Master Qi and the monkey king

Streaming video - 2014

This beautifully realized documentary chronicles the life and work of Qi Shu Fang, one of the preeminent masters of Chinese Opera living in the United States. It is a story of ambition, love, the creative impulse and the struggle to survive against all odds. The film highlights the intricacies of Peking Opera, an art form that is hardly known in the West and is declining in popularity in China. At the same time it explores why Ms. Qi, her husband, Ding Mei-kui, and their company of Chinese Opera performers have made the difficult move to the United States, where they, like so many immigrants, must balance pressures to assimilate with the needs of cultural expression and preservation.