A failing Chinese restaurant on a crusty space station orbiting Mars is an unlikely setting to chase one’s dreams, even in a dystopian future where Earth is no longer an option. But that’s the launching pad for the animated sci-fi dramedy series “Ancient China of Mars,” which is taking part in Rome’s MIA Market running Oct. 6 – 10.
Created by Andrew Leung — the concept artist behind Disney’s “Mulan” and Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — the series follows an Earthling Chinese family, the Lees, who are forced to escape to Mars. Leaving behind a climate change-stricken planet and a socioeconomic caste system that will never let them flourish, they blast off with hopes of pursuing their dreams on the Red Planet — only to find themselves stuck in purgatory on a space station that serves as a holding pen for stateless immigrants who are neither Earthling nor Martian.
There, the Lees open a Chinese restaurant, which they hope will be the first step toward planting roots and carving a path towards middle-class life for their children. But nothing comes easy for migrants in a foreign land — especially on what the show’s creator describes as the “terraformed fascist paradise of Mars.”
As with most flights of sci-fi fantasy, “Ancient China of Mars” has its roots in our increasingly dystopian present reality, with Leung invoking the term “enshittification” — first coined by the tech critic and author Cory Doctorow to describe the gradual degradation of the technologies that dominate our lives — to highlight how “everything is starting to suck.”
“The American dream these days is feeling more and more like a fantasy. It’s really becoming unattainable. And I was really trying to figure out a way to tell that story,” Leung told Variety. “What better way to tell it, but from the point of view of people who aren’t necessary able to partake in the greatness of that world but participate in it…through the immigrant experience?”
Raised in smalltown Oregon, Leung recalled brushing off the racist taunts of classmates telling him to “go back to China” and escaping into the sanctuary of his parents’ restaurant. A sci-fi junky from an early age, he spent much of his childhood holed up with his sketchbook and bingeing on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” a series that taught him to believe in “a future we could all belong in.”
While “Ancient China of Mars” draws on his experiences as a child of the only Chinese American family in town, Leung said the show is “not about just the Chinese American story.”
“It’s really about what’s it like to be stuck in this world where everything is obviously not created for you,” he said. “What if the tech world got everything they wanted? All the tech bros are like, ‘Now, we get to create this paradise.’ But when you get to the paradise, you’re like, ‘Oh, we don’t actually get to participate in this paradise. We’re just the Uber drivers of this paradise.’”
While legions of overworked, underpaid workers in the American gig economy would undoubtedly relate, Leung argues there’s a more important hook to lure audiences to “Ancient China of Mars.” “I think it’ll be an awesome show to watch,” he said. “I think it’s hilarious.”
Neal Ludevig, who produces for Snarky Elephant Productions, said he was instantly drawn to Leung’s vision for a series that — while perhaps not quite blasting into the stratosphere — would translate easily across borders.
“He could have made this an American story about immigration and coming into that American dream, but he has re-appropriated it to make it much more universal,” Ludevig said. “Every country has immigrants. Every country has social class systems and people that are being displaced.”
Leung is a product of the Snarky Elephant Incubator, a multi-year development program for emerging film industry creators whose work embodies the company’s mission of bringing more diverse content to the screen.
“We like to say that we’re creating content that addresses the elephant in the room in a snarky way. Things about race or identity or climate or immigration or sexuality,” said Ludevig. “Our mission as a company is highlighting stories that we don’t see often enough on screen.”
“Ancient China of Mars” is among the 15-20 projects Snarky Elephant currently has in development, including Craig T. Williams’ “Black Boys Don’t Sew,” executive produced by Viola Davis and Julius Tennon. While Ludevig said the program is “effectively a pipeline for IP,” its core strength is in identifying promising creators, rather than individual projects, and making a long-term investment in those creators’ artistic visions.
“It creates excitement. It creates momentum. It creates this kind of larger vision that gets people excited and feeling like they can also tell their stories,” he said. “The more stories that are out there where people can see themselves reflected in those stories, from different diasporas and backgrounds, the more people are going to continue to create those stories.”
Rome’s MIA Market runs Oct. 6 – 10.
variety.com
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