British Chinese Cinema and the struggle for recognition, even on the margins

British Chinese films have struggled to find a significant presence in the writings of British cinema history, even within debates on minority cinemas, such Black British or British Asian cinema, which have since the 1980s established a canon of margins of sorts. This chapter argues for an inclusive historiography that places British Chinese filmmaking within these wider debates, through the analysis of films such as Ping Pong (1986), Soursweet (1988), Peggy Su (1997) and Cut Sleeve Boys (2006), which not only intersect with issues of representation and various film funding initiatives that have encouraged new voices, but also highlight questions of distribution and exhibition for small films in the construction of national cinemas.