International Center for Cultural Studies

Report｜ Film Screening – The Link

2024-09-23

Event｜Film Screening – The Link

Time｜ Monday, September 23, 2024

Venue｜HB326, HA Building 2

Director｜Musquiqui Chihying and Lou Mo

Event Info｜https://iccs.chss.nycu.edu.tw/en/activity.php?USN=1508

Event Photo｜https://iccs.chss.nycu.edu.tw/en/album.php?USN=306

Moderator｜Tu Huynh (Associated Researcher, Global South Studies Center, University of Cologne)

Organizer｜Africa-China Research Network in Taiwan in cooperation with the International Centre for Cultural Studies (NYCU) and the Social Inequalities Research Unit ( University of Cologne).

ICCS Sub-project｜Migration, Unequal Citizens, and Critical Legal Studies & The Geopolitics and Cultural Economy of Societal Relations in a New GreaterChina

Principal Investigator｜Prof. Joyce C.H. Liu, Yu-Fan Chiu & Prof. Allen Chun

The Link is a short documentary directed by Musquiqui Chihying and Lou Mo. It explores the connections between migration, slavery, forced labor, extraction, and control techniques in the Global South, with a particular focus on Mauritius. The film also highlights the ties between the 19th century Western colonial period, and 21st century China's "World Digital Brain" ambitions, as pursued by Chinese multinational corporations through submarine cable connections.

As a starting point, the film takes the audience to Aapravasi Ghat in the district of Port Louis. This site witnessed the British government's use of cheap labor to replace slaves after the abolition of slavery. It served as an entry point where migrant laborers were profiled and photographed. They were checked individually and quarantined. Aapravasi Ghat was a place of control for migrant labor. This same mechanism is reflected in China’s “World Digital Brain” and its smart cities today.

“Making Mauritius a Smart Paradise for All” is a smart city campaign led by the Chinese company Huawei, which provides technology and services. The directors emphasized that just as the 19th-century British government used photography as a modern technology to profile and control migrant labor, today, similar camera ideologies are used to gather data and create algorithms for control. This information is transmitted through submarine cables; as Chihying stated, “Whoever controls the submarine cables will control the world.”

The film also traced migration history and uncovered the presence of Hakka people who had settled in Mauritius during the 19th century. However, not all Chinese migrants were brought by the British to work as coolies on plantations, and some came themselves as merchants in search of fortune.

The director, Musquiqui Chihying, stated that the film is in its preliminary stage and that he and Lou Mo will continue their project. This film was produced in collaboration with the DGAP (German Council on Foreign Relations), the Rongxing Hakka Opera Troupe in Taiwan, and Aapravasi Ghat, the Museum of Coolie History in Mauritius.

This showing was sponsored by the Africa-China Research Network in Taiwan in cooperation with the International Center for Cultural Studies (NYCU) and the Social Inequalities Research Unit at the University of Cologne.