We are happy to announce that the 11th CIFA Screening and Research Seminar, ‘The Immigrant Double-Life: Stretched Kinship Between the Said and the Unsaid’, will take place on Thursday 29th October 2026 at 15:30 in Room 2.21, Old Library Building. The event features a screening of The Things I Have Never Told You (2024), followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker Yuan Xun, who will join us online.
Shining a spotlight on a young Chinese woman’s inner monologue as she navigates Lisbon’s English-language stand-up comedy scene and her life as a young, female immigrant, the film offers a candid portrayal of the limbo between identities and the many challenges of life abroad, the possibility of belonging constantly within sight but out of reach.
The seminar will run from 15:30 to 17:00. The post-screening discussion will be led by Christina Li, a PhD researcher at the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology whose research focuses on the mental and emotional wellbeing of young Chinese immigrants in relation to their family relationships and their home country.
Topics for discussion include (but are not limited to):
- Transnational migration: How does the experience of racial stereotypes and aggression shape one’s understanding of (national/ethnic) identity and belonging? What may help ground the ambivalences and precarities of migration, especially in turbulent times? How do these intersect with gender, and what additional insights into harm and care may arise?
- Chinese family dynamics: What does it mean to be ‘independent’ for young Chinese immigrants and their families? How do geographical, temporal and emotional distance in transnational migration affect family relationships? How can we interpret the ‘intentionally left out’ part of familial conversations?
- Mental and emotional wellbeing: What are the ways to document, process, and potentially resist distressing experiences? What does managing (transnational) family relations look like, and how might it affect one’s mental state?