IATC 【藝評筆陣】Our New Trial Solidarity through Theatre (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Role of Art in the Absence of Transitional Justice in Taiwan, Republic of China
Published: The Arts in Society Journal. The International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts. Volume 11, Issue 1, 2016 Martial Law in Taiwan was not abolished until 1987, after a span of 39 years, and the long time ruling party, the Nationalist Party (Kuomingtan, KMT) was voted out for the first time in 2000. Shortly before the abolishment of the Martial Law, a performance "Exorcise the Demons" was staged in Orchid Island to protest the human right violation of the government. Orchid Island is where the nuclear waste is stored despite its being the traditional territory of the aboriginal Tau people for centuries.. As freedom of speech had been absent throughout the Martial Law period, this performance marked the beginning of art for transitional justice in Taiwan. Some issues regarding human rights in the repressed past were investigated during the 2000-2008 period while the Democratic Progressive Party (DDP) was in power. However, the process of transitional justice is far from complete. In 2008, ever since the KMT was elected and back in power again, any official discourse on transitional justice seemed to be halted. In contrast, artists, novelists, playwrights and theater directors continued working on themes of transitional justice. Art commentators as well as important art awards credited works and discourses reflecting this highly difficult process in Taiwan. Yearning for a thorough change for decades, the Sunflower Protest initiated by students in 2014 brought considerable impacts to Taiwan's cultural and political atmosphere, and more art activities directly looked into social and political issues. The student movement could be understood as a demand for democracy as well as young generation's awareness of the role of human right plays in democracy. In this study I contexualize some artworks addressing Transitional Justice in order to analyze how art has influenced the society. Transitional justice is a procedure for the government to redress past political and juristic mistakes; however, there are always issues beyond its reach. I’ve observed that when it comes to the more sensitive issues such as the violation of human rights, art is able to go further with subtle maneuvers through the dimensions of psychology, environment or gender. Based on my research I also find that, in Taiwan, art can better correspond to the formation of a civil society than direct political actions.
2021
The annual Asian Theatre Journal Lecture offers a unique opportunity to hear from one of the leading scholars in the field. This year we are excited to welcome Alexa Alice Joubin ::::: Is the scholarly "home turf" overrated? For all my life, I have been looking for a place to call home. As an immigrant who engages in multidisciplinary work across different languages, throughout my life and career, I have received a number of labels, and I have called myself a few names. Depending on the context, I have been seen as an Asianist at the crossroads of performance and film studies, as a Shakespeare scholar who works across time periods and cultures, as someone who is expected to represent minority communities in some form, and as a digital humanities educator who brings critical race and gender studies to bear on each other. Born in Taiwan and now with families on both sides of the Pacific and the Atlantic, I am conscious of my position as an ancillary subject in the diaspora. Now, still looking in from the outside, I embrace my marginalized positions which enable me to have orbital perspectives in a time of hate. In this presentation, I will share how I have evolved as an educator and scholar, how I learned not to turn foreign shores into home turf and lose my edge, and how I passed through and sustained transitory spaces in my writing. ::::: The event is co-hosted by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and Association for Asian Performance :::::: https://tinyurl.com/ATHE21
A paper on contemporary Chinese theatre from the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 to the twenty-first century
BALING: A THEATER THAT DISENCHANTS HISTORY/ 華玲：為歷史除魅的劇場
「華玲：為歷史除魅的劇場」， 《藝術界》， 165期 2016.08，頁38-41。 “BALING: A Theater That Disenchants History” LEAP, no. 165 (Aug.2016): 38-41. Print. To develop his “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” Walter Benjamin drew the analogy of an “automaton,” a chess-playing device supposedly impossible for human chess players to beat. The vivid visual imagery produced by this puppet avatar represented the “perspective of history”: the approach with which people grasp (or unconsciously drift with) the historical realities of their society. The key to comprehending the nature of this automaton is not so much anatomizing its functional aspect as seeing this mirrorimage installation in its true colors and confronting head-on the humpbacked dwarf who actually manipulated the puppet. As established historical discourse can be called an automaton, so is the theatrical space of Baling. What greets the audience is the verbatim transcript of the Baling Talks, occupying two massive walls. Wanted posters for the arrest of Chin Peng are hung at different sizes with fishing threads from the ceiling, as if they were clouds drifting in the sky. Image recordings of the Baling Talks, produced by the Malayan Film Unit, under British colonial rule, are projected on a wall near the entrance. On the other side there is a map of the Malay Peninsula comprised of ten books on Chin Peng and the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). Finally, there is a briefing room arranged with several screen walls and an upright slide projector. By means of the actors’ corporeal performativity and the visual expressiveness of these installations, Baling attempts not only to dramatize this historical event, but also to uncover the humpbacked dwarf who actually incited the nationalist, linear writing of Malaysia’s history.
positions: asia critique, 2013
Today, Forum Theater has become mainstream practice in Singapore. But from 1994 to 2004, the government tried to ban it. This article explores the political and economic dimensions of the birth, death, and re-birth of Forum Theater, focusing on the practice of The Necessary Stage and Drama Box.
Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History , 2023
In the early hours of 1 January 1994, Josef Ng concluded his 25-minute performance artwork Brother Cane (1994) by snipping his pubic hair. The performance created a public furore, resulting in the cessation of public funding towards performance artworks for ten years. Undeterred by the backlash, Tang Da Wu created and performed Don’t Give Money to the Arts (1995) to protest the no-funding rule: during the opening of a state-sponsored exhibition, the artist approached the president of Singapore while wearing a jacket embroidered with the words “Don’t Give Money to the Arts”. Although it was as explicit in its criticism of the government and its policies, Tang was not penalised for his performance. In this paper, I conduct a comparative analysis of these two works to examine how protest art – with a focus on the performance art form – navigates the cultural hegemony in Singapore by comparing the tactics used in both performances by analysing how and why Tang managed to escape punishment for his scathing performance while Ng did not. Specifically, I look at how the performances navigated the “out-of-bound markers” and concealed their dissent, and how the artists controlled the documentations produced. The answers to this question provide us with important insights into how protest art continues to adapt to and resist the mutating systems of control within authoritarian states.
2005
The application of theatre media for social change and development is a common activity in the developing societies of Asia and Africa since the last century. Compared to traditional classic theatre, community theatres are different because they are rather political in their views and ideology. Contemporary Thai theatre NGO Makhampom Theatre Group has been working on development for the last 30 years, stating they are a Theatre for Development (TfD). This thesis explores the possibilities and limitation of providing Human Rights Education and social reformation through the community theatre process. For the study, one of the Youth Theatre projects of Makhampom, named Dao Loog Gai, in Pitsanulok province has been studied as a case study. This Thesis argues that the development theatre implemented by the Makhampom Theatre Group develops community culture but it has not developed a rights based approach to participation and thus empowerment. In this context Makhampom Theatre Group as conveyer of Human Rights Education is not as strong as it could be, and their potential for being an agent for social change or reformation has been compromised. Finally this thesis concludes with some suggestions for the theatre process of Dao Loog Gai, i.e. Makhampom Theatre Group for updating practices and developing a more interactive relationship with the communities and audience.