Director Tiffany Frances Explores Asian American Identity in New Film ‘Hello From Taiwan’

One of director Tiffany Frances’ earliest memories is of a terminal in the San Jose International Airport in the late 1980s. She and her mother were there to greet her two older siblings and her father, who had spent the past year living in Taiwan.

“At the time, my parents were going through a divorce, and I was around 4 years old and I didn’t really understand what was going on,” Frances recalled to the FBomb. “I was so young when I re-met my sisters that it was like ‘Oh, who are you guys again?’”

That memory became the basis of Frances’ new short film, “Hello From Taiwan,” which is making its world premiere this month at the 2020 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, which runs through Oct 31. The film centers on a Taiwanese American girl named Christy, who is struggling to process both her parents’ divorce and the new family dynamics that come with it.

“Hello From Taiwan” was made for the prestigious AFI Directing Workshop for Women and marks a turning point for Frances both personally and professionally. “I was exploring a lot about my family at the time because my dad had passed away,” she said. “So I wanted to get to know my parents and kind of understand their backstory and what they went through as immigrants.”

We got to chat with Frances about her new film, what it was like working with her very young cast, and her love for late 1980s / early 1990s pop culture and the hit show “Beverly Hills: 90210.”

What was it like revisiting your childhood memories to write this script?

It was definitely a roller coaster of emotions, especially when I started thinking about the immigrant experience that my parents went through and their struggles along the way. It was really eye-opening for me.

Now that I am an adult, I can also relate to my mom more. I started to ask her all of these questions about their lives before they had us and all of the marital stuff they went through. I also talked to my sisters about their experience moving to Taipei for a year. That was the emotional part, because I missed my dad a lot and got to know him in a different way after he was gone.

All three of the child actors in the film are really fantastic, and Brandilyn Cheah’s performance as Christy is a particular standout. What is it like directing performers that are that young?

What was amazing was that they all got along immediately. Brandilyn, Lydia [Lin], and Kyra [Lyn] were just so present when on set. It was perfect.

I remember we had scheduled a time for them to hang out, and Brandilyn’s mom Linda hosted a dinner for us. We went and hung out in their backyard for a while, and within five minutes they were all playing with each other. It was just so natural. I think that really came across on set.

I also just have a super youthful and playful side to me, so it was really easy for me to jump into that mode and play with them too. Maybe that helped.

It quickly becomes clear to viewers that this is a story about a family that is going through a divorce. What was it like exploring these big adult themes through Christy, who is too young to understand a lot of the things going on around her?

There is something so interesting about a kid going through something traumatic and not really thinking until later how that manifests through her life. Because that is what I went through. So I got to get into this childlike mindset and think about the character and see what it is like to live through your world splitting apart.

But it was also interesting because I then had to put myself in my parents’ shoes and that was far more painful.

Divorce is also something that a lot of Asian American cultures don't like to talk about publicly. How did your experiences growing up affect your desire to create stories that reflected the full range of Asian American experiences?

My mom definitely wasn’t excited when she realized that I was about to tell this story to a bunch of people. My parents didn’t end up divorcing, they ended up getting back together. So I grew up with my family intact. I am really lucky, but I also know that it could have gone a whole different way.

Part of the reason they decided to stay together was because they felt it was important to keep the whole family together as a unit. I think part of that came from their background, which really influenced them to think about the family unit instead of individualism. It is interesting to think about how they really valued the family over themselves in a way, and that is part of why I really wanted to explore the subject of divorce.

Christy only speaks English, while her parents and siblings all are bilingual. What was it like having your character navigate that language barrier?

There are actually three different languages — English, Mandarin, and Taiwanese — used in the film. My parents’ generation actually predominantly speak Taiwanese with each other, but they would speak Mandarin to the younger generation.

I wanted to explore all of the different connective aspects of languages. I speak Mandarin, but it is not super great. The best way for me to express myself is in English and I think it’s really interesting to think about how that’s what happens in these immigrant families.

I also really loved the dinner scene in which Christy is determined to use chopsticks because she sees her big sisters using them, but she struggles because she isn’t as experienced and is used to using forks. How did that scene come about?

It was a truly magical thing in how all of that came together. It was written on the page as a small paragraph with no dialogue. But I knew when I was writing it that I needed a visual way to show that Christy was starting to want to be like her sisters at that point in the story. But it turned out to be more than that.

We were in a huge rush because we were running out of time. I needed to move on to the next scene, but we also knew what we needed for this scene to really pull it off. Our production designer had brought in all of this amazing Taiwanese food [for the scene] and everyone was really hungry. I just remember everyone really staring at the food and just felt like there was a family energy coming together.

I think that’s what made the scene seem really natural. And then Brandilyn, who plays Christy, she did a fist pump at the end all on her own — I knew I had to include that moment in the edit. She knows how to use chopsticks really well, but for the sake of her character she just pulled it off.

There were also really great ’80s touches in the show, like the family's love of “90210,” even though the kids were much too young for it! Was it fun putting those little nods to pop culture in there?

I actually did watch “91020” at an incredibly young age, which is kind of funny to think about. To think that I was watching those racy scenes at age five, I’m now like ‘What kind of stuff was I exposed to as a kid?’

But I also put that little detail about “90210” into the film because I grew up watching a lot of shows with predominantly white casts, so I thought it was a fun nod to show that people of color didn’t get to see a lot of their own shows that reflected themselves on screen.

“Hello From Taiwan” is currently screening online as part of the 2020 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. To purchase a ticket, head here.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.