LUNAR NEW YEAR INTERVIEW SERIES: Barbara Lee

Photo courtesy of the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, founded by Barbara Lee, pictured back row, fifth from the right.

Barbara Lee is a filmmaker, advocate, and founder of the Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF) and Elimin8Hate. She’s been championing equity, diversity, inclusion, and better Asian representation in film for more than 25 years. We were thrilled to be able to speak with Barbara about Lunar New Year, the future of diversity in film, and looking to the year ahead with reflection, hope, and resilience. Here’s some of what she had to say.

“My background is I am Chinese, so we really talk about good fortune, prosperity, health. Those are the kinds of blessings and hopes and dreams that we always ask for in the new year… I love Lunar New Year ... It's like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's all rolled up into one, with a lot of food and family and traditions and just being hopeful, you know, being thankful for the past and being hopeful for the future,” says Barbara.

With usual ways of gathering and celebrating on hold because of the pandemic, Barbara will be leaning into the comfort of her family’s traditions, which include getting her bilingual kids to write Chinese characters on red paper to bring in good luck, getting the house nice and clean to start the new year right, and making sure there is lots of food and fruit in the house.

Food is a big part of how Lunar New Year is celebrated and Barbara says she always looks forward to a plate of delicious noodles. She also knows a thing or two about making delicious dumplings. Growing up on a rural farm in Richmond, where Chinese take-out wasn’t accessible, meant that enjoying traditional Chinese foods required making it yourself. 

Today, there are a lot of amazing Chinese restaurants to choose from to find the perfect dumpling, and although her typically large family gathering will be kept more limited this year because of the pandemic, it’s still her family’s tradition to go out for dinner to a favourite Chinese restaurant.

“I would say right now our go-to is Golden Ocean. I like Dynasty on West Broadway as well,” she says, adding the 12-course Chinese Banquet meals, reserved for special occasions, teach you to appreciate all kinds of food and how to pace yourself.

Barbara believes cultural holidays, like Lunar New Year, could be better appreciated by organizations, unions, and workplaces as times to make authentic acknowledgements of their importance, rather than through efforts that end up feeling like tokenism. 

“I think if you truly want to understand another person, you need to understand what their values are and where they come from. In order to understand where they come from, you have to experience what they're experiencing. I would say that many racialized people have really embraced Western culture and ideals, and it would be nice to have that reciprocated, and only through that exchange is really true understanding and appreciation [possible].”

One way the motion picture industry could acknowledge Lunar New Year in a meaningful way would be to schedule film premiers around Lunar New Year for films that touch on issues that are relevant to the Asian community. It could be a way to spur on more Asian-related and Asian-produced content and ensure there’s not such a drought before the next major Blockbuster movie celebrating Asian talent. 

“They would have to be sort of not just taking advantage that there's a community that celebrates it, but it has to be anchored to something that is important to the community,” says Barbara.

“The community has been sort of keeping their head low, you know, try to fit in. This is a way to say, we see you, we know that you're important as an audience, and your stories are important.”

Better representation of Asian people in film and TV is something Barbara’s been championing for a long time. She is seeing some positive changes but is also concerned that the rush to greenlight diverse productions could eventually dry up. 

“We're going through a watershed moment, or a moment in time that if everyone puts in the effort, we can break down barriers. It's not going to be perfect, but there's going to be a lot more advancement of racial equity in the screen industry in a short period of time. Probably more than we've seen in the last 50 years if everyone maintains their course and their commitment.”

“I think what we're going to see in media, film, and television is going to be a lot more diverse than it's ever been. I see it, but I want to sustain it.”

Her message of hope for the future comes from one of her favourite quotes.
“I always say this, and it's not my quote, it's a quote that Gayle King said about Oprah, which goes something like, ‘as she climbs up with one hand, she's pulling up the community with the other.’ And if we can all do that, then it's just going to build momentum.”