Nanyang Express I : Trans-drifting and South Sea Crossing

In earlier decades, many people from Kinmen left their hometown for Southeast Asia in search of a livelihood and eventually settled there. Family letters exchanged across the sea became an important connection between migrants and their homeland.

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Nanyang Express I: Trans-drifting and South Sea Crossing originates from a collection of family letters from Southeast Asia preserved by the artist’s grandmother. Acting as a messenger, Lin traveled to Bangka Island, Indonesia, following the faded addresses and handwritten notes on the envelopes to visit the people and places to which the letters were addressed. Through field research and video documentation, the work retraces a family migration route across the sea between Kinmen and Indonesia.

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Structured around two family letters narrated in Indonesian, the film presents the living conditions of migrants in a foreign land, alongside the labor, linguistic, and historical experiences embedded within them.