Other Tongue

Criticized by her mother for "spending too much time sketching and not enough time learning Chinese," Vera Szeto takes a Mandarin class to prove she can successfully do both. There, she meets Corgan Long, a Caucasian American who speaks better Mandarin than she does. At first resentful, then fascinated by him, Vera finds in Corgan a cultural balance that she lacks. Raised by Chinese parents, Corgan is the ideal American-born Chinese: he not only speaks his mother tongue fluently, but is also Buddhist, drinks oolong tea, and eats mantau (Chinese buns). Though at first Mrs. Szeto disapproves of the relationship because he is white, she later cannot deny that he knows more about Chinese culture than her own daughter. Can mother and daughter move past their language barriers and culture clashes to reach a common ground? In today's ever-increasing melting pot, how does one negotiate the culture you're born into with the culture you live in? Does mastery of an "other tongue" make you any less authentic in speaking your mother tongue? Intercut with animated sketch sequences of people of various ethnicities speaking in unexpected tongues, the ten-minute dramedy provides no easy answers on what it means to achieve cultural authenticity.