East Asia

Tender notes on violence in “A Notional History” by Five Arts Centre

By Patricia Tobin ( 700 words, 5-minute read) It starts with a song. Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri strums the ukulele and gently sings about hope and the future. For a lecture-performance, A Notional History, a work in progress by Five Arts Centre, is filled with pockets of tender moments like these. Together with journalist Rahmah Pauzi and filmmaker-activist […]

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Photo: Hideto Maezawa

Fahmi Fadzil’s “GE14”: The sound and fury signifying everything

By Patricia Tobin ( 700 words, 5-minute read) “GE14 will be the arts festival to outdo all arts festivals,” said performer-politician Fahmi Fadzil. He is referring to the live spectacle: from theatre productions to political speeches, performativity is a constant. All the world’s a stage, as the production of GE14 shows, from the car parks

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Courtesy of M1 CONTACT

Binary at M1 CONTACT 2019: Breaking all the rules with “Stigma” and “Dan-su”

By Chloe Chotrani (1,130 words, 6-minute read) The 10th anniversary edition of Binary – International Artist Showcase presented two returning artists to the festival. Last performed here in 2013, Stigma is a dark and enigmatic solo by highly acclaimed Danish artist Kitt Johnson; while Shintaro Oue presents『談ス』(Dan-su), the Singapore premiere of an adventurous and uncertain

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Courtesy of Asian Arts Media Roundtable

Asian Arts Media Roundtable 2019: When Asian Critics Meet

By Akanksha Raja and Ke Weiliang (1,444 words, 6-minute read) The inaugural Asian Arts Media Roundtable (AAMR) took place between 24 to 25 May 2019 at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Organised by ArtsEquator, the two-day gathering of over 20 arts journalists, critics, editors and members of the media and cultural industries from ten

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SIFA 2019: Top Ten Picks

By Akanksha Raja The 42nd Singapore International Festival of Arts returns this year from 16 May to 2 June 2019. In its second year under Festival Director Gaurav Kripalani, it promises a larger smorgasbord of critically acclaimed international performances as well as Singaporean commissions. Watch the Festival’s official trailer:  Within one hour of the

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The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial

Solid are the Winds: Aeolian Encounters at The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial (Part II)

By Marcus Yee (1340 words, five-minute read) This is the second of a two-part essay on the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial running at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, from 24 November 2018 to 28 April 2019. Read Part I here.   Wind Songs, Molecular Vibrations Four Winds Wind, you are a beast with four heads

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Natasha Harth for QAGOMA

Solid are the Winds: Aeolian Encounters at The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial (Part I)

By Marcus Yee (1259 words, five-minute read) This is the first of a two-part essay on the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial running at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, from 24 November 2018 to 28 April 2019. Read Part II here.   Since 1993, the Asia Pacific Triennial (APT) has been a gathering point for contemporary

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ENCATC International Study Tour in Tokyo

ENCATC International Study Tour in Tokyo – Key Observations (via culture360.ASEF.org)

The 2018 ENCATC (European Network on Cultural Management and Policy) International Study Tour in Tokyo was held from 7 to 9 November 2018 and offered an intensive learning programme on the topic of cultural management and cultural policy in Japan. Ritirong Jiwakanon shares his experience of participating in this study tour. The ENCATC Study Tour

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da:ns festival 2018

SHIFT (Your Perspective) at Esplanade’s da:ns festival 2018: A Sneak Peek in GIFs

Esplanade’s da:ns festival returns this year from 9 – 21 October. The 13-day celebration of movement features powerful performances from around the world, internationally acclaimed acts and exciting new works. Apart from ticketed performances, the festival offers free programmes, including mass dance sessions, workshops, and da:ns lab, the festival’s annual platform for critical discourse on

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Che-Min Hsieh

On Taboos, Touring and Cultural Representation: Sight/Unseen Asian Drama Conference

The Sight/Unseen Asian Drama Conference was a two-day event on 26 – 27 April 2018 at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Tara Arts. Billed as an event to “tackle challenging issues facing playwrights in the UK and in Southeast Asia,” participants came all geared up to discuss issues ranging from minority representation to taboo subjects

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K(-A-)O by Kenji Shinohe (Photo by Bernie Ng)
Bernie Ng

“Asian Festivals Exchange” at M1 Contact Contemporary Dance Festival 2018

By Bernice Lee (1300 words, five-minute read) “Asian Festivals Exchange” puts together works selected from two East Asian festivals — Yokohama Dance Collection and Seoul Dance Collection — two works performed by T.H.E. Second Company, and a work-in-progress supported by M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival and Seoul Performing Arts Festival. It is a very full

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The World Cup, The Japanese Occupation and Our Painful Inheritance

This article is republished from the Singapore International Film Festival editorial. It is part of New Waves 2018, an annual series of screenings and dialogues with regional filmmakers. For this third edition of the New Waves series, SGIFF invites participants the festival’s Youth Jury and Critics’ programme to offer an introductory analysis on the four

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Mayfly Docus: “Die Tomorrow” and “14 Apples” at SIFA’s “Singular Screens”

By Dan Koh (1,715 words, 15-minute read) At this year’s Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), the two films from Southeast Asia are documentaries, or hybrid-documentaries—just like last year’s three, curiously. Despite the glaring gaps that remain in the funding, distribution, marketing, and audience reception of our internationally overlooked non-fiction, plus their increased local censorship

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ASEAN Music Festival

ASEAN Music Festival: After K-pop and J-pop, what about ASEAN-pop? [Philippines]

“There’s K-pop, J-pop, Cantopop, and even Pinoy pop. But do we know what kind of music our ASEAN neighbors are producing? The dominance of Western music notwithstanding, ASEAN Music Festival organizer Annie Luis of the National Commision for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) wanted to put the spotlight on music from ASEAN member states, this

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ASEAN-China Film Festival

First Asean-China Film Festival to take place in Malaysia in December [SEA]

“This year is the the 50th anniversary of Asean (Association Of Southeast Asian Nations). To commemorate this, the Asean-China Film Festival has been announced to establish a long-term exchange and cooperation platform for the Asean film industry, in line with China’s Belt and Road initiative. The inaugural Asean-China Film Festival will be held in Malaysia next month from

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The Mnemonics

AICA Singapore Biennale 2016 Roundtable 3: Maybe it’s better this way, We’d hurt each other with the things we want to say [1] “Tell me about the biennale you want to see”, was the question posed to the writers engaged in the third AICA roundtable on the Singapore Biennale, convened by Qinyi Lim. The result

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