Film Screening & Discussion - Lai Sun Store

Film Screening & Discussion- “Lai Sun Store"

Lai Sun Store
Producer: Chloe Lai
Director: Nate Chan
Year of Production: 2014
Length: 55 minutes
Language: Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles

Synopsis:
Lai Sun Store has been in business for 40 years. It nurtures three generations of the Chan family. Over the years, the mum-and-pop store has emerged as a quasi-public space of the community. Residents of the Pak Tin Estate go to the store for snacks and soft drinks. But more importantly, they go there to meet more neighbours. Visiting the store is their daily pilgrimage. But redevelopment of Pak Tin Estate meant the store has to shut down. The film captures the last days of the store, and how the neighbours say goodbye to the Chan family.

After the screening, the producer, Dr. Chloe Lai will be attending the question-and-answer session.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Asst Prof Ting Chun Chun, Chinese Studies, Nanyang Technological University.

ABOUT THE PRODUCER
A journalist by training, Dr. Chloe Lai has long been covering issues pertaining to urban planning and development in English newspapers in Hong Kong. She currently runs a non-profit online platform called Urban Diary (Website: https://www.urbandiarist.com/en/, Facebook: ovalurbandiary) that promotes sustainable living in the city. Urban Diary is a collage of stories which features the actions and crafts of ordinary Hong Kong people that make the city vibrant, diverse and resilient. Dr. Lai uses journalism to narrate stories of everyday life. She firmly believes in discovering different way of living in the ruthlessly development-driven Hong Kong. Dr. Lai’s work was turned into the bilingual publication titled URBAN DIARY: Sustainable Future Hong Kong Tales, which was named by academic groups such as the Hong Kong Urban Laboratory, and media outlets such as Stand News, as one of the top 10 books in Urban Studies for 2015. Dr. Lai obtained her PhD from the Department of Comparative Literature, The University of Hong Kong. Her thesis, Journalism as part of the neoliberal urban redevelopment regime: the case of Hong Kong, investigates the role of the press in Hong Kong’s urban redevelopment regime, and analyses the impact of neoliberal governmentality on journalism.