Culture
Who's watching who?
By Todd Balazovic (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-11 07:57
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Updated status, friend requests, wall posts - these are just a few of the new terms that could define the Internet generation's future downfall, says the new play Facehook.
Making its China debut, Facehook, Elephant In The Room Production's newest title, explores the dangers of privacy, social isolation and addiction to online social networking during its performances at the Penghao Theater in Nanluoguxiang on Saturday and Sunday.
Inspired by the controversial 1994 poem File Zero, written by Chinese poet Yu Jian, the director and playwright Oda Fiskum said she hopes the play will promote audience self-awareness when it comes to monitoring online activities.
"We want people to start thinking and question what these networking communities are; how they are changing the way we are thinking and how they are changing our behavior," Fiskum said.
"These are not just toys, they are businesses focused on making money."
For director Fabrizio Massini, who helped develop the project with Fiskum while they were both studying at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, the play is not only a way to make a splash in Beijing's theater scene, but also a way to help the average online user realize that these sites are not as safe as they seem.
"We started thinking about this social control theme," Massini said. "A lot of times when people talk about China and China's situation, they think Big Brother and they think, especially in the West, that they are distant from this sort of thing."
"We started thinking is anyone really free from this?"
Fiskum, who admits to being a once-addicted Facebook user, said she began looking at her own habits and her willingness to give out personal information on social networking sites.
"It's been a painful process. We discovered things about ourselves and the people around us that were not necessarily pleasant," she said.
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 Actress Boryana Trifonova holds a board with a question mark, symbolizing online anonymity. WANG JING / CHINA DAILY |
After arriving in China, the pair initiated similar research on Renren, China's most popular social networking site.
"We wanted to appeal not only to an expat audience, but to Chinese audience as well, so we began exploring both," Massini said, adding that the script is written 50 percent in English and 50 percent in Mandarin.
They used their social networking circle of students at the Central Academy of Drama to cast the play, though not all of the actors are from the school.
For Bulgarian academy student Boryana Trifonova, the non-paying role was a good way to step on stage for the first time in two years. She said it would be her first acting role in China.
"I was eager to get back on stage after having not performed for so long," she said. "When I talked to Oda about her idea, I was sold. I had to do it."
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 Facebook is director and writer Oda Fiskum's first production in China. WANG JING / CHINA DAILY |
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