Lots and lots of events this week. Mostly films, but also dance and music performances, artists talks, and a talk by student leaders from Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement.
This is a really great week for fans of jingju with the tribute to Peking opera Dan legend Mei Lanfang (梅兰芳 / 梅蘭芳) and an afternoon hosted by the New York Chinese Opera Society.
Those with an interest in Tibet can also look forward to this week with the start of the Museum of Modern Art’s 12-film series on Tibet. The series actually kicks off today, August 21, with the 7 PM screening of Yartsa Rinpoche (Precious Caterpillar) and a discussion with director Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang. We’ll take a closer look at the series in another post.
Zhang Hongtu’s (张宏图 / 張宏圖) talk at MoCA shouldn’t be missed.
We’ve added an exhibition listing for Taiwanese artist Isa Ho, who is a winner of the ISE NY Art Search 2013.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Chinese in America, and China Institute will open their fall exhibitions in a few months. Stay tuned for our postings.
If you’re down in Princeton, NJ area or have friends around there, tell them about the calligraphy exhibition by Michael Shiue at the Plainsboro Public Library that runs through August 27.
We’ll have reviews of Mulan: The Percussion Musical and recaps of Waking the Green Tiger and its Q&A and discussion of Wang Jiuliang’s (王久良) upcoming Plastic China which took place this past week as part of Asia Society’s Waking the Green Tiger: Documentaries from the Front Lines of China’s Environmental Crisis.
The one-time and short term event calendar and the ongoing exhibition calendar are up-to-date, and new events and exhibitions are added as they come up. Upcoming events also can be found on listing on the right side of this page. Let us know if there’s anything we should add to the calendar!
If anybody will attend these events and would like to contribute photos or a summary, please email us at beyondchinatown[at]gmail.com.
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Upcoming Events
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1) Silent Holy Stones – “Written and directed by Pema Tseden. It happens in just 48 hours: “Little Lama,” a 10-year-old Tibetan boy who’s training to become a monk, returns home for New Year’s celebrations. After a long journey on horseback over icy steppes, he finds solace in his family’s new TV, and is unable to pull himself away from serials of Buddhist stories. “You dream too much for a young monk,” his family tells him, and they’re right: the more he watches, the more it becomes clear that there’s no going back to his religious practices. An official selection of the Pusan International Film Festival, the International Buddhist Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and the San Francisco International Film Festival. In Tibetan, Chinese; English subtitles.” -MoMA
Friday’s screening will be followed by a discussion with writer and director Pema Tsden
Part of MoMA’s ContemporAsian film series.
Friday, August 22, 7 PM
Sunday, August 24, 5 PM
Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St.
$12/Adult; $10/Senior; $8/Student
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2) Saving General Yang (忠烈杨家将 / 忠烈楊家將) – “The mythology of the Yang family—ferocious warriors who protected northern China from Khitan invaders in the Song Dynasty—have inspired an abundance of high-soaring action epics (Eight Diagram Pole-Fighter, Hero). Taking a chapter from this saga, Saving General Yang spins a tale of chivalry into a kinetic fantasy of flight and fury, with action sequences as intricately constructed as they are expansive. When the Khitans decide to take revenge on the Yangs for past carnage, they capture father General Yang Ye, forcing his wife and seven sons to defend themselves against armies of thousands in treacherous Wolf Mountain.” -Museum of the Moving Image
Friday, August 22, 7 PM
Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria
$15 public / $9 Museum members / free for Silver Screen members and above.
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3) ReBecoming: A Multi-media Dance Performance – Choreographer/dancer Dalila Belaza, artist Xiaowei Chen, and artist Paul Murnaghan present “a creative collision of three artists, but also an experimental collaboration between three distinct media: dance, drawing, and music. The dancing body, moving images, and organic sound create kinetic and synaesthetic moments that consider a landscape wounded, collapsing and evolving towards a new beginning. Between improvisation and control, symbiosis and independence, the macroscopic and the trivial, the performance accentuates tension and invites a glimpse of something unknowable.” -49B Studios
The performance starts promptly at 8:30 P.M. There will be an Artists Talk after the performance on Saturday.
August 21, 22, and 23, 8 PM
49 Bogart Street, Brooklyn
Free, but RSVP to projectrebecoming@gmail.com
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4) Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (昨天今天明天) – Albert Camus’s The Plague is the inspiration for this film about class and political conflict during a viral outbreak in Hong Kong. The film later received acclaim and gained contemporary relevance during the SARS outbreak at the turn of the millennium.
Part of the Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: The Cinema of Patrick Lung Kong series.
Saturday, August 23, 2 PM
Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria
$15 public / $9 Museum members / free for Silver Screen members and above.
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5) MOCATALKS: Drawing with Oil, Ink and Soy Sauce with Zhang Hongtu – Artist Zhang Hongtu (张宏图 / 張宏圖) whose works are currently on display as part of MOCA’s Oil & Water: Reinterpreting Ink exhibition talks about his artistic process and his techniques which include mixing untraditional materials and mediums.
Saturday, August 23, 2 – 3:30 PM
Museum Of Chinese In America, 215 Centre St
$15 Adult; $10 seniors, members, students, K-12 teachers (with ID)
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6) A Showcase Concert of Classic Peking Opera Shows by Excellent Amateurs of Eastern America – The First Annual Showcase Concert of Classic Peking Opera Shows by Excellent Amateurs in Eastern America featuring excellent amateurs from Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York area as well as the Youth Troupe of NYCOS. Renowned Peking Opera artist Mr. Yanyi Yang joins as a special guest.
This concert will include opera shows The Wild Boar Forest (野猪林 / 野豬林), Goddess Showering Flowers from Heaven (天女散花 / 天女散花), Lǚ Bu’s Political Tact (辕门射戟 / 轅門射戟), Sadness in the Palace of Chu (楚宫恨 / 楚宮恨) and Second Visit to the Empress (二进宫 / 二進宮).
Saturday, August 23, 2 – 5 PM
Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University, 3 Spruce Street
For ticketing information, call (212) 227-2920 email mail@nycos.org
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7) Nowhere to Call Home – “Widowed at 28, Tibetan farmer Zanta defies her tyrannical father-in-law and refuses to marry his other son. When Zanta’s in-laws won’t let her seven-year-old go to school, she flees to Beijing to become a street vendor. Destitute, she inveigles an American customer into paying her boy’s school fees. On a holiday trip back to her village, Zanta’s in-laws take her son hostage, drawing the unwitting American into the violent family feud. The two women forge a partnership in a bid to out-maneuver the in-laws. This “deeply moving” and “ethically challenging” story (Jonathan Watts, The Guardian) provides an intimate and brutally frank view of village family life and the struggles Tibetan migrants face in Beijing. In Qiang, English, Chinese; English subtitles.” -MoMA
The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Jocelyn Ford.
Part of MoMA’s ContemporAsian film series.
Saturday, August 23, 4 PM
Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St.
$12/Adult; $10/Senior; $8/Student
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8) The Window (窗 /窗) – “Lung Kong’s first color feature expands on thematic concerns supplanted in The Story of a Discharged Prisoner made one year before, situating issues of social reform within an impassioned romantic melodrama….The relationship between a career criminal and a blind girl…form a portrait of marginalized life in a rapidly-modernizing Hong Kong.” -Museum of the Moving Image
Saturday, August 23, 4 PM
Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria
$15 public / $9 Museum members / free for Silver Screen members and above.
9) 120th Anniversary of Mei Lanfang – Classic Plays of the School – “Classic Plays of the Mei School includes the performance of five operas: The Goddess of Heaven Scatters Flowers (天女散花), Lian Jinfeng · Pierce the Mussel ((谦锦枫 / 謙錦楓 刺 · 蚌) , Resisting Jin Troops (抗金兵), Farewell My Concubine (霸王别姬 / 霸王别姬) and Drunken Beauty (贵妃醉酒 / 貴妃醉酒). The show begins with one of the most historically significant works by Mei Lanfang, The Goddess of Heaven Scatters Flowers, in which a heavenly woman performs a poetically expressive ribbon dance. Described by Mei Lanfang as “a messenger of peace,” the goddess of heaven ascends above the clouds and scatters flower petals onto earth, showering mankind with love and joy. A unique sword dance is another highlight of the show.” (David Koch Theater)
Saturday, August 23, 7:30 PM
David H. Koch Theater, 20 Lincoln Center Plaza
Tickets: $22 – $107
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10) The Sun Beaten Path – “This debut feature from the cinematographer of Pema Tseden’s films, as well as Embrace (also screening in this series), presents the story of a young man making a pilgrimage to Lhasa to overcome the guilt of causing a family member’s death. In Tibetan, Chinese; English subtitles” -MoMA
The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Sonthar Gyal.
Part of MoMA’s ContemporAsian film series.
Saturday, August 23, 7:30 PM
Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St.
$12/Adult; $10/Senior; $8/Student
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11) 120th Anniversary of Mei Lanfang – Lady Mu Guiying Takes Command (穆桂英挂帅 / 穆桂英掛帥) – “When Western Xia invades Northern Song, retired old general She Taijun sends her great grandchildren, Yang Wenguang and Yang Jinhua to the capital city for information. Wenguang defeats Wang Lun, son of the treacherous official Wang Qiang, in a martial arts competition held to select the marshal who will lead the army against Western Xia forces. Mu Guiying, Yang Wenguang’s mother, has long held a grudge against the emperor. Persuaded by She Taijun and others, the patriotic general Mu Guiying agrees to lead the army in battling invaders.” (David Koch Theater)
Sunday, August 24, 2 PM
David H. Koch Theater, 20 Lincoln Center Plaza
Tickets: $22 – $107
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12) Pei Shih (珮诗 / 珮詩) – “Lung Kong collaborated with accomplished novelist Meng Junto pen the script for this tale of heartbreak and doomed romance. The mounting despair of two solipsistic characters headed towards an emotionally shattering break-up is depicted through an elliptical series of flashbacks.” -Museum of the Moving Image
Sunday, August 24, 3 PM
Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria
$15 public / $9 Museum members / free for Silver Screen members and above.
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13) Mitra – The first Hong Kong film made in Iran is a love story set in the Middle East.
Sunday, August 24, 6 PM
Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria
$15 public / $9 Museum members / free for Silver Screen members and above.
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14) A Farmer’s Struggle and Yak Dung – This double-feature looks west to rural areas of the country where environmental changes and modernization is changing people’s ways of life. A Farmer’s Struggle looks at how how encroaching desertification has affected an aging farmer and his wife, the sole inhabitants of a village in Minqin, Gansu province, whose other residents were enticed by the government to move to Xinjiang. Yak Dung explores modernization on the Tibetan Plateau through the eyes of first-time director Lanzhe who learned filmmaking through “Eyes of the Village Nature and Culture” workshops organized by the Shanshui Conservation Center, an environmental NGO that trains and empowers amateurs to make films to document lives in their own habitats.
Q&A to follow with Sun Shan, former Director of the Shanshui Conservation Center. Moderated by Michael Zhao, Multimedia Producer, Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society.
Part of Asia Society’s Waking the Green Tiger: Documentaries from the Front Lines of China’s Environmental Crisis series.
Monday, August 25, 6:30 PM
Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue
Free
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15) Summer Pasture – “In recent years growing pressures from the outside world have posed unprecedented challenges for Tibetan nomads. Rigid government policies, rangeland degradation, and the allure of modern life have prompted many nomadic families to leave the pastures for permanent settlement in towns and cities. Summer Pasture chronicles one summer with a young family amid this period of great uncertainty. With their pastoral traditions confronting rapid modernization, Locho, his wife Yama, and their infant daughter, nicknamed Jiatomah, must reconcile the challenges that drastically threaten to reshape their existence. In English, Tibetan; English subtitles.” -MoMA
The screening will be followed by a discussion with directors Lynn True and Nelson Walker.
Part of MoMA’s ContemporAsian film series.
Monday, August 25, 7 PM
Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St.
$12/Adult; $10/Senior; $8/Student
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16) Daughters of Wisdom – “An intimate portrait of the lives of a little-known sect of nuns of the Kala Ringo Monastery in remote rural Nangchen, Tibet. Under the leadership of a progressive teacher, the nuns are receiving unprecedented educational and religious training, and preserving their rich cultural heritage even as they slowly reshape it. In Tibetan; English subtitles.” -MoMA
The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Bari Pearlman and Lama Norlha Rinpoche.
Part of MoMA’s ContemporAsian film series.
Tuesday, August 26, 7 PM
Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St.
$12/Adult; $10/Senior; $8/Student
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17) Jen Shyu with Jade Tongue – Sounds and Cries of the World – This performance is the first performance of Jen’s with her band Jade Tongue since returning from almost 3 years abroad in Indonesia, East Timor, South Korea, and Vietnam. Much of the music began as solo pieces insipred by Jen’s vivid and sometimes disturbing dreams during her first 3-month visit to East Timor, her mother’s birthplace, when she was researching traditional music there. This is the first time she will be performing many of these pieces with Jade Tongue. The title “Sounds and Cries of the World” comes from a young poet and artist friend of Jen’s, Gridignaldo Hernandes, who had a dream which inspired Jen to come upon the meaning of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, known as “Guanyin.” Her full name is actually “Guanshiyin” which translates into “Observing the Sounds (or Cries) of the World” bringing about this project’s name. [updated]
Shyu (compositions, vocals, dance, moon lute, gayageum, piano), Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet), Mat Maneri (viola), Thomas Morgan (bass), Dan Weiss (drums).
Tuesday, August 26, 9 PM
Korzo Restaurant, 667 5th Ave, Brooklyn
$10 suggested cover & $10 purchase
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18) The Last Moose of Aoluguya – “For five years, filmmaker Gu Tao follows Weijia, a member of the Ewenti minority group with a dwindling population in northern China. The charismatic and yet often drunk herdsman/hunter wanders in the woods, releasing moose from wire traps set by antler traders, singing his heart out, and getting completely wasted. Behind his tough façade and drunkenness is a deep despair caused by the gradual destruction of his habitat and culture, as Han Chinese displace his people and cause irreversible harm to the Ewenti way of life.” -Asia Society
Q&A to follow with Zhao Jiewei, Cinematographer. Moderated by La Frances Hui, Film Curator, Asia Society.
Part of Asia Society’s Waking the Green Tiger: Documentaries from the Front Lines of China’s Environmental Crisis series.
Wednesday, August 27, 6:30 PM
Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue
Free
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19) Sunflower Movement Leaders Speech in NY – Five student leaders from the Sunflower Movement continue the movement’s efforts for a more democratic and transparent Taiwan.
Wednesday, August 27, 7 PM
Taiwan Center, 137-44 Northern Blvd, Flushing
Free
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20) A Gesar Bard’s Tale – “Directed by Donagh Coleman, Lharigtso. As a boy, Dawa was an illiterate Tibetan nomad whose life revolved around herding yaks. At 13, his life changed: through a series of visions, Dawa acquired the gift of telling the epic story of Tibet’s King Gesar. Now, at 35, Dawa receives a salary from the Chinese government as a guardian of national cultural heritage and is regarded as a holy man by his community. When an earthquake reduced his hometown to rubble, Chinese redevelopment of the region took a giant leap forward. In the midst of such seismic shifts, Dawa seeks healing from King Gesar and other divine protectors of the land. In Tibetan; English subtitles. 82 min.” -MoMA
The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Donagh Coleman.
Part of MoMA’s ContemporAsian film series.
Wednesday, August 27, 7 PM
Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St.
$12/Adult; $10/Senior; $8/Student
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21) The Son of a Herder – “A herder’s son, Gonpo Tseden, has just completed training at a vocational school and is eager to reorient his ideals and ambitions beyond pastoral life. But reality presents him with a challenge and burdensome responsibility—horse racing, nomadic migration, and an illness in the family all compel him to follow the traditional role and values of a herdsman. This film, gorgeously shot in eastern Tibet’s Zehok region, shows us an unembellished portrait of the life of a plateau herder, an existence caught between ideals and reality, modernity and tradition, and individual choices. In Tibetan; English subtitles.” -MoMA
Part of MoMA’s ContemporAsian film series.
Thursday, August 28, 4 PM
Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St.
$12/Adult; $10/Senior; $8/Student
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22) Tantric Yogi – “This film focuses on an enormous ngakpa gathering in eastern Tibet that happens once every 60 years. Ngakpa is a Tibetan cultural and non-monastic spiritual tradition that was founded in the eighth century in which lay people can receive spiritual and cultural education. In following one group of ngakpa as they prepare for the trip from the filmmaker’s home village, Tantric Yogi offers an intimate glimpse into lives of the ngakpa, as well as the daily practice of this ancient tradition. In English, Tibetan; English subtitles.” -MoMA
Embrace – This film “presents the complex reciprocal saturation of human communities, gods, Buddha Dharma, and a natural landscape marked with religious significance. Through the narratives of a father and a son, the film documents a ritualized relationship between people, their dwellings, and their natural surroundings. Built around ngakpa tradition and the challenges it faces in a modern world, this well researched, thoughtfully produced, and beautifully shot film provides a glimpse into a rarely seen realm. In English, Tibetan; English subtitles.” -MoMA
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Embrace co-director Pema Tashi.
Part of MoMA’s ContemporAsian film series.
Thursday, August 28, 7 PM
Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St.
$12/Adult; $10/Senior; $8/Student
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Ongoing Films and Shows
1) Mulan: The Percussion Musical (The Ellen Stuart Theatre, 6/25 – 9/13) – The Red Poppy Ladies’ Percussion group presents a reworked version of their earlier production of the story of legendary Chinese heroine, Mulan. The 2012 production was praised for its music and theatrics but faulted for its production values. This new version at a different theater seems to address the past weakensses.
2) Yartsa Rinpoche (Precious Caterpillar) (MoMA, 8/21 – 8/27) – Directed by Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang. Cordyceps sinensis (in Tibetan, Yartsa-gunbu) has been called “Tibet’s golden worm” and “The Viagra of the Himalayas.” When it was discovered 30 years ago as a natural remedy, it became a boon to Tibetan nomads. Today, some nomadic Tibetan communities bring in as much as 80% of their income collecting it. Yartsa Rinpoche follows Darlo, an elder in the Amdo region, who with his family forms a group of 30 that treks 800 kilometers to collect the “worm,” while exploring its larger implications. In Tibetan; English subtitles.
Part of MoMA’s ContemporAsian film series.
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Exhibitions
We put together available reviews of the current exhibitions in our Exhibition Review Roundup. The exhibitions included in a roundup are marked with an asterisk.
Closing soon:
Isa Ho in ISE NY Art Search 2013 Award Winners Exhibition (ISE Cultural Foundation Gallery, 555 Broadway, 7/11 – 8/30)
*Zhang Dali: Square (Klein Sun Gallery, 8/30)
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Opening and newly added:
Isa Ho in ISE NY Art Search 2013 Award Winners Exhibition (ISE Cultural Foundation Gallery, 555 Broadway, 7/11 – 8/30)
Let us know if there’s something people need to see.
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Visit the exhibition calendar (http://ow.ly/pxe9o) for details for the following shows below. As always, check the museum or gallery’s website for hours of operation.
Teng Chao-Ming in Magnetic North: Artists and the Arctic Circle (1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery, 8/29)
Isa Ho in ISE NY Art Search 2013 Award Winners Exhibition (ISE Cultural Foundation Gallery, 555 Broadway, 7/11 – 8/30)
*Zhang Dali: Square (Klein Sun Gallery, 8/30)
Oil and Water: Reinterpreting Ink (MoCA, 9/14)
Xin Song in On Paper/Grand Central at 100 (Grand Central Terminal, 9/14)
Zhang Huan: Evoking Tradition (Storm King Art Center, 11/9)
*Phoenix: Xu Bing at the Cathedral (Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 2015)
Group Shows
Teng Chao-Ming in Magnetic North: Artists and the Arctic Circle (1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery, 8/29)
Isa Ho in ISE NY Art Search 2013 Award Winners Exhibition (ISE Cultural Foundation Gallery, 555 Broadway, 7/11 – 8/30)
YinHua Chu and Ta-Wei Huang in Afterimage (Cuchifritos Gallery, 120 Essex Street (inside Essex Street Market), 8/9 – 9/7/14)
Ming-jer Kuo in Emerald City (The Gateway Project, Newark’s Pennsylvania Avenue, 7/31 – 10/2 )
Image: Pudacuo National Park (普达措国家公园), Bita Hai Lake (碧塔海) by Andrew Shiue