Memory magic: cosmopolitanism and The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam

Abstract

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam is a two-part project created by Canadian-based filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming. The project traces the history of Fleming's Chinese ancestor, Long Tack Sam, and presents it in a documentary (2003) and an accompanying graphic novel (2007). In the concluding moments of the documentary, Fleming comments ‘memory is a type of magic’. This point provides a useful hook to summarize Fleming's aesthetic practice, which can be translated into a productive model of cosmopolitanism. Her ‘memory-magic’ involves four ‘tricks’, or techniques: the revealing of history and modernity as smoke and mirrors; the acceptance and engagement with the unknown or yet-to-be-experienced, and the deconstruction of common notions of time and place. This paper thus argues that Fleming's project aligns itself with what can be described as a critical, vernacular cosmopolitanism.

Acknowledgements

I sincerely thank Professor Sneja Gunew at the University of British Columbia for introducing me to the work of Ann Marie Fleming and for providing comments on an initial draft of this paper. I also thank Ann Marie Fleming for her engaging work and her willingness to discuss it with me.

Notes

^1. It is important to make note of the way the term ‘magic’ is used in this paper. Lazarus (2011, 131) has discussed the specific formation of ‘magic realism’, usually linked to Latin American writers, and at times in danger of recreating notions of the ‘exotic Other’. ‘Magic’ is used in this paper in the same spirit as Ann Marie Fleming's use of the term: as a form that influences the course of events in particular ways but ultimately is interpreted differently across contexts.

^2. In an interview, Ann-Marie Fleming (personal communication, interview with Daniella Trimboli, Vancouver, March 4, 2013) states:

it always seemed like a nice vacation to go back to a little stickgirl film, where I could say whatever I wanted to, work by myself and she always makes me smile when I draw her. She is, indeed, my avatar. But she is smarter and braver than I am. And way more charming.

^3. The Chinese character chong has three meanings. First: multiple, not singular; second: regenerative, like ‘born again’; third: to treasure, to value (one's many diverse roots; Kwok-bun 2005, 126).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniella Trimboli

Daniella Trimboli is a jointly awarded Ph.D. candidate in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne and the Department of English, University of British Columbia. Her dissertation analyses the intersection of digital storytelling and everyday multiculturalism. Daniella has worked as a lecturer and research assistant in Tourism, Australian Studies and for the Yunggorendi First Nations Centre at Flinders University. Prior to this, Daniella worked for the Queensland Folk Federation (QFF), organizer of the Woodford Folk Festival and the international Indigenous festival, The Dreaming. Her work with the QFF heightened her interest in the concepts of community-based art and cultural diversity.