Filmmaker Statement

My father grew up in the Chinese countryside to a family of farmers. As the youngest, he was able to go to college, and became the only one to go to America and leave that life behind. However, when I visited China in 2019, I learned that my relatives no longer farmed anymore. They had sold their land to a corporation a few years ago, who had since built a factory there and employed them to work in it. While this increased their quality of life, it also erased our family history, creating an interesting debate over tradition vs survival. When I asked my grandpa how he felt about this change, he took me to a wild swath of plum trees outside his village. "Those were planted by my grandfather. As long as they still stand, so does our family history. As the children of immigrants, we often strive to become more than our parents. However, in doing so, we forget that we would be nothing without the sacrifices of those who have come before. I made Plum Town to remind myself of that.