Culture

Decisive moments in life

By Han Bingbin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-15 08:33

Zero hours are the time for decision and action. [Photo/ provided to China Daily]

The belief that art can serve as a bridge to the mind has become a reality for Philein Wang - a dancer, musician and poet who uses her talents to express the confusion many Chinese Americans, like her, feel about their cultural identity in China.

Wang's most recent exploration of her mixed heritage is a cultural work entitled Zero Hour, to be performed by Chinese and American dancers and featuring Wang's music, dance and poetry.

The performance will be performed in Beijing from Dec 16 to Dec 19, with later shows expected in San Francisco, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Shanghai.

In Zero Hour, Wang weaves together heartrending vignettes about transitions from adolescence to motherhood, told through the eyes of a young Chinese mother arriving in the US in 1985. The second act is more personal, reflecting a vision of the character's son growing up in the US as he struggles with his alter ego.

Each transition carries its own zero hour, which Wang said is "the time for decision and action".

"In addition to cultural struggles that have been traveling through all my works, this show aims to explore a new theme, that there are moments of decisions at different stages of a life," Wang said.

As in every play Wang touches, the abundance of complex uncertainties in the various plots are in some way a reflection of the artist's own life.

Born in Michigan and raised in California, Wang has strong family ties to China - her mother is from Hubei province, while her father is from Taiwan.

Though her parents hoped she would become a lawyer, Wang pursued dancing by studying the subject in 1989 at the prestigious Beijing Ballet Academy with renowned artist Zhong Renliang - who once performed with Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Wang developed her style by working with a range of talents in companies that included Janice Garrett, Ron Brown, Winifred R. Harris, Liss Fain Dance and Taiwan's famous Cloudgate Dance Theater, under the direction of Lin Hwai-min.

To broaden her skill-base further, Wang also began studying martial arts under Beijing wushu team's five-time champion Patti Hao Li.

She said the exposure to Western dancing and Chinese martial arts enabled her to create a particular dancing style, Tiger Hip Pop or Tiger Motion, a highly-stylized hybrid of Shaolin Style Tiger Claw, ballet, tai chi, yoga, modern dance and hip hop.

This is the style used in her dance group, Ziru Productions, named using her Chinese name Zi-ru, meaning "freely, smoothly and with facility", which was founded in 2007.

"When a young Chinese person is feeling confused as I was and is looking for answers to 'who am I,' maybe Tiger Hip Hop can provide a link," she said.

"Through this dance, that person would be able to find their identity, their culture and their strength. They would know where they belong."

With that purpose in mind, Wang will use her personalized dancing style in her upcoming show, along with original poems that will either be read out aloud or projected on background screens in sections of the show.

"They illuminate what the entire piece is about and take the audience deeper to a much more specific level of understanding."

Accompanying Wang's dance and poetry will be her own music, including a theme song called Zero Hour and her adaptation Taiwan lullaby named Look to the Spring Breeze.

The lullaby will appear three times in the show, first in its original folk form, then combined with Western music such as rap and hip hop, and finally back in its original from.

Wang said the three changes will mirror her mood - to be lost in her identity until an awakening occurs.

Though the show is replete with Wang's artistic talent and understanding of her culture, she notes the importance of four equally-talented Chinese American artists involved: photographer Keith Weng, visual artist Areta Wang, percussionist Simon Ting and costume designer Karen Lin.

Wang said each member will contribute to the show in a unique way.

Areta Wang, for example, is exhibiting 14 paintings outside the main stage at Penghao Theatre while the show is being performed. In addition to abstract paintings, the exhibition will also showcase four paintings featuring dance movements that Philein Wang has adapted into the real performance.

"This show is really the pinnacle of months, even years, of collaboration," explained Wang.

"As second-generation Chinese American artists, we discovered an overlap in outlook and sensitivities. From this shared origin, we created Zero Hour."

The tiger motion dance moves of Ziru combine tai chi, Yoga, modern dance and hip hop. [Photo/provided to China Daily]