Judith Benedikt embarks on a journey following first and second-generation immigrants from China in Austria, who are mainly stranded in Asian restaurants in the city and in the countryside. After half a century of migration, mainly in one direction, there is a new current flowing back to the east, due to the economic boom in China. Gradually a new generation is emerging that has to face the fact that Chinas current boom can also create new opportunities for them. One of the protagonists – a father, who already built up a whole empire of Asian snack stands and restaurants in Vienna – dares the leap back to China, to establish a chain of typical Viennese coffee houses there. Backwards migration.

(Catalogue Text, Crossing Europe Filmfstival, Lina Dinkla, April 2014)


'I will take a coffee machine, but I will fly back to China.'

~ Shan Jiaqian about Herrn Wu