Director Debbie Lum’s new documentary SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE, follows a 60 year old American man named Steven, who is keen to have an Asian woman as his wife. After 5 years of searching, he decides to sponsor a 30 year old Chinese woman, named Sandy, to the United States on a 3-month fiance visa.
The audience of the film is along for the ride, witnessing Steven and Sandy’s cultural clashes and relationship obstacles as they’re experienced.
In a recent interview with NPR, Debbie Lum states, “The stereotype is that men like Steven, who have an obsession for Asian women, this thing called ‘Asian fetish’, want somebody submissive, traditional, docile, you know, the perfect wife who’s not going to talk back.”
In the film, Steven realizes his relationship with Sandy will involve some heavy compromises regarding cultural differences and personality traits.
On NPR, Lum comments, “She [Sandy] was not at all what I expected and, at first, I really did – I was just shocked that she was the sort of – she seemed to be the traditional woman that he was looking for and then, suddenly, she became a really powerful person in his life.”
The director also plays a third character in the film, the couple’s translator. Lum is seen many times stuck in the middle of the couple’s troubles.
This film encapsulates a light comedy with the moving depictions of a bicultural relationship.
SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE will be showing next week, on July 28th, during the 2012 Asian American International Film Festival. To purchase tickets, visit here.
For more of Debbie Lum’s NPR interview, “For One Man, She Had To Be Pretty And Asian” –
visit here.