographical divides, while many of us overseas are experiencing a different kind of divide when trying to watch it. Maybe there’s some metaphor in there about modern Chinese diaspora experience.
So to everyone else staring at that spinning wheel: I feel you. That mix of pride in seeing our stories travel, coupled with the frustration of being locked out of the conversation. How many of you have faced this exact situation? What was the film or show that finally made you think ‘enough is enough’? Drop your most frustrating region-lock stories below – maybe we can start our own support group in the comments!
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