Project Description

Director: Jiacheng Xu
Producer: Jiacheng Xu
Cast: Yi
Time: 35:38

Synopsis: Yi (2017) centers on a Chinese migrant laborer who illegally immigrated to the U.S. in 2001 and has since worked primarily in various restaurants on the East Coast. In 2010, he was arrested by the F.B.I. and was charged with drug possession and the intent to distribute, for which he spent three years in a federal prison and one year in an immigration detention center. Due to his criminal record, the Chinese government has rejected his reentry and has gone so far as to claim that there is no documentation that he was ever a Chinese national. Yi was eventually released with a temporary permit and has since been working in restaurants again as a man with no citizenship to any country.