The Esplanade’s Huayi-Chinese Festival of Arts is as old as the organiser itself, and having found a solid agenda and format of 10 days during the Chinese New Year, it has struck the right chord with the audience. As Esplanade producer Mimi Yee says, “Each year, the festival galvanises everyone – Chinese and non-Chinese audiences – to celebrate Chinese New Year at Esplanade by offering a wide range of programmes by outstanding Chinese artists for everyone to enjoy.”
“Huayi is a multi-genre festival dedicated to showcasing the dynamic artistic expressions of Chinese artists, from traditional to contemporary and mainstream to the experimental – as compared to, for example, The Theatre Practice’s Chinese Theatre Festival which focuses only on theatre,” Yee explains.
“Huayi presents a very strong festival atmosphere for people to gather in celebration of Chinese New Year and to catch arts performances by Chinese artists at the same time. This is similar to the Esplanade’s other cultural festivals such as Pesta Raya, the Malay Festival of Arts in celebration of Hari Raya season, Kalaa Utsavam, the Indian Festival of Arts in celebration of Deepavali, and Moonfest, a Mid-Autumn Celebration, all of which present opportunities for different communities to gather at Esplanade during the festive seasons and celebrate these occasions through the arts.”
That explains the wide variety of activities, held both indoors and outdoors, which include workshops in Chinese yo-yo, ink painting and heart knot bracelet-making, and the screening of the short film “Havoc in Heaven” followed by a talk on how “Journey to the West” has been adapted. There are also talks, in Mandarin, on such topics as “Auspicious Monkey and its Cultural Symbolism” and “Visual Language of Advertising”.
Other activities are a perfect fit for Valentine’s Day, which falls this Sunday.
Highlights on stage include a performance by Taiwan’s U-Theatre, whose work has been described by The Times as a “synthesis of theatre, percussion and meditation”.
There’ll also be shows by upcoming forces in dance and theatre such as Taiwan’s Huang Yi who will perform his contemporary dance work with a robot Kuka, Hong Kong’s Dionysus Contemporary Theatre, which will stage a Mandarin version of French playwright Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage” and China’s Full Show Lane Theatre, which is working with Japanese master Tadashi Suzuki on a satirical take on the “Scottish play”.
Indie music fans will be delighted to hear that this year’s line-up includes Taiwan’s Hello Nico and Fang Wu, Singapore’s Dawn Wong and the Ark Royal and Hong Kong’s SIU2 who fuses sheng, sanxian and guzheng with piano, bass guitar and drums.
There’s also a highly anticipated concert by Gong Linna whose voice was commended by the New York Times as “a mixture of traditional and contemporary styles … commanding and full of feeling”.
In this new year of the monkey, the “dragon”, China itself, continues to fly high.
“There’s a lot being done for the development of traditional and contemporary arts in China. Esplanade has been introducing both traditional and contemporary Chinese arts to audiences in Singapore during Huayi and Moonfest, a festival that showcases solely traditional Chinese arts,” says Yee.
“Esplanade is always open to collaborating with artists from China, as well as from all over the world, to present works that are meaningful for both the Singapore and Chinese audiences. Besides, Esplanade is in constant close contact with the arts scene in China. We often welcome study trips from arts centres and arts groups from China to the Esplanade and have organised exchanges with centres and presenters exploring collaboration opportunities.”
The writer thanks the Esplanade’s See Ling Ling for all assistance.
ENTER THE DRAGON
– The Huayi-Chinese Festival of Arts runs from Friday until February 21 at the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay in Singapore.
– Many programmes are free. For tickets, check www.Sistic.com.sg.
– More details can be found at www.HuayiFestival.com.
This source first appeared on The Nation Life.