Rhymes of Shui Hau 

Director: Chan Ho-lun Fredie
​Producer: Chloe Lai
2017/ Hong Kong / colour/ 50 min
In Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles

​Synopsis:
​The village of Shui Hau is three hundred years old. The village is bounded by the Lantau Peak to the north and the South China Sea to the south. In Chinese, “Shui Hau” means the mouth of a waterway, which explains its geographic location. The village, or the island where it is situated, must be understood with an appreciation of the sea. Lantau Island is part of a chain of islands separating the Pearl River and the open seas. The waterway connects Lantau to Soko Islands, Cheung Chau, Peng Chau, Macau and other cities and settlements in the Pearl River Delta. Recent human settlements in Lantau can only be understood from the perspective of the sea and its seafarers. Rhymes of Shui Hau features three elderly ladies from the village. Their stories, and the rhymes they hum in Wai Tau Waa, an age-old dialect that many cannot comprehend, offer a glimpse of Hong Kong before its industrialisation and urbanisation. If their rhymes open a window to the city’s past, they are also a peephole for our future. If development and urban expansion is given a free reign, we would soon forget the vernacular heritage that we have lost.

Uneasy Walk

Director: Chan Ho-lun Fredie
2020 / Hong Kong / colour / 9’35 mins
In Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles

​Synopsis:
​​Uneasy walk documented the 1st Anniversary of Sha Tin neighbourhood's participation in the Anti Hong Kong China Extradition Bill movement. Sha Tin New Town Plaza's podium is a landmark of the community, it has been transformed from a shopping mall to a democratic square in the past 12 months. When I found my memory of childhood in Sha TIn New Town Plaza from a photo album, I realised that it is not just a documentary film of 365 days, also my 36 years record of New Territories' Satellite Towns Development history.

Chan Ho-lun Fredie

Born in Hong Kong, after graduating from the Department of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University in 2006, Chan Ho-lun Fredie became a TV producer of Public and Current Affairs Unit at Radio Television Hong Kong. He started producing independent documentary films which focus on Urban grassroots working class and the new rural farming since 2008, his films have been selected by international film festivals and worldwide cultural events. In 2020, Fredie received Asian Cultural Council (ACC) New York Fellowship to start his research in community-based Documentary Social Enterprises business strategies in New York and Japan. He is now actively involved in various independent film productions and education projects, and looking forward to establish his Grassroots Media Centre in the future.​

​A Dialogue

Zoom conversation with Chan Ho-Lun Fredie, Miguel Angel Hidalgo Martinez, and Jenny Chio.

Miguel ANGEL HidaLgo Martinez  

Dr. Miguel Angel Hidalgo Martinez is from Queretaro, Mexico. He obtained a BA in International Relations from the Technological Institute of Higher Education of Monterrey (ITESM), Mexico, where he first met Chan Ho-lun Fredie. After completing his undergraduate studies, Dr. Martinez moved to China to study Chinese language and culture at the Dalian University of Foreign Languages in Liaoning province for three years. After his time in Dalian, he studied at Tsinghua University in Beijing where he earned a MA in Public Policy. For his PhD dissertation at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, Dr. Martinez analysed the development of urban infrastructure in China, with a particular focus on the transport infrastructure of Chongqing city. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of China Studies at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) in Suzhou, China. His research focuses on urbanization in China and in the regional economy of the Sichuan-Chongqing region.