History, heritage, hiraeth: retelling the stories of Chinese restaurants in South Wales
Our researchers have teamed up with an award-winning filmmaker to explore the experiences of restaurant owners from the Chinese diaspora community in South Wales.
“Being Welsh and British-born, I like to think I can have the best of both,” explains Elizabeth Chan.
Together with her husband Kai Nam Chan, Elizabeth ran the beloved Kai Nam Chinese Restaurant and Nam Kwok Restaurant in Abergavenny and Cwmbran from the 1960s to the 1990s.
The couple are among the owners of three generations of Chinese restaurants in South Wales who have shared stories of belonging, intercultural and migration experiences, food and identities in a short film exploring how these spaces have shaped the neighbourhoods and communities around them.
The film, ‘Space & Tastes: Stories of Chinese Restaurants in Wales’, was created by a team of Cardiff University researchers Dr Lui (Radium) Tam, Dr Helena F. S. Lopes, and Dr Aled Singleton, in collaboration with BAFTA Cymru award-winning cinematographer Keefa Chan.
In an innovative dining interview format, the owners recount stories behind their restaurants and experiences embedded in the local communities, revealing journeys of migration to the UK and Wales from mainland China and Hong Kong, all while sharing a meal, a familiar facet of Chinese culture.
Their entrepreneurial spirits shine through as they explain how their dreams of opening their own restaurants became reality.
They reflect on their identities too, with feelings of being Chinese merging with a sense of belonging to Wales at the same time.
“Through the film, we learn about the stories from the people behind these restaurants, their connections to their cultures and heritage, and their experiences either growing up in or moving to Wales,” explains project lead Dr Lui (Radium) Tam, Senior Lecturer of Architecture History from the Welsh School of Architecture.
“We also learn about how these restaurants all played a role in fostering a sense of home for others either within the Chinese diaspora communities or beyond.”
“A home from home”
Recalling their restaurant’s place in the community of Cwmbran, Elizabeth explains that for some it was like “a home from home”, while others told her it was their “first foreign meal”.
Her husband Kai Nam reminisces about the Cwmbran restaurant with affection.
“[It was] very busy [because] before there was only one restaurant; every Friday and Saturday there was a long queue,” he said.
Among his customers were the famous Pontypool front row, Graham Price, Bobby Windsor, and Charlie Faulkner, who formed a legendary, fearsome scrummaging unit for Pontypool RFC, Wales, and the British and Irish Lions during the 1970s.
“Everyone seems to have a connection to Chinese restaurants in South Wales regardless of their background,” said Dr Helena Lopes, a Senior Lecturer in Modern Asian History from the School of Global Humanities, reflecting on the interviews.
“I was fascinated by the breadth and depth of global connections in the family histories people shared with us.
“I was also surprised and moved by how people received the project so well, often sharing their own personal memories of going to Chinese restaurants and takeaways, eating Chinese food, or relationships with people who run restaurants.”
This sense of community is at the heart of Gigi Gao’s Authentic Favourite Chinese Restaurant in Swansea’s Maritime Quarter.
She describes moving to London to practice law after university study, before returning to Swansea soon after.
“I don’t feel homesick for China, but I felt homesick for Swansea,” she says.
The city has become her “second home”, “a beautiful place” where “the people are so kind” and have “looked after her as a child.”
It’s this sense of care and kindness that Gigi seeks to repay to current students in the city.
“We all are overseas,” she says. “So I provide this space for them to enjoy some Chinese home feeling.
“This is a window for me to let people know what is real Chinese culture.”
The vulnerability of the interviewees struck Dr Aled Singleton from Cardiff University’s School of Social and Spatial Sciences.
He said: “This was the first time I’ve worked so closely with a professional filmmaker from the inception through to the finished product and it was refreshing to see how passionately everyone spoke on camera, and told us so much about how their businesses had developed and changed over the years.”
“I think part of this was the result of the team spending time before the filming days to talk through our process and build trust.”
Free public screenings
'Space & Tastes: Stories of Chinese Restaurants in Wales' will be screened at Chapter Arts Centre as part of their Monday Moviemaker series and at the Norweigan Church as part of the 2026 Being Human Festival hosted by Cardiff University and the University of South Wales.
Chapter Arts Centre | Monday 2 November, 6pm Norweigan Church | Saturday 7 November, 10am - 4pm
“Real Chinese culture”
For James Chim from Summer Palace Restaurant in Llandaff, Cardiff, trust was a key part of the experience as he shared his quest for real Chinese culture – something that he is still searching for, after leaving Hong Kong at just three years old.
“I didn’t know anything about my culture being born [in Hong Kong] and whisked away at three years old,” he recalls.
“Now, I’m trying to discover who I am, what my culture is through the food and by travelling back to Hong Kong… This is my dream.”
For the Chim brothers, growing up in Wales was an experience of feeling belonging to the place while fully aware that they were the only Chinese family within the community.
James’ younger brother William was born in Bridgend and grew up balancing commitments to the restaurant with his ambitions in rugby.
“When we moved to Cardiff, I joined Llandaff North Rugby Club,” he explains.
William reflects that he didn’t feel any discrimination but did always feel like he was the only Chinese boy there.
Despite this, William remembers building a bond with his teammates.
“They protect you and I feel like they looked after me while I was growing up,” he says.
Community support was vital in 2020 when the Chim family faced legal challenges from their next-door neighbours, who mounted a series of complaints beginning with problems with the property’s canopy, and progressing to issues with noise, cooking smells and more accusations.
“All along the community got together and helped us,” James said.
Looking back on this episode, which coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic – an extremely difficult time for the hospitality sector – James is reminded of what he describes as a very Chinese custom: “if you look after us, we’ll look after you.”
Histories, heritage, hiraeth
The stories that emerge over the course of the short film reveal a distinct combination of global and local characteristics to the participants’ experiences.
The research team say these experiences have found resonance in Chinese diasporas elsewhere.
“On the other hand, their relationships with the Chinese diaspora community and their own identities are at times ambivalent,” notes Dr Tam.
“Nevertheless, each of them has developed their unique sense of identity as Chinese in Wales, and through their restaurants, such as in the way they cultivate the space and their cuisine choices, express and to some degree, perform and stage these identities in their own way,” she says.
Funded through the Welsh Crucible programme, the film draws on archival footage of South Wales and artefacts including media reports, migration documents, architectural plans and items from the families’ collections to illustrate the stories.
According to Cinematographer Keefa Chan, the practice of filmmaking is an extension of a belief that in order to truly understand the world, you must travel across it and immerse yourself in its cultures and languages.
It’s a philosophy that has inspired his work so much so that if he wants to learn about a subject or community, he makes a film about it – travelling to the places where stories are rooted and connecting with the people who live them.
When he was invited to join Radium, Helena and Aled to create a film on the Chinese diaspora in South Wales, it was yet another opportunity to test this theory.
“The project has revealed a slice of Chinese life that I had never encountered before, outside of my own family and friends,” he said.
“It uncovered stories of migration, family connections, and the quiet ways these spaces have shaped neighbourhoods and communities. In this way, the project reaffirmed my belief that film is not just a medium for storytelling, but is a tool for discovery, connection, and understanding.”
— Keefa Chan
Together, we can
'Space & Tastes: Stories of Chinese Restaurants in Wales' brought together researchers from the Welsh School of Architecture, the School of Global Humanities and the School of Social and Spatial Sciences.
Meet the team
Funding
Our research is generously supported by the Welsh Crucible programme 2025.
