esea contemporary is pleased to co-present, with the Manchester Urban Film Series, ‘ESEA and South Asian Women Speak Out!’, a screening of two short films exploring anti-racist resistance within East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) and South Asian communities in the UK. Bridging histories of struggle and solidarity across generations, the programme includes a vital conversation with two Manchester-based women activists from each community – Nadia Siddiqui and Viv Yau. Join us in exploring the shared and distinct histories of British Asian communities while examining pathways toward collective action and inter-community connection.
The first film, ‘Immigration Wives and Fiancé Campaign: Asian Women Speak Out!’ (1986), spotlights the Manchester-based South Asian feminist movement of the early 1980s, formed in response to injustices such as the Immigration Law and the Primary Purpose Rule. The second film, ‘Go Back Home!’ (2022), amplifies the voices of British ESEA communities during the Covid era, when anti-Asian hate and anti-Chinese sentiment surged and became normalised in Western societies.
This programme is curated by Shengjun Zhang and Sandhya Sharma, PhD students from the Sociology Department at the University of Manchester. We would like to thank the North West Film Archive for granting us access to their invaluable collection and Lucy Sheen for generously allowing us to screen her film and for her dedication to amplifying British East and Southeast Asian voices.
PROGRAMME
Immigration Wives and Fiancé Campaign: Asian Women Speak Out!
Dir. North West Film Archive | 1986 | 20 min 41 sec
Go Back Home!
Dir. Lucy Sheen | 2022 | 10 min 47 sec
Following the screening, join us for a conversation between activists Nadia Siddiqui, who is featured in the 1986 film as part of the Manchester Wives and Fiancés Immigration Campaign of the 80s, and Viv Yau, the co-founder of b.esean (British East and Southeast Asian Network) during the pandemic, who represents a new generation of ESEA activism. Together, they will share their experiences of struggle against state and societal racism, exploring the continuities, peculiarities, and evolution of racism across time and geography.
About Manchester Urban Film Series
Manchester Urban Film Series is a collective of interdisciplinary PGRs from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester. Along with curating and watching short documentaries, their goal is to encourage collective conversation and discussion.
About The North West Film Archive
The North West Film Archive (NWFA), established in 1977 in Manchester, is a moving image collection for the North West of England. The archive cares for 35,000 items ranging in date from the pioneer days of film in the mid-1890s to video productions of the present day. The work of both the professional and the amateur is collected. The NWFA is a part of the Learning and Research Information Services (library) at Manchester Metropolitan University and is located in Archives+ at Manchester Central Library. The film was jointly produced by Manchester Immigration Wives and Fiance's Campaign and the Workers Film Association.
Lucy (Chau Lai-Tuen) Sheen is a Hong Kong foundling. Sheen trained as a classical actor graduating from the Rose Bruford College of Speech of Drama in 1984. Since graduation, she has worked extensively on stage, film, TV, radio, new media, commercials including The RSC, Bristol Old Vic, the BBC, ITV, and Netflix. Sheen is a published playwright, poet, non-fiction and flash-fiction writer as well as a director and dramaturge.
Nadia Siddiqui worked at South Manchester Law Centre in the early 80's as a Women's Rights Worker. Co-founding Subah, the refuge for young Asian women, she was part of the Manchester immigration Wives and Fiance's Campaign. Siddiqui is founding director of ‘Women's Voices CIC’, an organisation that empowers women and strengthens their voices in the community and wider society.
Viv Yau is a British Chinese creative, connector, and community builder based in Manchester. She is also a volunteer community organiser for besea.n (pronounced ‘be seen’) Britain’s East and South East Asian Network, a community interest group created to embrace ESEA identities and most known for spring-boarding ESEA Heritage Month.
Shengjun Zhang is an active facilitator of East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) community building, curating film events to connect people and challenge racial inequalities. While volunteering with UK-China Film Collab, she organised multiple screenings in Manchester and Liverpool, including a standout event for ESEA Heritage Month 2023 with ScousESEA. In 2024, she began her PhD in Sociology at the University of Manchester, researching ESEA community networks in the UK and panethnic identity development.
Sandhya Sharma has spent 30 years working in the women’s refuge sector focusing on Black and minoritised women leaving abuse. Most recently she co-founded ‘Safety4Sisters Northwest’: a feminist organisation that supports undocumented migrant women survivors of gender-based abuse experiencing immigration harm. She started her PhD in Sociology at the University of Manchester to research, document, and archive the struggles of South Asian feminist activism in Manchester during the 1980s and 90s.