China’s resistance to gay relationships and surrogate births, seen through a filmmaker’s own family

Chinese documentarian Hao Wu’s latest film, All in My Family, focuses on Chinese family tradition, social expectations, gay relationships and children born using surrogacy through an extremely personal lens.

The 40-minute film – Wu’s fourth and set for release on streaming service Netflix this Friday – was shot over a series of Lunar New Year holidays on periodic trips back to Chengdu from New York, where he settled 20 years ago.

As the film develops, we watch him anguish and strategise over when and how to tell his grandfather that he’s gay, married to his Chinese-American husband Eric and has two children, a boy and a girl born through surrogacy.

“I wanted to show the challenges for gay people of Chinese descent, what kind of cultural and generational barriers and differences they have to negotiate in order to build a family of their own,” Wu said. Read more via SCMP

In this deeply personal documentary, gay filmmaker Hao Wu faces the dilemma of introducing his partner and children to his traditional family in China. All In My Family premieres May 3 on Netflix.