Asian Pirate Musical!!
Six years ago, a group of Asian composers, thespians and theatre kids asked me for some guidance on a musical featuring Sek Yeung, the Qing Dynasty pirate leader, and Admiral Zheng He, the Ming dynasty maritime explorer. I was delighted, as I’d been thinking about ‘Madam Ching’ for a while. When the BBC’s Doctor Who pitted the folk hero against the Sea Devils (With cringe-inducing outcomes) I took the opportunity to bring my research and thoughts together, and included an interview with Nemo Martin, about the newly solidified Asian Pirate Musical. Unable to catch the first round of performances, I was nevertheless, impressed by the soundtrack. I’d kept in touch with the team over the years, so it was with great excitement that now, six years later, I finally got to see the now polished version of the project.
Posted in Events and tagged Asian, music, musical, pirates, theatre
The Untamed: Music as A Form of Healing and Kungfu
In part one of my article on Chinese philosophies of music as explored in The Untamed, I looked at the role of music in cultivation and zhiyin culture. In the second part, I’ll be discussing concepts surrounding music as a way of healing, and in extending this further, as a form of kungfu.
Posted in Articles and tagged china, Chinese, cosmology, culture, Five Elements, healing, music, philosophy, TCM, The Untamed
China Underground – A Translated Sample
An interview with the band Vagabond Street, by John YingLing, for his upcoming documentary, China Underground.
I’ve translated about 3 hours of interviews for this project, which is now heavily into post production (but could still do with more funding). This will be one of the video programe available to accompany my talk “Peking Into Punk”.
Posted in Curated & Translated and tagged china, China Underground, Chinese, documentary, film, Guangzhou, indie music, music, pop culture, punk, rock, Vagabond Street