DVD 1: Song of the Exile

Israel

Haifa's Yan Yan Restaurant was established by Chinese-Vietnamese refugee Kien Wong.   Wong is a devout Christian who evangelizes Chinese migrant workers and expatriates. His children, meanwhile, variously negotiate their complex identities as Christian Chinese Israelis in a Jewish homeland surrounded by Arab states, rocked by Palestinian uprisings and steeped in religious orthodoxy - in a country where religion and ethnic identity are powerful sources of tension as well as solace.

South Africa

The Golden Dragon , started in 1947 by community activist Lam Al Ying, is Cape Town's first Chinese restaurant.   Ying's widow and his daughter now continue his legacy.   Through the mother-daughter team we glimpse a country struggling to address the bitter injustices and betrayals of its apartheid past.   Strangers in a strange land who kept to themselves, the divided Chinese community is only now shaking off its confusion to claim its place in the new South Africa.

Turkey

Istanbul's China Restaurant is the oldest Chinese restaurant in Turkey. Its founder, Wang Zhengshan, fled China with his family in a dramatic trek over the Himalayas in 1949 when Chinese Communists took power, thereby earning a place in the urban legend as the man who “walked from China”. Wang died in 1961, leaving his widow Fatima and eight children struggling to survive. Now as Fatima contemplates retiring, the restaurant faces an uncertain future.