Blog Entries by Hannah Lau
Hannah Lau was born and raised in Canada. Growing up with immigrant parents from Hong Kong gave her a rich perspective on both Eastern and Western cultures. She has spent her adult life in Asia, beginning in China serving through work in the marketplace.
With a colorful and hard-earned career in corporate advertising, she uses her experience to support organizations and small businesses through Astera Asia, which she founded. She’s also the author of Wherever You Go and a public speaker, passionate about people, and how Christ can be an active part of their adventure.
She can be found on Twitter @HannahLau.
Wangdrak’s Rain Boots
A Film Review
For a glimpse of Tibet, for a good story about childhood struggles and a precious friendship, or just for the opportunity to see how something as simple as rain can turn a town upside down, this is a worthy watch.
Lost and Love
A Film Review
Hope in the face of devastating loss. A film about child trafficking in China.
China’s Fake Boyfriends
A Film Review
With Chinese New Year only two weeks away, there is definitely an energy in the air—shopping, planning trips home, booking dinners and gatherings. Underneath this flurry of festive activity lies a very real and difficult social struggle.
Dwarves Kingdom
A Film Review
A documentary exploring the lives of some of China's "little people" living and working at a theme park in Yunnan.
Knife in the Clear Water
A Film Review
Another favorite film from the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
Beijing Taxi
A Film Review
The film Beijing Taxi, directed by Miao Wang, a Beijing native who immigrated to the US in 1990, begins two years before the Olympics and follows the lives of three taxi drivers. Each of them shares their own perspective on Beijing’s transformation, China’s rise, and most importantly, what it all means to them. Is China hosting the Olympics really all the glitz and glory that it was dreamed to be? What price economic growth and development?
Stonehead
A Film Review
The film, Stonehead, is set in a small village in China where children, the "left-behind children," are raised by their grandparents because their parents have all moved to urban cities for better jobs. The story centers around three main characters who, even though it’s never clearly stated, each represent a different way left-behind children cope with their family situations. But the film also speaks more widely about the coping mechanisms used by people thoughout Chinese society today.
Web Junkie
A Film Review
Daxing Bootcamp, located in the suburbs of Beijing, is probably a place you've never heard of. But growing numbers of parents in China who are at wits’ end have heard of it or of the 400 rehabilitation camps like it. The government has set up the centers to treat teenagers with internet addiction disorder. Web Junkie takes us inside Daxing Bootcamp and introduces us to three of the young men who are treated there.