East Asia Archives

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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Vogue in Progress

Podcast 59: The Truth About Voguing in Asia

Duration: 20 min Podcast host Chloe Chotrani (assisted by Chan Sze-Wei) uncovers the world of vogue culture and voguing in Asia from legendary mother, Koppi Mizrahi, who hails from Tokyo, Singaporean drag queen Vanda Miss Joaquim and Singaporean dancer Amin Alifin. The interview was done shortly after Singapore’s first vogue ball, Crystal Ball, was held …

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Photo courtesy of artist

“Beautiful Water”: Intercultural Theatre Made in Threes

As I enter the auditorium of Kirari Fujimi, a public theatre located about one hour away from the centre of Tokyo, I find myself in the waters of somewhere in Asia. The audience members are greeted by the actors who wear headgear in the shape of aquatic animals. They approach the audience and start explaining …

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Courtesy of the artist

Confronting Truths in Ho Tzu Nyen’s “The Mysterious Lai Teck”

By Patricia Tobin (736 words, 3-minute read) Spoiler Alert: This review contains spoilers for The Mysterious Lai Teck, which will run from 17 to 19 May at the Singapore International Festival of Arts. “I am the shadow of Ho Chi Minh,” a voice states. It starts as a whisper, before being repeated later as a fast, …

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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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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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GOMA_APT9_installationview_20181120_nharth_148

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 – 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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On Taipei Arts Festival with Tang Fu Kuen

The Taipei Arts Festival (TAF) began in 1998 as one of the main festivals in Taipei to mark the city’s contemporary consciousness through the staging of multiple artistic activities for international and national audiences. This year the TAF celebrates it 20th anniversary with a transformation: it combines with two other city festivals, the Taipei Children’s …

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Some Southeast Asian picks from the Busan International Film Festival (via Bangkok Post)

How do Aceh and Japan, two places that seem unrelated, separated by a vast distance of land and sea, connect on the personal and historical level? For one, they both have been hit by a tsunami — Aceh in the massive tragedy that struck many parts of Southeast Asia in 2004 and Japan in 2011. …

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Bernie Ng

“xhe”: Caught Between a Square and an Octopus

To preface: a statement to disclaim. Artist-choreographer-dancer Daniel Kok and visual artist Miho Shimizu remind the viewer in an artist statement[1] for xhe that any response to the performance is always already inadequate, calling for a critique of spectatorship and gesturing towards the plurality of selves. I caught both performances of xhe on the 12th and …

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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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Thum CC

La Cie Maxmind’s “Isle of Dreams”: The Dark Fantastic

By Akanksha Raja (620 words, four-minute read) 拾念劇集 La Cie Maxmind’s Isle of Dreams (蓬萊) was the headlining event for the George Town Festival’s Taiwan-focused showcase this year. It is a three-hour long work of musical theatre, original in story and in language, loosely adapted from the geography and mythology detailed in the Classic of …

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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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Three Short Films about Women at SeaShorts 2018, George Town

The SeaShorts Film Festival ran for its second edition as the official pre-festival to the annual George Town Festival from 1st to 5th August in a radical geographical shift away from the Kuala Lumpur home of its parent organisation, Next New Wave. It showcased more than 120 short films scattered over 22 programmes in two …

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Asian Restored Classics 2018: Revisiting the Past In New Light

The annual Asian Restored Classics (ARC) festival is an initiative by the Asian Film Archive (AFA). It’s the first of its kind in Singapore, providing a platform to celebrate the best of Asian cinema by screening the restored historic and iconic films to be appreciated by new generations of audiences. The past two editions of …

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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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“Garden Uprooted”: Fluctuations of Silence

By Chloe Chotrani (990 words, 4-minute read) Garden Uprooted is a performance work drawing from nature as the source, a collaboration with The Philharmonic Orchestra Singapore and The Arts Fission Company. Subtle tonalities slowly seep into the theatre, and contradicting erratic yet fluid movements in space and time. Throughout Garden Uprooted is nature-inspired music by …

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K-paint in Myanmar: Four Korean artists on show at Yangon Gallery (via Myanmar Times)

Famous Korean artist Park Jin Woo and three other Korean artists (Chong Eun Mi, Nam Yeo Joo and Kwon Young Sil) held a 3-day exhibition, from 20 to 23 May. They showed their amazing art works at The Yangon Gallery. Their creations are very different from what the Myanmar audience is used to. Each had …

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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: 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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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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SIFA’s “Trojan Women”: An Allegory for Modern Times

By Elaine Chiew (1116 words, 10-minute read) Euripides’ play Trojan Women has been adapted and performed numerous times around the world, from a version written by Jean Paul Sartre to American playwright Charles Mee’s 2003 adaptation that included Holocaust and Hiroshima testimonials. [1] This time, it has been given a Korean pansori makeover by SIFA …

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“The Little Child”: Well-Crafted Wonder of Puppetry

By Soumya Varma (985 words, 9-minute read) Illness, life, death: these performative themes have been explored by theatre makers extensively through the ages. However, what makes The Little Child unique is the imaginative and often whimsical way in which the performance explores the subjects. The director’s choice of puppets and performing objects takes the audience …

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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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The pioneering queer artists who opened Vietnam to gay culture [Vietnam]

“In an historical decision, Taiwan’s top court has ruled in favour of gay marriage. The May 26 verdict raised the hopes of many LGBT activists throughout the region, especially in China and Vietnam. As is all too common worldwide, homophobia causes suffering in Vietnam, where until 2000 it was illegal for gay couples to live …

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