EVENTS

Documentary Screening and Presentations

Beyond Barbed Wires: A Distant Dawn

(Dir: Rafeeq Elias)

In the third week of November 1962, in the aftermath of the India-China war, about 3000 Chinese people living in Assam and Darjeeling district were rounded up, put on a train, and sent 1000 miles away to an internment camp in Deoli, Rajasthan. Though the war lasted for only a month, the camp remained opened for five years. When the internees were released intermittently over these years, they were not allowed to return home and had to start life over in a different city. Many accepted China’s invitation to go to China because they felt there was no hope of starting life over in India in a hostile environment. Others emigrated to seek a better life in other countries. Those who remained felt they had no alternative and endured years of hardship.

A new documentary by Rafeeq Ellias explores in gripping vignettes how some ex-internees have lived with the experience.

Presentations by Deoli Survivors

Michael Cheng was six years old when he was interned. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with his family.

Joy Ma is a writer and attended Delhi University. She was born in Deoli and is working on a book about her family’s journey in India.

Yin Marsh was 13 when she went to Deoli, She wrote Doing Time with Nehru and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Steven Wan was a teenager when he was interned with his family. He lives in Toronto with his family

Rafeeq Ellias is a photographer and filmmaker with over 30 awards to his credit, including an Emmy for a series of UNICEF TV commercials as well as two National Awards for his BBC-documentary, The Legend of Fat Mama, the story of India’s tiny Chinese community in Kolkata.