Experimental Documentary
A Wayfarer
A Wayfarer / Experimental Documentary
A young Chinese immigrant searches for home between cultures, places and versions of herself.
The concept
A Wayfarer follows Boaty through cultural displacement, shifting identity and the search for belonging. Personal archives, family interviews and journeys across China and the United States give shape to the experience of being “lost-in-culture.”
Made as an MFA thesis film at Rochester Institute of Technology, the film follows the subjective rhythm of memory rather than a conventional dramatic arc.
Visual approach
Walking and driving link locations and periods of life. Reenacted moments, observational footage and sound design construct an emotional geography. The process moves from an early comic approach toward vulnerability; the original song “On the Roam” helped form the film’s foundation.
2024 film · 2025 MFA thesis · English / Mandarin
Artist Statement
Edited for the website from Appendix 2, “Artist Statement,” pp. 46–48. The complete original remains in the thesis.
I think of myself as a flâneur: a wanderer and observer moving between cultures. The film asks how reaching out to unfamiliar places can coexist with the wish for a quiet, peaceful life.
For A Wayfarer, I use my own movement through places and time to evoke displacement. I embrace subjectivity, shaping time and geography as they persist in memory, with images and sound rather than a fixed three-act structure.
The project also asks me to make room for sadness. Moving away from my usual comic voice allows vulnerability to become part of the encounter with the audience.
I don’t want to be a tourist in any city, but a neighbor.
Artist Statement · original English, thesis p. 46
