The Collision of Theatre and Image - Testimony

Try to guess: what is the common thread among "Chungking Express," "Mad Detective," "Rhapsody of Kidnapping," and "Love In A Puff?" The answer is that all four films feature South Asian actors.

South Asians have long been present in Hong Kong's popular culture, but their portrayals are often limited to stereotypes: gangsters, perverts, and oddballs. Films with local South Asian minorities as protagonists are few and far between. Even though ethnic minorities have been settling in Hong Kong since its early days—Nepalese and Pakistani police officers patrolling the borders, and the University of Hong Kong founded by Indians—their culture and numbers have yet to achieve significant visibility in society. According to census data, ethnic minorities make up only eight percent of the local population. Local South Asians and Chinese seem to live in parallel worlds, with little interaction. Consequently, film and television largely serve as the educators for the Chinese community, shaping their impressions of South Asians; due to language barriers, these portrayals may not even be recognized by the local South Asian community itself.

"Testimony" explores various visual cultural products, from films and advertisements to newspapers and family photos, deconstructing and reorganizing them. The familiar images and music evoke memories for the audience, creating a contrast with what they see on stage. The work's appeal lies in the collision of different media, the appropriation of content, and the interchange of media; this intermediality becomes a crucial framework for the piece. Using simple tools like mobile phones, projectors, and even sticky notes, the creators twist and transform the content of images or photos, conceptually breaking the illusion of a single reality.

South Asians are not a monolithic group. The linguistic and cultural differences between ethnicities, class divisions, and historical contexts vary significantly. Not only the Chinese but even South Asians themselves may struggle to grasp this complexity. The team serves as a microcosm of society; while there are overlaps in their perceptions of reality, there are even more contradictions. Among the collected materials, no single story can encompass the entire issue; rather, the multitude of interviews generates an increasing number of subtopics. Throughout the creative process, from getting to know each other to understanding oneself, they continually reconstruct their perceptions of reality. The work cannot cover the 150-year history of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong (it’s only 1.5 hours long), nor does it accept stereotypical cultural and racial definitions (the stereotype that South Asians are great singers and dancers is dismantled by actor Kashif, who doesn’t sing a single song in the performance); the only certainty is that the distance between people remains vast.

When you finish the performance and exit the venue, take a moment to look closely.