On the Up Grade

2026 | Theatre/Site-synthetic│70 mins | commissioned by Tai Kwun HK

The brightly colored and richly varied wax print (batik) fabric has traveled across oceans, reaching places like Indonesia, the Netherlands, Africa, China, and beyond. Over the course of centuries, it has continuously passed from one person to another, sustaining its life through this perpetual flow.

Guangzhou is a hub for trade in southern China, where African merchants have arrived in large numbers and Chinese manufacturers have imitated the craft, mass-producing and exporting these fabrics back to Africa. I live on Huanshi Road, a neighborhood where locals, Africans, Arabs, and Turks live side by side. Following the clues from Professor Gordon Mathews' book World City of Southern China, my creative team and I traced the circulation of wax print in the Xiaobei community, often pausing to observe the "strangers" coming and going in the streets.

The fabric layers itself over time, incorporating different cultures, different ways of life, the experience of physical mobility, and ever-renewed identities into its migration. In this work, I also hope to create one gathering/celebration after another, briefly becoming part of each other's lives.

2026, Tai KwunPerforming Arts Season: SPOTLIGHT in 2026, Hong Kong
2026, Shanghai contemporary theatre festival(ACT), Shang Hai