photo: Olivia Kwok.
RITUAL OF CONTINGENCY.
A solo, created and performed by Lee Mun Wai.
22.10.2024, 20.30hr. Uferstudios. Berlin, Germany.
Presented as part of an 8-day participatory installation and performance, STARDUST, under the direction of Ming Poon (Berlin).
In spring 2024, I experienced the death of someone very dear to me. I realised that I had no personal rituals to deal with this loss.. He was German and protestant Christian; I am Singaporean and consider myself a nominal, non-practicing Taoist. I currently live here in Berlin with little memory of Taoist mourning rituals. I am also unfamiliar to Christian death rituals practiced in Germany.
My ritual is a ritual of contingency. One borne out of my fragmented knowledge and memories of the various cultures I am living in currently, as well as a sincere desire to find closure and connect with him even though he has left this earthly dimension. It foregrounds fire and the act of burning, two elements that are central to Taoism as a way to communicate with people in the afterlife and to bring closure.
This performance honours his life and our cross-cultural relationship. In it, I navigate my unfamiliarity with mourning practices in a foreign land, as well as the cultural incongruity of my diasporic Chinese identity. This performance also opens up a space for the audience to contemplate and perform the ritual along with me, in order to honour someone or something they might have lost.
Dedicated to Michael Mücke.
Anita Mui, This Banana Thanks You! A solo choreographed and performed by Lee Mun Wai.
17 Aug 2024, 90Mil, Berlin Germany. Presented as part of An8x Festival.
25 June 2023, Vierte Welt, Berlin, Germany.
My name is Lee Mun Wai. I am Singaporean. Meaning: I am the Asian who speaks, thinks and dreams in English. It’s my first language. I am the Asian whose nation’s language policies have complicated what it means to speak a native language. “Speak Mandarin,” my government said in the early 90s, “It will prepare you well for when the sleeping dragon (that is China) finally awakes.” What did I do instead? I spent six years learning French as a teenager. And now, living in Berlin, I find myself speaking German, as I try to build a dance praxis that spans two continents.
ANITA MUI, THIS BANANA THANKS YOU. Is a 15 minute solo work created and performed by myself. Using pop culture as a departure point, I merge spoken text, dance and pop music, together with gaudy splashes of pink and gold to create a performance that navigates the heavy themes of post-colonial nation building, language and personal identity.
Growing up in Singapore in the 80s and 90s, the peculiar dynamics of the island-nation’s bilingual language policy, as well as its desire to be a significant player in the global community, meant that the country postured actively towards the West. As a result, I grew up in an environment that largely followed Western culture.
In the performance, I address a letter to one of Cantopop’s biggest pop stars, Anita Mui, using this as an opportunity to go on a personal journey, recounting the aspects of pop culture that were seminal in shaping my queer, diasporic Chinese identity as a Singaporean currently living in Berlin.
Presented as part of a larger event, Queer Dan Fantasy, featuring 8 queer artists of diasporic Chinese and Asian backgrounds. Queer Dan Fantasy was conceptualised and directed by Ming Poon, and was a co-production between Vierte Welt and MIFRUSH Production (Berlin). Funded by the Prozessförderung program of Fonds Darstellende Künste.
Video Credits: Isabelle Schmitz, Dico Baskoro.
About Queer Dàn Fantasy: Eight queer persons of Chinese descent come together to experiment with a new queer performance form called Queer Dàn, which is a reference to Nan Dan (男旦), the male-female cross-dressing performance in Chinese opera. But instead of reproducing the traditional Nán Dàn, which adheres strongly to heteronormative and patriarchal gender norms, Queer Dàn seeks to bring out the rich and diverse, but unacknowledged, narratives and representations of contemporary queers of Chinese descent.
Queer Dàn Fantasy is an attempt to activate an awakening in Chinese queerness, as well as expand the notion of queerness to include non-western queer experiences, expressions and histories. It is also an attempt to decolonize white queerness, which has dominated the public imagination for so long. Come join us in Queer Dàn Fantasy and let us bedazzle you, as we trash patriarchy and white supremacy away.
Queer Dàn Fantasy is the outcome of the project Queer Dàn. This event is organised by and for BIPoC’s and queer people. However if you do not belong to any of these marginalised groups, your allyship is more than welcome.
* The term “Chinese opera” is a European misnomer for this performance format. The proper name should be Xì Qü / 戏曲 (pronounce: See Chee).
On Display. A solo choreographed and performed by Lee Mun Wai.
9 september 2022, Hütt Kulturfenster, Kassel, Germany. Presented as part of The Old Man and The Sea & Other Books group exhibition.
5 September 2022, Prototyp, Giessen, Germany. Presented as part of Giennale III festival.
3 – 5 March 2022, Espanade Annexe, Singapore. Presented as part of Vector 2, organised by Dance Nucleus.
31 October, 1 November 2021, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Germany. Presented as part of Tanzfestival Rhein-Main.
Where’s The Speficifisfety. A collaborative choreography and performance by: Lee Mun Wai and Lee Ren Xin (Malaysia). July 2017, Aliwal Arts Centre, Singapore.
There Is Speficifisfety. A collaborative choreography and performance by: Lee Mun Wai and Lee Ren Xin (Malaysia). 28 – 30 September 2018, Kotak 5 Arts Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
lee mun wai 