Although it still does not have a broadcaster or a streamer,
Cathay Film Company has unveiled cast for
Arvin Chen directed eight part series
COOLIE set on 19th century Cuba. In the mid-1800s, when the African slave trade was outlawed throughout the Americas, plantation owners in Cuba instead began trafficking indentured servants from China and other parts of
![]() |
Mauricio Henao, Louise Wong and Joseph Chang will lead the cast
|
Asia. These, so-called coolies were often treated as slaves, but some integrated into Cuban society and joined the country’s fight for independence from Spain. The provided a low-cost workforce for farms, restaurants, factories and were instrumental in setting up Chinatowns across the world. With
Louise Wong in the lead role as a young woman who departs from southern China to marry a political exile working on a sugarcane plantation in Cuba, the
![]() |
Sian Chiong and Camila Arteche will also star in the series
|
narrative sees her join forces with servants and African slaves seeking freedom. But the plantation owner’s spurned wife and her ex-lover conspire against them, triggering a series of scheming and retaliatory moves that leave Cuba’s fate in the balance. As Variety reports, the cast will also have
Joseph Chang, Colombian actor
Mauricio Henao and Cuban actors
Camila Arteche and
Sian Chiong.
