Sunday Salon Sunday - Chinese and any other Asian

Performing identity: ESEA exclusion and inclusion in film, theatre & TV.

Our media is a very immediate way to see our society reflected back at us - but what do we want from these spaces, and what does representation actually mean?

This talk will explore what our stories look like and address questions around agency and creativity. How do we tell our stories when they are full of grief, trauma and violence - or are we simply performing our identity for others? What are ways to navigate the power imbalances in creative industries, and being able to simply earn a living in a precarious industry? And how do we support each other in creating a diverse representation of ESEA people in the arts - an identity that isn’t defined simply by borders or ethnicity.

Two years ago Miss Saigon was ‘reimagined’ on the stage in Sheffield, which met with criticism from many in the industry asking: why was this play being put on, in a publicly funded art space? Madame Butterfly was performed in 2022 at the Royal Opera house, in yellowface. Crazy Rich Asians was criticised for casting Henry Goulding, a non-Chinese, in the lead role, and 2021 saw the first East Asian family written into a soap opera…

We haven’t even begun to understand our place in the arts - what would a reckoning look like?

Panel: Vera Chok, performance maker, poet, and comedian; academic Diana Yeh; and Vik Sivalingam a theatre director and academic.

Doors open: 10am

Talk: 11am - 12pm

Following the talk, join the panel for coffee, tea and/or brunch at a table set aside in the restaurant for further discussion.

To ensure you have a seat saved at the table, make a booking via the Spiritland website with a note that you’ll be at the talk.

To book tickets, please visit Eventbrite