The Trailer for Lulu Wang’s First TV Series, ‘Expats,’ Interrogates American Privilege in Hong Kong
If you’re a fan of director Lulu Wang thanks to her beautiful film The Farewell, you’re likely as thrilled as we are to know that she’s bringing her brilliant storytelling to a limited series on Amazon Prime Video. Her new show Expats, starring Nicole Kidman, just released its first trailer.
The Expats trailer introduces us to the grief, as well as the class issues, the show will explore
The trailer, which dropped yesterday, gives us further insight into the story of the series, one that seems to include, among other things, the death of a child.
It introduces us to the three central characters: Margaret (Kidman), mother of the deceased child; Hilary (Sarayu Blue), a woman who seems to be questioning her life and marriage; and Mercy (Ji-Young Yoo), the youngest of the three whose deal isn’t entirely clear from this trailer, but it seems to be in “deep dark secret” territory.
It also points to the class issues that will be explored on the show through interaction with (and about) Margaret’s housekeeper Essie (Ruby Ruiz), to whom Margaret refers as a “member of the family,” until Hilary reminds her, “She’s your employee, not your friend.”
Expats is guaranteed to be a complicated watch
Watching three upper-class American women trying to “find themselves” in Hong Kong will almost certainly raise a lot of complicated emotions for many of us.
Indeed, the show has been raising these emotions long before this trailer. When Wang revealed some “first look” images, including the first series poster, to whet our appetites, opinions immediately started forming on the internet.
Wang shared this first look at the Expats poster art on X (formerly Twitter) back in October, and while many were excited about receiving new work from the director, some were a bit skeptical of the project, while others were simply skeptical of the quality of the poster art itself:
For some folks living in Hong Kong, the release of this poster was simply a reminder that Nicole Kidman was allowed to forego quarantine during production of Expats in 2021 while they still had to abide by strict quarantine rules:
As reported by Firstpost at the time, Hong Kong’s government issued the following statement about the controversial exemption as Hong Kong tightened its quarantine restrictions for citizens and expats living there:
The case in discussion has been granted permission to travel to Hong Kong with a quarantine exemption for the purpose of performing designated professional work, taking into account that it is conducive to maintaining the necessary operation and development of Hong Kong’s economy.
Hong Kong’s government insisted that “people granted such exemptions must comply with disease prevention measures to minimise transmission risks and contact with the public,” and that the production followed all of the government’s other COVID requirements. However, Hong Kong residents were skeptical of the timing of this exemption, considering the current political climate in the Chinese special administrative region.
Here’s hoping Expats will examine American privilege, if not Hong Kong politics
Expats is based on the 2016 novel The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee, who was born and raised in Hong Kong to Korean immigrants. It tells the story of three American expatriates to the region—one white, two Asian-American—whose individual traumas force their lives to collide. According to Newsweek, the concern among some Hong Kong residents is that the series will unwittingly serve as “soft propaganda” for the Chinese government.
The past few years have seen an increase in pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong that the Chinese government is keen to minimize. The novel was written before this pro-democracy wave really took hold, but the concern is that Expats will sugarcoat life in Hong Kong and not wrestle with the political reality at all, giving China a propaganda tool to show that life in Hong Kong is wonderful and freeing.
While the show may or may not deal with the current political climate in Hong Kong, if it stays true to the novel on which it’s based, it just might wrestle with some other socio-political issues that are worth examining. For example, privilege in who gets to be called “an expatriate” in the first place, as opposed to “an immigrant,” or “a migrant,” or an “asylum seeker.” Or, an “alien.”
“Expatriate” is probably the most neutral term for someone who has chosen to live outside their own country. Except it isn’t really neutral. When compared to the other terms mentioned above, each of which carries some kind of negative connotation depending on who says it, an expatriate would—consciously or not—be the “good” kind of foreigner. The kind who is seen as able to contribute, and welcome, and not a “drain on society.” The kind who isn’t accused of stealing anyone’s job.
It’s interesting then that the expatriates in Expats, which is based on a story by a Korean immigrant in Hong Kong, are each of a different race, but all of them are American. It seems very focused on examining a specific kind of American privilege that exists (or that’s perceived, or both) in the eyes of the rest of the world.
I’m curious to see how this TV adaptation from a Chinese-American filmmaker of a story by a Korean-Hongkonger novelist tackles American privilege abroad, as well as whether any elements of current Hong Kong politics will be addressed. Either way, it should be fascinating viewing.
Expats comes to Prime Video on January 26, 2024.
(featured image: Prime Video)
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