Writer-director Lulu Wang’s work has consistently centered themes of belonging and rootlessness. Her acclaimed 2019 film The Farewell shows the journey of a young Chinese-American woman, played by Awkwafina, as she confronts the complexities of familial relationships upon returning to China and says goodbye to her ailing grandmother. Wang's latest project, the Prime Video series Expats (based on Janice YK Lee's novel The Expatriates) further explores these themes through the stories of several women whose lives intersect dramatically in Hong Kong.
More: Expats director Lulu Wang can find ‘home in a bowl of broth’
For her Treat, Wang shares that her pandemic past-time was learning all about permaculture and growing her own food. Drawing upon memories of gardening with her grandmother as a child in China, she found resonance in the concept of interconnectedness within nature. Wang notes that by literally getting one’s hands dirty, we actively engage with the earth, and can gain a new perspective.
More: Lulu Wang: The Farewell (The Treatment, 2019)
This segment has been edited and condensed for clarity.
I've been reading a lot about permaculture because I've been gardening. It was something that I discovered during the pandemic. I had time, like so many of us did, and so I started growing things. And now I've grown a lot of food in my garden. It makes me think about my grandmother in China. When I was very young, before we left for the States, she lived in a house where she had a garden and later in life that was turned into a shopping mall or something so she lost that house. But one of my most cherished memories is pulling carrots out of the garden. And so whenever I'm in the garden, I feel connected to her. But what I love about reading about permaculture is understanding that everything is connected and that when you put a seed in the ground, you know that simple act, that things will grow and that everything affects each other.
When you have your hands in the soil, in the earth, you feel like a human being and it feels like no matter which soil I'm on, I can still grow many of the same things. It does make me feel rooted, to literally see things take root in my own house.
I never thought I would have my mind blown by cherry tomatoes but a tomato that you grow in your [own] garden does not taste like any tomato that you [would] get at grocery stores. Because of the transport, they often pick them before they're ripe. And in your garden, you eat them right off the vine. That was just incredible to me. How something so simple that I’ve known my whole life, like a tomato, could be seen in a completely different light. It made me think a lot about storytelling and perspective. Stories that we live our lives by, that we believe in for so long — [when] you see [them] from a different perspective it can completely shift your reality.
