http://www.meineigenheim.org/zhongkui/

How do we humans continue to invent and use technologies to expand the capabilities of our bodies? Is the operation of and the need for traditional analog performing tools, such as puppets, comparable with modern digital handheld devices, such as smart phones and consumer drones?

Traditional Chinese puppetry, which includes the use of string puppets, shadow puppets, rod puppets and hand puppets, is a deeply involved form of entertainment with religious and spiritual roots. Our fascination with it started in 2015 during a residency at TAV when we witnessed the fourth generation hand-puppet troupe I Wan Jan perform “Wu-Song Fights a Tiger” on a small portable stage, outdoors in downtown Taipei. We visited the troupe in Northern Taiwan and together improvised an experimental play.

In 2017/2018, through a grant from the Academy of Visual Arts at the Hong Kong Baptist University, we spent a year in Hong Kong and collaborated with puppet master Wong Fai and his troupe on the production and performance of a multimedia puppet opera “Zhong Kui and the Reform of Hell,” which we performed in several venues in Hong Kong.

Our collaboration with Wong Fai, one of the few remaining puppet masters in Hong Kong, who has been practicing and performing this craft since more than 50 years, was motivated by the potential symbiosis of analog and digital performing technologies, and our shared interest in expanding  artistic disciplines, audiences, narratives and venues.

In 2020 we were granted a one year Fulbright Fellowship to return to Hong Kong to develop a new performance play with master Wong Fai, but before our departure, Donal Trump canceled all Fulbright exchanges with Hong Kong and mainland China as part of Executive Order 13936. Fortunately, despite severe travel restrictions caused by the global Corona Virus pandemic, we could re-route our hands on research with the Fulbright Foundation to Taiwan. Hosted by NTUA, this is where we are now. Check back for updates often!