Hong Kong in Transition Programme
Hong Kong in Transition
Asian City-to-City Collaboration and Performing Arts Exchange 1997-2017
SOAS University of London, 9-10 September 2017 Sponsors: • Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange • Sino-British Fellowship Trust • SOAS China Institute • SOAS Faculty of Languages and Cultures • Jiangsu Arts Fund 2017 Annual Exchange and Promotion Project -- “Tradition and Avant-garde” Kunqu Cultural Exchange 江 苏艺术基金2017年度传播交流推广资助项目 – “最传统” 和 “最先锋” 昆曲文化交流
Conference Organizers: SOAS China Institute Rossella Ferrari (SOAS University of London) Danny Yung (Zuni Icosahedron, Hong Kong)
Conference Assistants: Ke Meng (PhD student, SOAS University of London) Dandan Wang (MA student, SOAS University of London) Tian Brown-Sampson (BA student, SOAS University of London)
Co-presented by the SOAS China Institute and Zuni Icosahedron, this programme marks the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from the UK to the People’s Republic of China with a series of events focusing on transnational networks, intercultural exchange, and city-to-city collaboration in the Asian performing arts. Participant will reflect on Hong Kong’s cultural exchanges with London and several Asian cities in the past two decades, and discuss proposals, strategies, challenges, and opportunities for the future.
2 Saturday 9 September 2017 Academic Symposium
Hong Kong Theatre in The symposium will explore aspects of Transnational Perspective: theatre production in Hong Kong in the post-1997 period from a transnational New Directions and perspective, including intercultural Discourses since 1997 and intergeneric collaborations with Sinophone and Asian performance cultures from Taiwan, China, Singapore, Paul Webley Wing, Senate Japan, and their diasporas, experimental House, Alumni Lecture Theatre and political performance, and (SALT), 9:00 am – 5:00 pm intersections between indigenous and foreign performing arts forms.
Programme
09:00 am Registration (Room S113, Paul Webley Wing, Senate House)
09:20 am – 09:30 am Welcome and Opening Remarks
Rossella Ferrari, SOAS University of London
Danny Yung, Zuni Icosahedron
09:30 am - 11:00 am Panel 1: Aesthetics and Politics Of Experimental Xiqu In Hong Kong
Chair: Rossella Ferrari, SOAS University of London
09:30 am – 9:50 am “Danny Yung’s One Table Two Chairs (Yizhuo liangyi) Shows: A Theatrical Manifestation of ‘One Country Two Systems’ (Yiguo liangzhi)?”, Joseph Lam, University of Michigan
9:50 am – 10:10 am “Interweaving Digital Media with the Materiality of Traditional Xiqu: Taking Danny Yung’s Experimental Performance The Outcast General as Example”, Chen Lin, Freie Universität Berlin
10:10 am – 10:30 am “Operatic Minimalism Rescues Subjectivity”, Daphne Lei, University of California, Irvine
10:30 am – 11:00 am Questions/Discussion
11:00 am – 11:30 am Tea Break
11: 30 am – 1: 00 pm Panel 2: Post-1997 Theatre and Hong Kong Identity
Chair: How Wee Ng, SOAS University of London
11:30 am – 11:50 am “Know Thyself: Edward Lam Dance Theatre’s Art School Musical (2014)”, Lia Wen-ching Liang, National Taiwan Normal University
11:50 am – 12:10 am “East Wing, West Wing: Local Identity in a Global City”, Whit Emerson, Indiana University
12:10 pm – 12:30 pm “One Country Two Systems: Danny Yung’s Postmodern Chinese Complex and Augustine Chiu-yu Mok’s Anarchist Response to China”, Jessica Yeung, Hong Kong Baptist University
3 12:30 pm – 1:00 pm Questions/Discussion
1:00 pm – 1:30 pm Lunch (Room S113)
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm Panel 3: Transnational Connections and Collaborations
Chair: Barbara Leonesi, University of Turin
1:30 pm – 1:50 pm “Zuni Icosahedron’s Pre- and Post-1997 Transnational Explorations”, Wah Guan Lim, Bard College, New York
1:50 pm – 2:10 pm “Imagining Revolution China: The Hong Kong-Singapore Intercultural Sinophone Production of One Hundred Years of Solitude 10.0 – Cultural Revolution”, How Wee Ng, SOAS University of London
2:10 pm – 2:30 pm “Mobility and Residency: Some Reflections on Transnational Currencies and Transactions in Recent ‘Global’ Performance Cultures”, Uchino Tadashi, Gakushuin Women’s College, Tokyo
2:30 pm – 3:00 pm Questions/Discussion
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm Tea Break (Room S113)
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm Panel 4: Hong Kong Theatre, Diaspora, and Mobility
Chair: Mary Mazzilli, University of Essex
3:30 pm – 3:50 pm “Theatrical Touring and/as Exchange: Hong Kong Theatre Productions in Mainland China”, Mirjam Tröster, Goethe University Frankfurt
3:50 pm – 4:10 pm “From Hong Kong to London: Cantonese Opera Practice amongst the British Chinese Diaspora”, Ashley Thorpe, Royal Holloway, University of London
4:10 pm – 4:30 pm “The Relevance of Gao Xingjian to the Contemporary Hong Kong Theatre Scene”, Michael Ka Chi Cheuk, SOAS University of London
4:30 pm – 5:00 pm Questions/Discussion
Performance Flee By Night from the Traditional to the Contemporary: A Journey through the Art of Kunqu
SOAS University of London, Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
An evening of traditional and experimental kunqu performances curated by Danny Yung, co-Artistic Director of Zuni Icosahedron, with performers from the Jiangsu Performing Arts Group Kun Opera Theatre (Nanjing). Producer: Wong Yue Wai, Zuni Icosahedron.
Programme Excerpt from Flee By Night. Performed by Ke Jun
Visiting the Garden. Performed by Sun Jing and Yang Yang, directed by Danny Yung
Intermission
Excerpt from Flee By Night, Contemporary Experimental Version. Performed by Sun Jing, Yang Yang and Ke Jun, music by Steve Hui, video by Benny Wu, directed by Danny Yung
Post-Performance Dialogue and Q&A
4 Sunday 10 September 2017 Practitioners Forum
City-to-City Cultural Artists, arts managers, producers, Exchange, Collaboration, legislators, and educators will examine recent cultural exchange initiatives, and Performing Arts arts policies, and collaborations Development between Hong Kong, London, Nanjing, Shanghai, Taipei, Singapore, and other SOAS University of London, European and Asian cities, assess current Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, strategies, and discuss future proposals 10:00 am – 5:00 pm for city-to-city cultural exchange and performing arts development.
Programme
09:30 am Registration
10:00 – 10:20 am Opening Remarks
Rossella Ferrari, SOAS University of London
Steve Tinton, Board of Trustees, SOAS University of London
Danny Yung, Zuni Icosahedron
10:20 am – 12:00 pm Forum One: The Policymakers Cross-Cities Cultural Exchange Policies
Moderator: Uchino Tadashi
10:20 am – 10:30 am Kok Heng Leun, Member of Parliament, Singapore
10:30 am – 10:40 am Jason Hsu, Member of Parliament, Taiwan
10:40 am – 11: 10 am Commentators:
Lee Li-heng, Tommy Chung Yin Kwan, Cedric Chan, Minli Han, Liu Xiaoyi, Ke Jun
11:10 am – 11:30 am Discussion/Q&A
11:30 am – 12:00 pm Tea Break
12:00 – 1:30 pm Forum Two: The Artists Cross-Cities Arts Collaborations
Moderator: Joseph Lam
Speakers:
12: 00 – 12: 20 pm Nanjing-London: Ke Jun and Leon Rubin on A Shakespearian Handan Dream
Translator: Ke Meng
12: 20 – 12: 30 pm Hong Kong-Taipei-Zurich: Cedric Chan on Zuni Icosahedron’s creative education laboratory collaboration project
5 12:30 – 12:40 pm Hong Kong-Singapore-Tokyo-Nanjing: Liu Xiaoyi on Emergency Stairs and the One Table Two Chairs Festival in Singapore
12:40 – 1:10 pm Commentators:
Uchino Tadashi, Kok Heng Leun, Jason Hsu, Kason Chi, Lee Li-heng, Li Xiaoju
1:10 pm – 1:30 pm Open Discussion/Q&A
1:30 – 2:30 pm Lunch
2:30 – 4:00 pm Forum Three: Managers and Researchers Cross-Cities Cultural Programmes and Arts Projects
Moderator: Rossella Ferrari
Speakers:
2:30 – 2:40 pm Hong Kong-Shanghai-Taipei-Shenzhen: Lee Li-heng on arts festivals in four Asian cities
2:40 – 2:50 pm Hong Kong-Shanghai: Kason Chi on Zuni Icosahedron and the Shanghai Theatre Academy’s collaboration on China’s Belt and Road Initiative
2:50 – 3:00 pm Hong Kong-Singapore: Minli Han on the TTXS (Tian Tian Xiang Shang) project in Singapore
3:00 – 3:15 pm Hong Kong-Nanjing-Suzhou-Taipei: Li Xiaoju on a comparison of two kunqu collaborations
Translator: Ke Meng
3:15 – 3:40 pm Commentators: Joseph Lam, Kok Heng Leun, Tommy Kwan, Cedric Chan, Ke Jun
3:40 – 4:00 pm Open Discussion/Q&A
4: 00 – 4: 30 pm Tea Break
4: 30 – 5: 00 pm Closing Roundtable: The Way Forward
Moderators: Danny Yung and Rossella Ferrari
6 Biographies Organisers She is the author of Pop Goes the Avant-Garde: Experimental Theatre in Contemporary China Danny Yung is a founding member and co- (2012), and is currently completing a monograph Artistic Director of Zuni Icosahedron, a leading on trans-Asian intercultural collaborations and performing arts group in Hong Kong. A pioneer performance networks. She is the Regional of experimental arts in Asia, over the past forty Managing Editor (China) of The Theatre Times. years Yung has worked across several media including theatre, cartoon, film, video, and Academic Symposium visual and installation art. He is the recipient of Hong Kong Theatre in Transnational Perspective: numerous awards, including the Hong Kong Arts New Directions and Discourses since 1997 Development Awards 2015 for Artist of the Year (Drama), the Fukuoka Prize – Arts and Culture Prize (2014), and the Music Theatre NOW Award Abstracts and Biographies of the International Theatre Institute of UNESCO Danny Yung’s One Table Two Chairs (Yizhuo (2008). In 2009, Yung was bestowed the Cross liangyi) Shows: A Theatrical Manifestation of of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic “One Country Two Systems” (Yiguo liangzhi)? of Germany in recognition of his contributions to cultural exchange between Germany and Hong Kong. Since 1997, he has initiated several Joseph Lam culture and arts networks, such as Asia Arts For twenty years, Danny Yung, the director Net, the Asia Performing Arts Network, and the of Zuni Icosahedron of Hong Kong, has been World Culture Forum. In 2000, he curated the working with Shi Xiaomei, Ke Jun, and other Festival of Vision, an 11-week programme held Nanjing kunqu artists to produce provocative in Berlin and Hong Kong, involving over 1,000 theatrical shows that he promotes with the participants from 35 cities in Asia and Europe. In collective title of One Table Two Chairs. The 2001, he coordinated the establishment of the works present unique theatrical worlds, which tri-annual World Culture Forum Alliance with force audiences to confront broad issues of the support of the Ford Foundation (New York). artistic and cultural changes in local, national, In 2014, Yung was commissioned by the 48th and global contexts. Yung’s One Table Two Chairs Smithsonian Folklife Festival to design Gateway are multivalent and cannot be simplistically – Tian Tian Xiang Shang, a large-scale bamboo interpreted. This paper attempts to examine installation based on the traditional flower Yung’s repertory as a creative-social-political plaque craft of the Lingnan region, which was manifestation of Hong Kong, the former British erected on the National Mall in Washington DC. colony which was returned to China in 1997, and which is experiencing growing difficulties Rossella Ferrari is Reader in Chinese and under the “One Country Two Systems” policy. Theatre Studies in the Department of East Asian The question this paper focuses on is how Languages and Cultures at SOAS University of One Table Two Chairs works impact kunqu London. She specializes in Chinese-language and its performers – a theatrical metaphor theatres, focusing particularly on avant-garde of how postcolonial Hong Kong impacts and intercultural production, collaborations mainland Chinese traditions and policies. within the Sinophone region, and interactions between Sinophone and other Asian performance Joseph S.C. Lam is Director of the Confucius cultures. She has written about various aspects Institute at the University of Michigan and of the artistic practice of Zuni Icosahedron, Professor of Musicology in the School of Music, including the One Table Two Chairs project, the Theatre, and Dance at the University of Michigan. adaptation of indigenous texts and aesthetics A musicologist and sinologist, Lam specializes in into modern experimental forms, and intermedial the musics and cultures of Southern Song (1127- relations between theatre and film/video, 1279), Ming (1368-1644), and modern China and between theatre and architecture. Her (1900 to present). Lam’s recent publications publications have appeared in TDR: The Drama include: “‘Escorting Lady Jing Home’: A Journey Review, New Theatre Quarterly, Postcolonial of Chinese Gender, Opera, and Politics” (Yearbook Studies, positions: asia critique, and elsewhere.
7 for Traditional Music, 2014) and Songdai Operatic Minimalism Rescues Subjectivity yinyueshi lunwenji: lilun yu miaoshu/Historical Studies on Song Dynasty Music: Theories and Narratives (Shanghai: Shanghai Conservatory of Daphne Lei Music Press, 2012). Currently, he is finalizing his From Lear Is Here (Taiwan, 2001), Meng Xiaodong Kunqu, the Classical Opera of Globalized China (Taiwan, 2010), I, Hamlet (China, 2016) to I, Wu (monograph under review) and drafting Musical Song (Hong Kong, 2017), one-(wo)man Chinese Reminiscences (Huaigu yinyue): A Chinese opera is no longer an oddity today. Celebrating Approach to Reclaiming Musical Heritages. the virtuosity and versatility of the performer, solo Chinese opera represents a new genre of Interweaving Digital Media with the cutting-edge innovation and a form of defiance Materiality of Traditional Xiqu: Taking of the centuries-old tradition; on the other Danny Yung’s Experimental Performance hand, solo operatic works reflect the crisis of the The Outcast General as Example state of the art. After all, avant-gardism or poor theatre is often an alternative term for lack of Chen Lin resources. With a recent one-man Cantonese opera I, Wu Song as a point of entry, this paper Based on analyses of Danny Yung’s experimental intends to examine the current state of “Chinese” xiqu performances, especially The Outcast opera and the intricate political relations among General, this paper aims to study the new the Two-Shores-Three-Places. Performed by aesthetic paradigm of modern xiqu which Kelvin Ng Kwok-wa and accompanied by the interweaves digital media; specifically, to explore percussion group “the Gong Strikes One,” I, Wu how digital media changes as well as enriches the Song is probably the most minimalist operatic materiality of xiqu performance. The “intrusion” creation thus far, as this “opera” eliminates not of digital media definitely changes the materiality only other characters but also stylized singing, of traditional performance, such as the body, speaking, and recitation. Without any words, the the space (architectural space, performance Wu Song character accomplishes his legendary space, performative space), the sound, etc. Yet task of killing the tiger and displays his heroism the bodily co-presence of the performer and through movement. This petite, speechless, and the audience and the self-referential autopoietic rather lonely work, against the backdrop of the feedback loop are not mutually exclusive with recent trend of grand operatic spectacles of PRC, the use of digital media. Danny Yung’s adoption paints a perfect picture of the current political of digital media in conducting his experiments situation of Hong Kong. Artistically, I, Wu Song with the performers’ body, sound, and light poses a challenge to all the well-funded grandiose are worthwhile experiments of interweaving operas of Chinese nationalism (brand China), performance cultures. The experimental as well as interrogates fundamental questions performances are inextricably interrelated with such as “what is Chinese opera?”; politically, the the socio-political context and the identity of work questions the possibility of maintaining Hong Kong, and they are a soft touch of the subjectivity without utterance, or obtaining wound, i.e., an unspeakable cultural trauma. democracy without autonomy (voting right). Chen Lin is a PhD candidate at the International Daphne Lei is Professor of Drama at the University Research Centre “Interweaving Performance of California, Irvine. She is the author of many Cultures” of Freie Universität Berlin. Her scholarly articles, both in English and Chinese, research interests include the aesthetics on Chinese opera, intercultural theatre, and of the performative, modern experimental diasporic and transnational performance. She xiqu performances that interweave different has published two books: Operatic China: performance cultures, applied theatre and Staging Chinese Identity across the Pacific cultural studies. She has published (Palgrave, 2006) and Alternative Chinese Opera many academic articles in English, German and in the Age of Globalization: Performing Zero Chinese, and presented her research results at (Palgrave, 2011). She has a forthcoming book several national and international conferences. on border-crossing Chinese drama (Michigan), She has trained in kunqu singing and performance and an edited volume on interculturalism for several years, and is very active in the areas and performance (Bloomsbury). She is the of theatre practice and live performance. current president of the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR, 2015-2018).
8 One Country Two Systems: Danny Yung’s theatre has functioned for him firstly as a site Postmodern Chinese Complex and of empowerment for participants, and then Augustine Chiu-yu Mok’s Anarchist one of networking for further empowerment. Response to China Therefore, his formal explorations always aim at promoting flexibility and accessibility of the theatre as a critical and communicative medium Jessica Yeung of expression. The proposed paper will trace the consistent and systematic articulation and For the generations of Hong Kong people born development of the two dramatists’ stances after the Second World War, China is always on issues pertaining to China in their theatrical the gigantic Other that one needs to come works. It will then ask: First, to what extent, if at to terms with. On the one hand, its effective all, do Yung’s postmodernist and Mok’s anarchist distance from Hong Kong life during British political stances determine their approaches colonization and its historical connection with to theatrical experimentation? Second, how the city function together as an antithetical effective have their projects of advocacy and symbolism against British colonization. On the resistance ultimately been in terms of their other hand, the reality of its autocratic rule and artistic achievement and community influence? its then imminent, and later actual, assumption of Hong Kong sovereignty pose the most Jessica Yeung is Associate Professor at Hong critical threat to Hong Kong’s way of life. Kong Baptist University, teaching Translation and Danny Yung and Augustine Mok are the two Intercultural Studies. Her main research areas most prominent Hong Kong dramatists who have are Hong Kong and Chinese arts and literature, responded to Hong Kong’s relationship with China and China’s cultural relationships with Hong so consistently in the theatre over almost half a Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet. She has published on century that two distinctive systems of values they cultural figures including Gao Xingjian, Pema espouse can be clearly discerned. As a member of Tseden, Danny Yung and Augustine Mok. the postmodern New York Asian art scene and an architect by training, Yung’s theatre engagement Know Thyself: Edward Lam Dance with China at first demonstrated a conceptual Theatre’s Art School Musical (2014) preoccupation, albeit political in content and critical in nature. In later years, especially after Hong Kong was handed over to China, his Lia Wen-Ching Liang involvement in experimental Chinese opera has Premiered on 17 May 2014 at Hong Kong’s Kwai brought him into a degree of confrontation with Tsing Theatre, Art School Musical was Edward the Chinese values and behaviours embedded in Lam Dance Theatre’s (ELDT) 54th production. the traditional form and resident in the habitus The production returned to a bigger venue at (in the Bourdieusienne sense) of its practitioners. the Grand Theatre of Hong Kong Culture Centre His theatrical engagement with China has in July, and then embarked on a tour to several become concrete and substantive. What has major Chinese cities (including Beijing and persisted in his entire repertoire about China is Shanghai), before ending with performances in the predominance of formal experimentation that Taiwan’s National Theatre. Produced by ELDT’s functions as catalyst for his critical preoccupation main Hong Kong team in collaboration with with China and Chineseness. Like Yung, Mok artists and actors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, was educated in a Western university. He was the production exemplified the recent practice of trained as an economist in the capitalist model theatre making that ELDT has developed since the in Adelaide, but more actively involved outside making of Madame Bovary (2006). As explicitly campus in the pacifist anarchist movement stated in its Chinese title, “Successors of Liang during the country’s widespread anti-Vietnam and Zhu” (Liang Zhu de jichengzhe men), Art war campaign. From his street acts and music School Musical is inspired by the Chinese classic performances in the early 1970s with the full-time Butterfly Lovers (Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai). A anarchists of his famous “1970s” syndicate who legendary tale, Butterfly Lovers has seen various were simultaneously anti-Maoist-Communism adaptions, including the 1963 Hong Kong film and anti-British-colonialism, to his promotion of of the Huangmei opera The Love Eterne (dir. Li Playback Theatre and performance art by young Han Hsiang). For Edward Lam, literary classics professional theatre workers in the recent decade provide well-known narratives that help him to whose work more often than not touches upon quickly and effectively engage contemporary the June Fourth Massacre and the autonomy audiences. By utilizing these narratives, Lam of Hong Kong under the Chinese threat, the
9 focuses on issues which Chinese societies are Missréblse [sic] Hong Kong, the tenth instalment particularly sensitive to. In Art School Musical, in the East Wing, West Wing series of political the private college Liang and Zhu are heading satire performances. I argue that, in watching a to in the original play became a college of Art, work created using local material, the audience and the literature classroom was modernized collectively constructs a facet of their Hong and turned into an oil painting workshop. This Kong identity. Thus, this Hong Kong-specific way, Lam’s production not only paid homage to series serves as a means to facilitate not only the the ambiguous gender politics inspired by The consolidation of their existing understanding of Love Eterne but also transformed the story into identity, but also the formation of new layers of a refraction, or even criticism, of art education that identity through an unconventional theatrical in modern times. Using Art School Musical as an form. In short, the show defines, reinforces, and example, this paper looks at how Lam’s narrative ultimately questions what Hong Kong identity is. strategy enables the touring of ELDT’s production in the post-1997 Chinese-speaking worlds. Whit Emerson is a PhD student in the Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Lia Wen-Ching Liang is Associate Professor at the Dance at Indiana University. His research Graduate Institute of Performing Arts, National interests include Asian theatre and identity. Taiwan Normal University. Her main research interest lies in the development of a Deleuzian Zuni Icosahedron’s Pre- and Post- approach to theatre studies to explore issues such 1997 Transnational Explorations as aesthetics, theatricality, and representation in theory and in practice, particularly in the fields Wah Guan Lim of intercultural and posthuman theatre. On behalf of the Taiwan Shakespeare Association, Zuni Icosahedron has been at the forefront she curated the exhibition of “All the World’s a of the Hong Kong arts scene from its Stage: Shakespeare in Taiwan,” collaborating inception. Since the theatre troupe’s founding with the National Museum of Taiwan Literature in 1982 at a critical time when the city-state’s and Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust. Her latest political fate was uncertain, Zuni’s artistic book, Collaborating with Shakespeare (2016), productions and arts activism have been is a collection of interviews with scholars primarily concerned with exploring Hong and theatre practitioners conducted for the Kong’s future amidst the rise of a collective exhibition. She is currently working on a research local identity. Even after Hong Kong’s return project related to theatre directors Edward Lam to mainland China in 1997, Zuni has (Hong Kong) and Wang Chia-Ming (Taiwan). remained by far the region’s best-known arts collective. This is due, in no small part, to East Wing, West Wing: the international reputation it has garnered as Local Identity in a Global City the most critically acclaimed theatre group outside of Hong Kong. This paper is a Whit Emerson preliminary survey of Zuni’s transnational collaborations in pre- and post-1997 — a The question of Hong Kong identity has been watershed year in both the political and much debated in global studies, with scholars theatrical history of Hong Kong — illustrating such as Gordon Mathews and Tai-lok Lui arguing the shift in the group’s focus from the that Hong Kong identifies more as a market than territory’s emerging local identity in the a nation. Research on modern theatre in Hong former phase to Hong Kong’s positionality Kong tends to focus on productions that feature a within a discursive network of global theatre combination of Eastern and Western performance aesthetics in the latter. In this discourse, techniques. However, scholarship on Hong Kong I argue that Zuni foregrounds Hong Kong’s theatre has not adequately addressed modern positionality in two principal ways. First, theatre productions that speak to the territory’s Zuni not only proactively participates in post-handover political and social struggles. This transnational artistic collaborations with paper addresses the issue of modern theatre in individual artists and institutions within and Hong Kong that responds to political and social beyond the territory; more importantly, it also forces. A special emphasis is placed on how a acts as the primary site within this pan-Asian local identity can be illustrated through analyses network that facilitates cultural interactions of the relationship between a theatrical work and and exchanges, and as a consequence, the its audience. Specifically, the paper discusses “Hong Kong element” is articulated in various Zuni Icosahedron’s East Wing West Wing 10 Les manifestations across these transnational
10 projects. Second, by working with artists and the Social Theatre of Singapore: Cultural from nations fraught by difficult histories with Intervention and Artistic Autonomy (2011), the one another, Zuni acts as a mediator that book chapter “Rethinking Censorship in China: critically re-examines these historical junctures The Case of ‘Snail House’ (Woju)” (2015), and through theatre in an attempt to mollify such the forthcoming journal article, “Drawing from ultranationalist sentiments, Grotowski and Beyond: Kuo Pao Kun’s Discourse hence envisioning a collective utopian future. on Audiences in Singapore in the 1980s”. He is also the editor of an upcoming special issue of the Wah Guan Lim is Assistant Professor of Chinese journal Asian Cinema on Singaporean cinema. at Bard College, New York. He is a scholar of transnational Chinese literature and theatre, and is Mobility and Residency: Some Reflections on completing a book manuscript that examines the Transnational Currencies and Transactions politics of culture and performance across Hong in Recent “Global” Performance Cultures Kong, Taiwan, China and Singapore in the 1980s. Uchino Tadashi Imagining Revolution China: The Hong Kong-Singapore Intercultural Sinophone Information and capital move instantaneously, Production of One Hundred Years of without giving any consideration to national Solitude 10.0 – Cultural Revolution borders. This may sound too much of a degraded cliché, but there is an urgent necessity to remind How Wee Ng ourselves of this state of borderlessness – physical or otherwise – to understand how certain kinds The “One Hundred Years of Solitude” series is of performance work are now conceived and one of the best known and regularly staged work created. The process is everything, not necessarily in the repertoire of Zuni Icosahedron. In 2011 figuratively but, literally – while residency and 2012, the theatre company collaborated programs are becoming ever increasingly available with Drama Box of Singapore to present the in many geographical regions of the globe – as tenth instalment, One Hundred Years of Solitude artists have gone extremely and transnationally 10.0 – Cultural Revolution. Its conception mobile; they keep moving, at least seemingly, may be traced to June 2010, when Drama Box without giving any consideration to geopolitical invited Danny Yung to conduct a workshop and cultural specificities where their work has titled “In Search: Identity & Journey” as part of supposedly been germinated in. Or do they, really? the Blanc Space Masterclass Series for a group In this paper, I will look at two curiously annoying of 12 Singapore Chinese theatre actors and yet provocative instances I have come across in directors. The coproduction was a culmination recent years, focusing on some of the issues raised of collective dialogues, experiment and creation by the mobility of artists through the system of which took place during the exchange. Through residency. One is the “Short Pieces” programme an analysis of One Hundred Years of Solitude 10.0 at Theater Spektakel in Zurich, Switzerland, and and drawing from reviews and interviews with the other is the “Archive Box” project that took the creative cast involved, this paper examines place in Tokyo and Singapore. What are the the implications arising from the city-to-city performative currencies that circulate through theatre collaboration pertaining to questions these events? What are the characteristics of of Sinophone intercultural flows, identity, and their artistic, social, and personal transactions? politics. At the heart of the issue is how China is imagined in the Sinophone articulations Uchino Tadashi received his MA in American emerging from the two postcolonial cities of Literature (1984) and PhD in Performance Studies Singapore and Hong Kong, and what the creative (2001) from the University of Tokyo. From 1992 to process might imply for their interconnections in 2017, he was a Professor of Performance Studies at Chineseness, transnational politics, history, and the the University of Tokyo, and is currently a Professor relationship between artistic practice and society. of Performance Studies in the Department of Japanese Studies, Faculty of Intercultural Studies, How Wee Ng holds a PhD from SOAS University Gakushuin Women’s College, Tokyo. Uchino’s of London, where he has been teaching Chinese publications include The Melodramatic Revenge: and Taiwanese cinema in the Department of East Theatre of the Private in the 1980s (Tokyo: Keiso Asian Languages and Cultures. His research covers Publishing,1996, in Japanese), From Melodrama Chinese television and film practices, censorship to Performance: The Twentieth Century American issues, and Singaporean cinema and theatre. Theatre (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, Publications include the monograph Drama Box 2001, in Japanese), Crucible Bodies: Postwar
11 Japanese Performance from Brecht to the New Sinology and English Literature in Tübingen, Millennium (London: Seagull Books, 2009) and Wuhan, Leeds, and Cologne. Her PhD thesis The Location of J Theatre: Towards Transnational (2014, Goethe University Frankfurt) analyses Mobilities (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 2016, touring productions from Taiwan, Hong in Japanese). He has served in many Japanese Kong, and Macau in Mainland China. academic societies, and since 2006 has been a board member of the Society of Studies of Culture From Hong Kong to London: Cantonese Opera and Representation. He was a contributing editor Practice amongst the British Chinese Diaspora of TDR (1998 - 2013), and is currently an editor for Dance Research Journal of Korea. He is a member Ashley Thorpe of the Board of Directors of the Kanagawa Arts Foundation, the Saison Foundation, and Arts This paper – taken from a larger project Council Tokyo, of the selection committee of exploring British engagements with ‘traditional the Fukuoka Culture Prize, and of the Artistic Chinese theatre’ forms (xiqu) over a 250-year Advisory Committee of Zuni Icosahedron. period – documents the history of Cantonese Opera (yueju) performance in London from the Theatrical Touring and/as Exchange: Hong early 1960s to the present day. Drawing upon Kong Theatre Productions in Mainland China oral history testimony and the witnessing of amateur recitals, I argue that Cantonese opera Mirjam Tröster performances in London bring questions of heritage, nostalgia, community, and belonging Performances of theatre productions travelling to the fore. Unlike performances of xiqu by from Hong Kong have become a staple on the visiting troupes from the Chinese mainland, or stages of urban Mainland China. Especially since British-based amateur groups focusing on other the second half of the 2000s, an increasing genres such as Beijing Opera (jingju), recitals number of theatre companies have been staged by Cantonese Opera clubs in London embarking on “northbound” tours, regularly are played to and for themselves. I suggest that stopping at theatrical hubs such as Beijing and these performances affirm particular notions of Shanghai. Simultaneously, touring activities in regional Chinese identity, an identity that is all too the performing arts have been diversifying. Apart often reified in a British multicultural context. from guest performances arising out of unofficial networks of artists, and in addition to huge Ashley Thorpe is Senior Lecturer in Theatre commercial endeavours, more formal modes of at Royal Holloway, University of London. His cooperation still exist. This paper will consider research focuses on Chinese and Japanese some select touring productions that form part dramas, as practiced in Asia and the UK. He has of the latter. It focusses on productions by as yet published two monographs: Performing China lesser known artists and companies invited to on the London Stage: Chinese opera and global stage their works at festivals explicitly showcasing power, 1759-2008 (Palgrave, 2016) and The Hong Kong theatre in a framework of city-to-city Role of the Chou (‘Clown’) in Traditional Chinese or locality-to-locality exchange. Starting from Drama (Edwin Mellen Press, 2007). A co-edited a brief overview of the images of Hong Kong collection entitled Contesting British Chinese theatre in Mainland Chinese mainstream media, Culture is currently in press with Palgrave, and he the paper analyses these touring productions and was co-editor for a special issue of Contemporary the response they received in Mainland China. It Theatre Review focusing on the casting of British does so in order to show that the performances East Asians in British theatre. He is also Director at these festivals can provide space for more of the Noh Training Project UK (established in than pre-configured processes of signification. 2011) and is currently writing a Noh play in English The efforts of “branding” Hong Kong theatre about the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison for contrast with the attempts on the part of some performance on Royal Holloway’s own Noh stage. productions to extricate themselves from the predetermined meanings that these imaginings The Relevance of Gao Xingjian to the bring to bear on the works. The corresponding Contemporary Hong Kong Theatre Scene negotiations of meanings broaden the scope and significance of theatre showcases and provide Michael Ka Chi Cheuk the potential to create niches for exchange. Several of Gao Xingjian’s plays have been Mirjam Tröster has been working as a Lecturer produced in Hong Kong before and after he won of Sinology at Goethe University Frankfurt the 2000 Nobel Prize in Literature, including Bus since 2008. She studied Classical and Modern Stop, The Other Shore, and In Between Life and
12 Death. Most recently, the production of The Tale works into Italian – mostly contemporary of Mountains and Seas was commissioned by novels. Her current research mainly focuses the 2012 Hong Kong Art’s Festival as its opening on contemporary Chinese drama, translation event. The vast majority of Gao’s plays have theories applied to drama, and the relation been translated by Hong Kong literary critic and between text, performance, and translation. translator Gilbert Fong too. In addition, the Gao Xingjian Special Collection Repository in Chinese Mary Mazzilli is a Lecturer in Drama and Literature University of Hong Kong, which is the largest at the University of Essex. Before joining Essex in repository of its kind, houses numerous posters, 2016, she was a Lecturer in Theatre Theory and programmes, and drafts of Gao’s plays. Gao Contemporary Practice in the Department of also serves as an artistic advisor for Hong Kong Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths (2015- experimental theatre group Zuni Icosahedron. It 2016), and a post-doctoral fellow in the School is fair to say that Gao and Hong Kong’s theatre of Humanities and Social Sciences at Nanyang scene have a long and intimate history. What, Technological University, Singapore (2012-2014). then, does it mean for the Hong Kong theatre For several years, she has been a Research scene to enthusiastically embrace Gao, who has Associate at SOAS University of London, where been a banned writer in mainland China since she has lectured in Chinese theatre and cinema. 1989? As the “Gao Xingjian fever” that coincided In addition to theatre, she is an expert of world with his Nobel Prize win gradually subsides, literature, comparative literature, and women’s what is Gao’s relevance to post-Handover Hong writing. Her monograph, Gao Xingjian’s Post- Kong theatre, and Hong Kong society in general? Exile Plays: Transnationalism and Postdramatic While Gao was forced to leave China and exile to Theatre (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2015), France to pursue a social space which allows for has attracted excellent reviews. As a playwright, unlimited reflexivity, Hong Kongers are ensured her plays have been widely staged in the UK such a space through the Basic Law’s principle of (Southwark Playhouse, Old Red Lion) and in China. “One Country, Two Systems.” 2017 marks Hong Kong’s 20 years of return to Chinese sovereignty. Special Performance Could Gao’s plays and artistic vision serve as a method for Hong Kong to respond to China’s Flee By Night from the Traditional intellectual grip towards the life of Hong Kong to the Contemporary: A Journey people, including the theatre scene? In this through the Art of Kunqu paper, I will examine Gao’s construction of a theatrical space of unlimited reflexivity in two of Biographies his plays –The Other Shore (1986), and In Between Life and Death (1991). Despite maintaining a Performers consistent stylistic approach of duality and KE Jun is the General Manager of the Jiangsu splitting in his theatrical oeuvre, I contend The Performing Arts Group, based in Nanjing, Other Shore reveals the limitations of reflexivity China. He is a National Class One Performer in modern China, and In Between Life and Death of kunqu (Kun Opera), specializing in wusheng exemplifies unlimited reflexivity in EuroAmerica. (combating hero) and wenwu laosheng (civil and military bearded old male) roles. He has studied Michael Ka Chi Cheuk is a PhD candidate with kunqu masters Zheng Chuanjian, Zhang in the Department of East Asian Languages Jinlong, Zhou Chuanying, and Bao Chuanduo. and Cultures at SOAS University of London. His repertoire includes The Peach Blossom Fan, Michael’s PhD thesis, funded by a SOAS Bidding Farewell to Mother, Nine Lotus Lanterns, Studentship, is on Gao Xingjian’s escape from and Wu Song. He is also devoted to kunqu new censorship in Gao’s pre-Nobel plays. He experimentation, with such works as Faust and has articles forthcoming on Gao’s short stories Flee by Night. Ke is the recipient of numerous and on the Hong Kong hip hop group LMF. awards including the Meihua Award, the Wenhua Award, and the Lanhua Award. He has been invited Barbara Leonesi holds a PhD from the Ecole to perform and participate in cultural exchange des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, initiatives in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, India, Paris), and is currently an Associate Professor Finland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, and the UK. in Chinese Language and Literature in the Department of Human Studies of the University Sun Jing is a younger generation actor at the of Turin, Italy. She has published several articles Jiangsu Kun Opera Theatre of the Jiangsu on the translation and reception of Italian Performing Arts Group, specializing in the hualian literature in China, particularly poetry and (“painted face”) role. He has played a major role drama, and translated various Chinese literary in the youth version of The Peach Blossom Fan
13 1699, and won prizes at the Kunqu National Three-letter Opera, Hua-yen Sutra, Remembrance Youth and Red Plum Blossom competitions. He of Karaoke Past, Railway is Like a Long, Winding has worked with Zuni Icosahedron in various Recollection, and Gayamyan Sings “Hong Kong international performance and education projects. Song Book - Little Rascals” Night Club. He co- directed the children’s anime musical The Magic Yang Yang is a member of the Jiangsu Kun Flute, The Magic Flute Playground, and Bauhaus Opera Theatre of the Jiangsu Performing Arts Manifesto. He co-founded the band Gayamyan Group. He graduated from the kunqu division of in Hong Kong in 2000. Gayamyan released their the Jiangsu Drama School, specializing initially debut album in 2002 and participated in several in the xiaosheng (young male) role, and later music publications for Zuni’s East Wing West Wing in the wusheng (combating hero) role. He has series, including the East Wing West Wing Original studied with Shi Xiaomei, Bei Dongmin, Chen Soundtrack Collection 2003-2013. Chan released Xiaoliu, Ke Jun, Shan Xiaoming, and Huang his solo debut EP Crazy for Tutorials in 2006. He Qifeng, and has won the Bronze award in the is also a pop music lyricist and has written lyrics Jiangsu Province Third Red Plum Blossom for Anthony Wong, Joey Yung, HOCC, Miriam Opera Competition. Yang has worked with Yeung, Andy Hui, at17, Pong Nan, and others. Zuni Icosahedron in various international performance and education projects in the past Kason Chi joined Zuni Icosahedron in 2016 and decade. In 2016, he directed the film Ningwu. is currently the coordinator and researcher of Zuni’s Hong Kong Belt-Road City-to-City Cultural Producer Exchange Conference. Kason is dedicated to media and culture. Before joining Zuni, he Wong Yue Wai (aka WyW) is International was a broadcast and newspaper journalist at Exchange Director and Producer of Zuni Now News Channel (Hong Kong) and Oriental Icosahedron, Artistic Consultant of Macao Arts Morning Post (Shanghai), respectively. He Festival, and a member of the Music Theatre holds a Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies Committee of the International Theatre Institute, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. UNESCO. He holds a Master’s degree from the University of London and he is now based in Berlin Jason Hsu is Legislator-at-large and Member and Hong Kong. A veteran practitioner in theatre of Parliament in Taiwan. He majored in English and mixed media art as a producer, administrator, and Journalism, studying and working across curator, and art educator over the past 25 years, North and South America, Australia, and China. his projects include a giant bamboo installation In 2008, he co-founded The Big Questions, a created by Danny Yung at the Smithsonian Folklife consultancy focused on social innovation and Art Festival 2014, 6,000 performances for over on bringing leaders from all fields to engage in a million audiences at the Shanghai Expo 2010 conversations and actions for a sustainable future. Japan Pavilion, the Festival of Vision – Berlin/Hong In 2009, he co-founded TEDxTaipei and has Kong, a contemporary art and culture festival been serving as a TEDx Ambassador since 2011. involving over 200 artists from Europe and Asia that took place in Berlin and Hong Kong in 2000, Tommy Chung Yin Kwan is a writer in Hong and Black Box Exercise, an arts-in-education Kong and a regular contributor of Ming Pao. He programme that travelled to Tokyo, Fukuoka, comments on Hong Kong and Taiwan’s political New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Taipei, Kaohsiung, and cultural scenes. He is also a PhD candidate Macau, Berlin, Copenhagen, Arhus, Odense, and in the Department of Politics and International Aalborg after its launch in Hong Kong in 1995. Studies at SOAS University of London, currently focusing on the relationship between political Practitioners Forum parties and social movements in Taiwan.
City-to-City Cultural Exchange, Collaboration, Minli Han is a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies and Performing Arts Development at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and a recipient of the NUS Research Scholarship. Biographies She earned her MSc in Political Science from NUS and a BA (Hons) in Political Science and Cedric Chan joined Zuni Icosahedron in 1998, Economics from the University of New South participating in the creation of various projects Wales, Australia. She is the founder and director and performances such as the East Wing West of FilmGarde, an independent cinema group with Wing series, 1587, A Year of No Significance, a growing presence in Singapore that supports
14 grounds-up industry development, partnership, he received the Young Artist Award from the and educational outreach. She has served National Arts Council of Singapore. He is currently on various arts grant assessment panels, and the Artistic Director of Emergency Stairs. continues to organize and support various arts and cultural programs, projects, and exchanges. Leon Rubin is an internationally renowned theatre director and the Director of East 15 Acting School, Kok Heng Leun is currently the Arts Nominated University of Essex. Professor Rubin is former Member of Parliament in Singapore. He is also the Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic, Watford Palace Artistic Director of Drama Box and a prominent Theatre, and the Lyric Theatre Belfast. He was also figure in the Singapore arts scene as a theatre Associate Director at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, director, playwright, dramaturg, and educator. and began his career as Assistant Director at the Notable directorial works include Happy (2005), Royal Shakespeare Company. He has directed Drift (2007), Trick or Threat (2007), and Manifesto and trained actors worldwide, including the UK, (2016). His explorations with multi-disciplinary Scotland, Ireland, Greece, France, Chile, Japan, arts have produced such works as Project China, Indonesia, Holland, Russia, Thailand, Mending Sky (2008, 2009, 2012), a series on Romania, Brazil, USA, Canada, and elsewhere. He environmental issues, Both Sides, Now (2013, has directed in London’s West End and Broadway, 2014), a project that seeks to normalize end- and with Stratford Festival Canada, Bungaku- of-life conversations, and It Won’t Be Too Long za, Japan, and other important companies (2015), which touches on the dynamics of space globally. He has a long-running show, Phuket in Singapore. He was awarded the Young Artist Fantasea, in Phuket, Thailand. In 2016, he directed Award by the National Arts Council of Singapore A Shakespearian Handan Dream in London in 2000, and the National Arts Council Cultural in collaboration with the Jiangsu Kun Opera Fellowship in 2014 for his contributions to the arts. Theatre, Nanjing, and Shakespeare’s Cymbeline in Bali, Indonesia. In addition to directing, he Lee Li-heng is a theatre critic and has worked has published books on theatre, most recently as an arts festival curator in the Greater Chinese Performance in Bali, lectured internationally, region for more than two decades. He received his and worked as a consultant to many companies. MA degree from the Department of Performance He has also worked along architects to create a Studies of New York University. He was the number of theatres in the UK and Thailand. He has dramaturge and international producer of U a passion for Shakespeare and has directed major Theatre from 1998 to 2004, and has worked with productions of his plays in several languages. the Festival of Avignon, the Next Wave Festival, the Barbican Centre, and other twenty festivals Steve Tinton is a member of the Board of around the world. Lee was the artistic director Trustees of SOAS University of London. He of the Taipei Arts Festival from 2004 to 2006, was appointed to the SOAS Governing Body and the general director of the City Square Arts in 2012 and is Chair of the Audit Committee. Festival at the Shanghai Expo in 2010. He has Since 2006 he has held various Non-Executive published books on theatre in Taipei and Shanghai. Director and Audit Chair posts in Strategic Health Lee has been living in Shanghai since 2009. Authorities and Acute Hospital Trusts within the NHS, and he was a Non-Executive Director and Li Xiaoju graduated from the Department of Audit Chair of OCS with its extensive interests Chinese of Beijing Normal University with a PhD in Asia. In 2013, he was appointed a member in Literature. She is now an Associate Researcher of the World Health Organisation, Independent at the Institute of Traditional Chinese Opera of Oversight Expert Advisory Committee. Steve the Chinese National Academy of Arts in Beijing, retired from PwC in 2006, where he was the where she specializes in xiqu (Chinese opera) Risk Management Leader for the Asia Pacific theory and contemporary xiqu. She is the Deputy region. Prior to this role, he was responsible Secretary General of the Chinese Opera Society. for multinational audits and acquisitions. As part of this role he carried out quality control Liu Xiaoyi has worked in the theatre as a director, reviews in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. actor, playwright, and educator since 2002. Steve is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered From 2012 to 2016 he was the director of The Accountants in England and Wales and graduated Practice Lab in Singapore, and previously an in Geography from St Catharine’s College actor at The Theatre Practice, becoming one Cambridge following time volunteering in India. of the most acclaimed male performers in the Singaporean Mandarin theatre scene. In 2016,
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