We hope your Year of the Monkey has started swimmingly.

After more than two years of talking about the project with many of you both in Hong Kong and around the world, we are thrilled to begin our 2016 program with Duilian*, a film installation that is part of a decade-long research project by visual artist and filmmaker Wu Tsang. The multi-media exhibition centers on Duilian, a newly-commissioned experimental film that interprets the life and writings of the famous Chinese revolutionary Qiu Jin (秋瑾1875-1907) through visual and martial arts. The work is a culmination of Wu Tsang‘s two three-month residences at Spring Workshop last year.

The film integrates choreographed performances with narrative scenes featuring the main characters Qiu Jin (played by performance artist boychild), and her intimate friend, the calligrapher Wu Zhiying (吳芝瑛 1868-1934, played by filmmaker Wu Tsang). The story takes as a starting point the fact that queer histories – particularly those of queer and trans people in Asia – are often invisible or coded, and must be “read between the lines” of official history.

Tsang conceived the project ten years ago, and found focused time to carry out additional research, scriptwriting, rehearsing and filming during her past six months in residence with us in Hong Kong. Those of you who attended Tsang’s exuberant public program Mutual Love Society back in October 2015 – when attendees were invited to join her to “mis-translate” the writings of Qiu Jin and Wu Zhiying while quaffing wine – must come back to see what came of it all.

We look forward to welcoming you at our public exhibition opening on March 12!

*Duilian refers to a form of couplet poetry (對聯) and also refers to the wushu category of sword-fighting (對練). Both forms evoke dueling aspects: in poetry, the words are rhymed in tonal opposition to each other, and in wushu, a pair of martial artists engage in a dance of swords.