When you drink from the well, remember the spring.

Bluff City Chinese is an award-winning documentary that follows two Chinese-American storytellers from different generations as they rebuild the untold history of Chinese immigrants in Memphis, Tennessee. Directed by Thandi Cai (Anna) and featuring Delta Chinese elder and mentor Emerald Dunn, the film captures the deeply personal and often challenging process of reconstructing a community’s past from the ground up.

Set against the backdrop of the American South, with its layered social and racial tensions, the filmmakers move from archives to cemeteries to the living rooms of Memphis families, piecing together a story too long left out of the record. Their journey invites you to reflect on where we come from, what we inherit, and how we imagine a future rooted in dignity and connection.