Letters that carry home

Without big-name stars, dazzling visual effects or slogan-like messaging, Dear You tells the story of generations of overseas Chinese through one of the simplest forms of love: a letter sent home.

In the film, a letter is never just a letter. It carries longing, responsibility and love. For many overseas Chinese families, such letters were once a fragile bridge between survival and belonging.

As a Chinese Indonesian student in China, I felt this story deeply. The phrase "overseas Chinese" often brings to mind images of success and wealth. Yet the real history of overseas Chinese communities is often far more ordinary, and therefore far more touching: many were workers, shop owners or teachers who left home just to survive.

They crossed the sea with uncertainty, worked in unfamiliar environments, and saved money little by little. Even a small remittance sent home could represent years of hardship. That is why Dear You moved me: it portrays love not as something loud or dramatic, but as endurance — writing, saving, sending, waiting and remembering. Its strongest emotion lies in quiet responsibility.

The film also made me rethink what "home" means for overseas Chinese. For those of us who grew up outside China, identity is not always simple. We may speak different languages at home, live in another country and only partially understand the traditions passed down by our grandparents. Sometimes, we may even feel distant from the culture we inherited. Yet one film, one dialect, one old letter or one family story can suddenly bring us closer to where we come from.

Dear You reminds me that the connection between overseas Chinese and China is not only cultural, but also emotional. That feeling is difficult to explain, but the film gives it shape. It suggests that the Chinese homeland is more than a place on the map: it is a memory preserved in family history and a sense of belonging quietly waiting to be awakened.

For that reason, I hope Dear You reaches more overseas Chinese communities around the world. Some viewers may have never visited their ancestral hometowns, known their families' exact villages, or spoken their ancestors' dialects. But when they watch this film, they may still feel something familiar — and realize that the connection has never completely disappeared.

Dear You tells us that home is not only a place we return to, but also something we continue to carry inside us. And perhaps, for many overseas Chinese, this is not only a film to watch — it is a letter to open.

Written by Veldesen Yaputra, an Indonesian graduate student in architecture at Tsinghua University. He has long been engaged in green building, rural revitalization and cultural heritage projects between China and Indonesia. He also serves as president of Tsinghua University International Concerned Architects, where he works to connect youth, design and public-interest practice across cultures.

Dear You is a Mandarin and Chaoshan-dialect family drama released in the Chinese mainland on April 30. The film follows a Chaoshan grandmother and her grandson, who travels to Thailand in search of his long-absent grandfather, only to uncover a decades-old secret hidden in overseas letters.