Future Stage Manifesto: Asia

In October 2021, the futureStage research group published the Future Stage Manifesto, which has been translated and published in thirteen languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. This panel of international researchers and translators discussed the impact of the Future Stage Manifesto on Asian performing arts scene, and the opportunities it opens for transcultural collaborations, access, and political engagement. The panel was moderated by Cui Qiao, President of Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation.

This event was co-organized with the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation.

Panelists:

Cui Qiao (China) is President of Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation (BCAF), which is a leading art philanthropy institution in China with funding to support authentic creators of a new generation. She graduated from her master’s study at Free University Berlin and served as China Representative of the BMW Foundation, Director of the Beijing Culture and Arts Center (BCAC), Deputy Director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Advisor to the Berlin International Film Festival, Director of Cultural Programs and PR of the Goethe-Institut (China). Cui is a jury of the Beijing Culture Fund, and visiting professor at Beijing University and the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism China. Cui is the youngest and first female curator of the China Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale (2015). As an acclaimed independent curator, Cui produced projects in 20 countries and international artists’ projects/films in China: Gerhardt Richter, Alexander Kluge, Rem Koolhaas, Pina Bausch, Wim Wenders, Abbas Kiarostami, David Lynch, Changdong Lee, Apichatpong, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tadao Ando and so on. As a benchmark of China’s art and culture industry, Cui was appointed “China Senior Expert” for the China-EU Cultural Research Project by the EU and the Chinese Ministry of Culture in 2013. Cui led think-tank research on China-India/Japan/Germany cultural exchanges and attended as keynote speakers of high-level international summits in the US, EU, France, Korea, etc.

Xiaoyi Zheng (China) is Vice President and Head of Communications of iQIYI, Prior to joining iQIYI in 2021, Ms. Zheng served as a senior correspondent at Xinhua News Agency from 2001 to 2021. During her years at Xinhua News Agency, Ms. Zheng reported on local and international economic affairs across print and digital media platforms. She held various roles including Correspondent in the Singapore Bureau, Deputy Director of Media Integration and Development Center of the Editor-in-Chief’s Office, and Director of Feature Report for International Communications and Integrated Reporting of the Editor-in-Chief’s Office. Her work at Xinhua News Agency, including a number of micro-videos, was honored with multiple journalism awards in China. She has spearheaded Xinhua All Media’s development, an all-media service that was granted the special award of the 27th China News Award in 2017.

Jiangzhou Feng (China) is the Director of the New Media Committee of the China Institute of Stage Design. Acclaimed new media artist, band singer of the flies, and electronic musician, whose works are involved in sounds, videos, installations, and stages, Jiangzhou’s works are based on the concept of cross-border new media, which combine the mechanical installations with the stage and computer program, trying to create intimate sense with audiences by using the change of sound and visualization, and the manipulation of enhanced reality. His creations challenge the appreciating experience of the traditional Stage Art, and bring in the fantastic feeling with innovative new media language for the audiences. Including Floating City Fleeting Life, and Reading-mistake Series, his multi-media art pieces are standing for the state of art ideals and advanced technology in Chinese contemporary art.

Lin Zhang (China) is the founder and director of SIFENLV New Media Studio Beijing and Hong Kong, and Co-founder of TT Scout LAB in Beijing. She received her master of Digital Media from the Rhode Island School of Design (Honor). She also completed the program in Interdisciplinary Studies at Brown University, researching new media art and technology in the practice of digital new fields, research on the infinite possibilities of computer programming, artificial intelligence, and scientific and technological applications in the field of digital media in the new media stage. Her works were presented at the Edinburgh Festival, Danish Metropolis Festival, Wuzhen Theatre Festival, France Avignon Theatre Festival, Germany Kassel China Public Art Exhibition, Berlin International Design Festival, Berlin Drama Festival, Tand Triennale Design Museum in Milan.

Ted Motohashi (Japan) is a Professor of Cultural Studies at the Tokyo University of Economics, and the President of IATC’s Japanese branch. He received his D.Phil. in Literature from the University of York, the U.K. in 1995. His publications include several books on drama, cultural and postcolonial studies. Most recently, he edited “All the world’s his stage”: Asian interventions in Global Shakespeare with Poonam Trivedi and Paromita Chakravarti (Routledge, 2020). He is a leading translator into Japanese of the works by Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Rey Chow, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy amongst others.

Eiichiro Hirata (Japan) is a professor of theatre studies at the Institute of German Studies at Keio University in Tokyo. After studying German Literature and Theatre Studies at Keio University, and at Humboldt University in Berlin, he obtained his doctorate with the study of the presence and absence in contemporary theatre. From 2004 to 2012, he was an associate professor of theatre studies at the Department of German Literature of Keio University. Published books: Japanese translation of Postdramatic Theatre by Hans-Thies Lehmann (as co-translator, Dogakusha-Publisher, Tokyo 2002), Theater in Japan (German, coedit with Hans-Thies Lehmann, Theater der Zeit Berlin 2009), The Dramaturg, Toward Promoting the Theatre Arts, (Japanese, Sangensha-Publisher Tokyo, 2010), Paradox of Presence and Absence, Studies on Modern European and Japanese Theatre (Japanese, Sengansya-Publisher Tokyo, 2016), Questioning Culture: From the Perspective of Performing Arts (Japanese, coedit, Sairyusha-Publisher Tokyo, 2021)

Walter Byongsok Chon (South Korea) is a dramaturg, critic, translator, educator, and theatre scholar from South Korea. He is an Associate Professor of Dramaturgy and Theatre Studies at Ithaca College. He served as dramaturg at Yale Repertory Theatre, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Great Plains Theater Conference, Hangar Theatre, Civic Ensemble, and New York Musical Festival. His writings appeared in Theater, Review: The Journal of Dramaturgy, Praxis, The Korean National Theatre Magazine, The Korean Theatre Review,* The Korean Theatre Journal*, Asymptote, The Mercurian, Situations: Cultural Studies in the Asian Context, and the volumes The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy and Diversity, Inclusion, and Representation in Contemporary Dramaturgy: Case Studies from the Field. He is serving as a co-managing editor for South Korea for the online global journal The Theatre Times. He has presented at various conferences, including ALTA, ASTR, ATHE, GSA, LMDA, MATC, NeMLA, and PTRS.

Kee-Yoon Nahm (South Korea) is Assistant Professor of Theatre Studies at Illinois State University and Festival Dramaturg at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. He has published articles in Theater, Performance Research, Situations: Cultural Studies in the Asian Context, and The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, as well as the anthologies Performing Objects and Theatrical Things and Migration and Stereotypes in Performance and Culture, among other academic journals and essay collections. He is on the editorial board of Asian Theatre Journal, where he reviews submissions on Korean theatre and performance. Kee-Yoon also works as a production dramaturg and theatre translator in the U.S. and South Korea. His dramaturgy and translation work has been presented at Yale Repertory Theatre, Coalescence Theatre Project, TheatreWorks Colorado Springs, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, the National Theatre Company of Korea, the National Dance Company of Korea, the National Gugak Center, and the Seoul Performing Arts Festival, among others.