Looking at the world from other's eye

La Naissance : souviens-toi et va vers toi !
A Franco-Taiwanese Show for young children (under 3 years old)
By The Company East and West and The Flying Group (Length: 1 h)

Jung Shih Chou, married to a French art director, Franck Dimech, is known in Taiwan for her former collaboration with the Wild Shakespeare sisters’ theatre group. She has lived in Marseille, France, for more than four years and with her last show, aptly named the Birth, she tries to build links between France, her adopted country, and Taiwan, her birth country. Starting with a series of four shows based on the theme of rest and awakening, the young Taiwanese actress is eager to share her Chinese culture with French audiences and vice-versa.

As the mother of a three years old daughter, her experience of pregnancy lead her to focus on theatre aimed at a younger audience; it also made her think about the four stages of life. Birth, growth, disease and separation are, in Chinese beliefs, times that everyone faces in their life. Jung Shih’s conception of life takes root in her maternal culture, according to tradition, birth is considered as a miracle and life does not stop at death. She will collaborate for the first time with the Theater Massalia in Marseille.[inset side="right" title="The Birth "] From the 18th to the 20th Feb 2011 at the Guling Theater, Taipei City[/inset]

However, her creative output is a result of international cooperation between a French artist, Ghislaine Herbera, a Taiwanese artist, Jade Shih and herself, a Taiwanese artist living in France, in order to confront the different perspectives of East and West on the same topic. What is birth? What are our origins, our cultures? 'We don’t have to forget where we come from and go towards ourselves…’- she says.

‘I have been inspired by myths and legends about birth, from Asian and European traditions such as whaling, egg, cabbage, and giants...In this project, I use shadow puppets'. Shadow puppetry is a very old yet ongoing tradition in China and Taiwan. This small island, located near the South East of China, has an impressive number of puppet companies. In Taipei, the capital city, one can visit puppetry museums including the famous Lin Liu Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum, based in the heart of the city, near Dihua St. Market, well-known for its Chinese new year’s goods…

This production will be followed in 2012 by Growth and Disease then Separation in 2013. We advise you to come and discover this first chapter of an original and surprising creative production aimed at bridging two major cultures, in Taipei City from the 18th to the 20th Feb 2011 (Guling St. Avant-garde Theatre, No.2, Lane 5, Guling St., Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, http://www.glt.org.tw/en/main.php)

 

 

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