Meng Han Hsieh’s film ‘The Test’ powerfully portrays Britain’s alienating naturalisation process

Originally published in NüVoices on 17 September 2025

(Source: Jay Chow and Emma Georgiou-Leonard)

In The Test, I-Ling, a young East Asian woman, arrives to take the “Life in the United Kingdom Test,” which is required to become a British citizen, wearing a red hoodie. The security guard thinks she is hiding notes in her pocket, and rudely asks her to take it off. She refuses as the only thing she was wearing underneath was underwear. The guard keeps insisting until she finally retorts: “Which rule forbids me from wearing a hoodie?”

This scene echoes the real-life experience of a friend of the film’s director, Meng Han Hsieh. The Test is her latest production, which premiered in Manchester this March. Now a regular on the festival circuit in the UK, it has also gained global recognition. It was nominated as one of ten finalists in the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards this June, out of more than 11,750 submissions worldwide. She is the only East Asian director nominated in the Short Film Fiction category. 

Hsieh is a full-time advertising director in Manchester, who is also currently writing two other short films and her first feature-length film. She has also just been selected as one of the three directors in the High-end TV Regional New Directors Champion Programme, organised by Directors UK to support directors living outside of London in England. 

Born and raised in Taiwan, Hsieh moved to the UK in 2017 to pursue a master’s degree in film production at the Arts University Bournemouth. There, she directed two short films that received different nominations and awards, including the Filmbath Festival New Filmmaker Award for Bleeding Lies, a dystopian film where each lie creates a scar on the liar’s body, and HOME, which is about homeless children in the UK. The Test is Hsieh’s most personal production as it portrays immigrants’ feelings of taking the citizenship test, which she experienced herself last year.

The Life in the UK Test is an essential application process for British citizenship. It consists of 24 questions about British history, governance, and social values, Many of the answers are very obscure. For example, it asks whether John Constable founded England’s modern police force, and what makes Gertrude Jekyll’s design famous.  

Before Hsieh took the test last year, her partner’s family tried to do the paper. “They are all local British, but only his dad passed it,” Hsieh told NüVoices. “Even the locals fail. What is the point of this test?”

Yet the questions themselves aren’t the toughest part of the exam. Hsieh recalled: “The exam process is patronising. In some exam halls, the staff members look down on us and assume that we would cheat. The security check was even stricter than the airport…it made me feel really bad. One of my friends was told to take off his shirt, so he took the exam only in thin underwear,” she said. Another friend was told to take off her hoodie, an experience the film transcribes.    

Although it’s set in Britain, audiences with an immigrant background, regardless of their nationalities, have told her how relatable the film is. Hsieh is happy about this: “As minorities, immigrants always keep their heads down. If someone puts their struggles on the big screen, hopefully it can be an emotional relief.” Her work is an effort to provide that relief.

Last July, Hsieh herself successfully acquired permanent residency in the UK. She describes the five years of waiting as “a process of self-suppression and pent-up anger,” which made her feel oppressed during the test itself. 

“Over the journey, so many Gou-Pi-Dao-Zao things happened,” she said, using a Chinese idiom that describes something so bad it resembles a dog’s fart and a fallen stove.  

One of those Gou-Pi-Dao-Zao experiences is the way her career progression was labelled in the British system. She first joined the advertising agency in Manchester as an “Asian Media Lead” because they were looking for someone familiar with the Asian market. Yet after a year, her portfolio diversified and she no longer focused on Asia. Despite working with international clients like Disney Store and Myvitamins, she was still listed as an “Asian’ Media Lead” for three years before the title was finally changed.

“I have suggested that the ‘Asian’ title is confusing, especially to my non-Asian clients. Everyone in the company thought it did not make sense, but it took three years for the management to remove it. Three years? Four years? It took a long time anyway,” she said. 

Hsieh believes the British creative industry is not diverse enough. According to the Creative Industry Policies and Evidence Centre, women comprise only one-third of the creative workforce in the UK, and non-white people usually face subtle forms of workplace discrimination. For example, they are more likely to be employed and promoted in IT-based roles than in other creative occupations. 

These experiences have caused Hsieh to reflect on her journey as both an immigrant and a filmmaker: “Before I made my own films, I did not know why everyone was hungry to write their own story. Now I know the answer – how can I expect a white man to write a story like The Test? Who writes the story if it is not me?”

Hsieh is proud of the diverse film crews she recruited for The Test. All its department heads are women, including a Taiwanese leading cinematographer and a Filipino lead for production design. “One of the gaffers, a British man, said he was never this ‘calm’ while shooting. I think female and male crew are so different,” she said, laughing.

She added that attending the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards ceremony in Los Angeles was another highlight of the film’s production journey. It is the biggest film award she has ever been nominated for. As she met other nominees, she found that their films were usually very personal. For example, one director explored her identity as a mum, and the other discussed immigration like her. Seeing how other successful directors amplify their voices through films has made her more confident about her future work. “The most personal (subject) is the most creative. It is important to trust your gut – our voices make us different.”

The Test allows Hsieh to reflect, express, and appreciate her own voice as a non-white female creative in the industry. What’s next?  

For one of the short films she is currently working on, she has applied for funding from a Taiwanese body. If the application succeeds, she can film in Taiwan for the first time after moving to the UK.  

“I’m excited! I want to film with my old friends,” she said. “I hope that I can film in different countries…in this globalised world, I don’t want to limit myself.”