Multi-talented Hong Kong Exile tackles the meaning of the mall
NO FOREIGNERS When: Feb. 7-17, 8 p.m. Where: Vancity Culture Lab Tickets and info: From $27, tickets.thecultch.com
Since arriving on the Canadian arts scene in 2011, Vancouver’s interdisciplinary arts company Hong Kong Exile has presented acclaimed works such as the music/dance festival Ascension (2012) and premiered work at Toronto’s CanAsian Kickstart Festival (2014), the Seattle International Dance Festival, and elsewhere.
The members are presently artists-in-residence at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, where its show Foxconn Frequency (no. 3): For Three Visible Chinese Performers recently played at Performance Works.
Hong Kong Exile is also premiering its new show No Foreigners this month. The show is a collaboration between the company, Toronto’s fu- GEN Theatre and Theatre Conspiracy, and was lead by Hong Kong Exile’s Milton Lim.
Lim talked to Postmedia News about the show, which is an exploration of Chinese shopping malls as “racialized spaces of cultural creation and clash” drawn from seven stories and various multi-disciplinary approaches. Expect unique stage design, lots of interesting visual and sound in the English and Cantonese dialect production.
Q How did you wind up working with fu- GEN Theatre and Theatre Conspiracy?
A They have such a history in the formation of Asian-Canadian work in Canada, and have really been important in creating more of an infrastructure in Toronto as well as developing a lot of avenues for new Asian-Canadian work. Fu- GEN’s David Yee came to see one of the dance works and we made fast friends, and then Tim Carlson of Theatre Conspiracy asked me about getting involved in a migration project involving companies from different provinces and the obvious choice was fu- GEN. (The show goes to Toronto the week after it ends in Vancouver).
Q What started the creation process?
A A discussion about the Richmond signage debate, and how policy and linguistics can dictate how cultural space can happen ... but it quickly moved elsewhere as we went from food court to food court in Richmond and began sharing our own anecdotes and experiences of Chinese malls. Out of that came a form for all of our writing, which includes both nostalgia and fragmentation.
Q Do Vancouver and Toronto experiences of Chinese malls differ greatly?
A I was quite surprised to find that we weren’t as special as I originally thought in terms of the discussions around race and politics, as Toronto has its own “Chinese-themed malls,” as Wikipedia calls them. So the seven stories in the piece came out of researching these spaces in both cities.
Q Is the work more of an expository narrative or a voyage of discovery into the meaning and character of these cultural spaces?
A We looked at aspects of Chinese culture and how they could be applied in our miniature apparatus with digital design and backdrop. We start off with what seems quite a straight-up mall and then move into abstraction. From there, things become more a great deal more about exploring the experiences and emotions of these spaces.