Feeling the festival spirit

Unusual style

The appreciation for usually understated ways of storytelling to evoke feelings rather than stating them outright is deeply embedded in Chinese culture. That sentiment is also echoed by other young Chinese artists, including Long Chen and Su Jian, two members of inversion ensemble, a female-led theater troupe that shared their debut production, Vanishing, at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Vanishing starts with a mysterious phone call connecting two diners, one in Hong Kong and the other in Los Angeles, who have conversations that transcend temporal and spatial boundaries.

One noteworthy element driving the story flow is the cubes designed to represent objects related to two different realities, such as pancakes that are typical of a restaurant in Los Angeles and pineapple buns that are unique to a cafe in Hong Kong.

The diners' experiences are tied to the cubes, while viewers may also have their own memories triggered by a bottle of ketchup or a receipt. Sometimes, the actresses bring some of the food cubes to the audience, saying: "Here is your order."

Long and Su explain that the cubes function in the play by referencing cultural tradition in a way that can bring a wave of nostalgia.

"The entire play is delivered abstractly, instead of depicting every detail intricately for the audience, and the audience is intended to be part of the show, so they are guided directly or indirectly to create associations during the performance that fully complete this story," Long and Su say. "It's not an all-done meal, and you have to figure it out by yourselves."

Although the storytelling can sometimes be quite experimental, Su emphasizes its distinctly Chinese roots.

"These elements have existed throughout the 5,000 years of Chinese history, and we integrate them into the contemporary theater narratives. While many may find it confusing or overly abstract, for us, it revitalizes our tradition of subtle, layered expression."

Su adds: "And, (when designing), it happens very naturally for me. I didn't intend to create a counter-West framework. It just came to me, and I think many other artists feel the same way."

Yet, what Chinese budding creators sometimes encounter is that their innovation is seen by the Western world as diverging from the more general Western fascination for Chinese culture.

"I study in the United States, and, as the only Asian face in an American theater club, they sometimes say, 'Oh, Jian, we want someone like you to join us to bring more diverse perspectives'. But at times, I do feel like they include me simply to appear diverse," Su says.

"I'm often not very knowledgeable about some classical ancient or traditional Chinese culture, even though the concept of nostalgia I mentioned earlier is also a Chinese thing. However, it is not a highly formalized Chinese art form, like Peking Opera. If I can't present those 'authentic' aspects to Americans, they may wonder why I chose to study in the States."

And, as Long adds, in an ever more interconnected and globalized world where creativity embraces eclecticism, how could we assume the images of any cultures by labeling them or putting them in boxes?

You are so good at delivering English lines; you must have lived abroad for quite some time! You're so extroverted-how can you be Chinese? These are a few of the similar experiences mentioned by other Chinese artists.