17 March 2010

Hong Kong Performers Share Cultural Heritage

Hearing and hearing-impaired artists cross boundaries

 

The seven actors from the Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong pose in their costumes.

The seven actors from the Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong pose in their costumes.

By Andrew Malandrino
Staff Writer

Washington — It is not often that a monk, a monkey, a pig and a water demon journey together for a common purpose, but that is the premise of Journey to the West, one of the great classical novels of Chinese literature.

Hundreds of people got a glimpse of this expansive story during the recent visit to Washington by the group Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong (ADAHK). An organization that strives to improve disabled persons’ access to and participation in the arts, ADAHK’s primarily hearing-impaired performers brought their interpretation of the Chinese classic to audiences at Gallaudet University in Washington as part of QuestFest, a two-week visual theater festival that ran from March 1 to March 14.

Sponsored by a grant from the U.S. Department of State, and in cooperation with Quest: arts for everyone, performers from ADAHK visited Washington to lead and participate in workshops, exchange ideas with other artists and present their interpretation of Journey to the West.

GO WEST, YOUNG MONK

Journey to the West is a redemptive story that highlights the ideological differences and similarities between Eastern and Western cultures. Originally set during the Tang Dynasty (approximately A.D. 618-907), ADAHK’s abridged production is an original interpretation of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang’s journey to India in search of religious texts, known as sutras. 

The journey tests each of the four travelers until, finally, the monk Xuanzang comes face to face with the seven deadly sins from Western tradition. This is a total departure from the original story and is meant to highlight the universal concepts of forgiveness, understanding and liberation.

Other than Cho Kin Chan, who plays the monkey king, the performers are hearing impaired. Wai Keung Wong portrays Xuanzang, Kam Wah Lee acts the greedy pig and Ching Hoi Wong performs the Friar Sand, the water demon. Man Shan Tong, Yee Ning Wong and Ching Wai Fung play an assortment of courtesans, spirits and powerful women whom the travelers encounter during their journey.

SPEAKING WITHOUT WORDS

The ADAHK company showcases the beauty and complexity of theater freed from language barriers. Its actors and production staff focus on imagination, creativity and cultural context to express themselves and the themes of their story.

 

Members of ADAHK work with local students in an acting workshop.

Members of ADAHK work with local students in an acting workshop.

The core communicative method of this production is classical Chinese opera movements. Journey to the West marks the first foray into this style for the company’s deaf actors. These movements highlight character, makeup, entrances and costumes as well as movements and gestures. After an open audition for hearing-impaired actors in Hong Kong, the team had five weeks to learn the Chinese opera movements and incorporate them into their personal acting styles. Many of the actors never had performed staged fights, and the jumps, handstands and cartwheels were a challenge.

For Shun Him Yip, the production’s director, Journey to the West is his first time working with deaf actors. He very much enjoyed the experience because the visually artistic style associated with Chinese opera movements lends itself beautifully to the ADAHK performers’ strengths. Yip, who is not deaf, describes himself as a very visual person, and he enjoyed working with the deaf actors because they shared a common focus on the body, the face and other visually expressive elements of acting.

QUEST FOR OPPORTUNITY

Journey to the West is a perfect fit for QuestFest, whose Web site bills it as a festival “dedicated to the use of movement, gesture, and digital media to tell stories. By stripping away the artifice of language, QuestFest builds bridges between disparate communities and cultures.” 

Toward this end, ADAHK’s Journey to the West successfully combines elements of Chinese and Western culture into visual theater that transcends age, cultural background and language.

Cho Kin Chan’s irreverent monkey king provides comic relief throughout the production. With impeccable timing and exciting action, he creates a character who strongly appeals to children. Wai Keung Wong’s Xuanzang and his final epiphany provide the thoughtful core of the production, and the new ending triggers a complex, philosophical response from the audience.

Stylistically elaborate painted masks used in the show to represent the seven sins combine the Chinese tradition of beautiful makeup with the Italian improvisational style of using masks. The ending’s Eastern/Western philosophical bent also gives all audiences something to consider by juxtaposing philosophies.

Each actor brings his or her own approach to the performance and the Chinese opera style. For some, this means Western hip-hop dance elements, as seen during Xuanzang’s departure in which several of the actors incorporated Michael Jackson’s moonwalk into their dance set.

How has ADAHK been received in the United States? “From the audience’s reaction, it’s [been] just great,” said the director, Shun Him Yip.

It is the joyful and nuanced acting that makes communicating across cultures and between hearing and hearing-impaired audiences possible. ADAHK was formed in 1986 under the banner “Arts are for Everyone.” In promoting access to and participation in the arts for persons with disabilities, ADAHK has provided professional training, public outreach and general education regarding the rights and needs of disabled artists. 

“Quest: arts for everyone” was founded in Maryland in 1997 to use “the arts to promote understanding and show that there are no limits to what people can accomplish,” according to its president, Tim McCarty. ADAHK’s successful performance of Journey to the West, and the organization’s relationship with Quest and the hundreds of audience members and workshop participants met during its most recent U.S. visit exemplify the organization’s motto: “The arts know no boundaries.”

Cooperation among the State Department, Quest and ADAHK has introduced and created partnerships for hundreds of disabled and nonimpaired artists and fans throughout the world. As Yip says, “If we both want to try to communicate, it’s totally possible.”

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)