[UPDATED] Events and Exhibitions: January 23 – 29, 2015

This week, we’re particularly interested in Eric Liu’s talk about Chinese Americans and their successes and roles in American society in light of China’s growing presence in the world.   It could be an interesting companion to the New-York Historical Society’s Exclusion/Inclusion exhibition.

In addition to the below, Taiwan Tourism NY will be hosting a booth at the New York Times Travel Show which runs from Friday, 1/23, to Sunday, 1/25.  Limited free tickets are available with promo code 1234567.

Looking ahead…

On February 7, EnMaze Pictures will Shorts Go Beyond: Stories in New York, a program of New York-themed short films.  We’ll have a post to introduce the event in the coming days.

China Lion latest film Running Man (奔跑吧兄弟) will hit theaters next week.   Trailers and synopsis will be in next week’s post.

We add listings to our one-time and short term event and ongoing exhibition calendars as we learn of them.  If you know of anything or would like to contribute photos or an article, shoot us an email at beyondchinatown@gmail.com.

Did you see our inaugural weekly digest feature?  We collated all the things we posted on our Facebook page and Twitter account in the past week in case you missed anything.

Upcoming Events

1) 良渚文字的發現與神農社會關係的考證  – 及商甲骨文之前4000年中國文字演變史簡介

Sunday, January 25, 2 – 4 PM
China Institute,
Free, but registration requested

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2) AAV Audiovisual Performance VOL.1- “Hán Jià” – AAV (声像场) is a series of audiovisual performance, which presented by associated artists alliance MediaComposition based in New York. The first event of AAV is named “Hán Jià” which will be held in the last day of “winter break”. “Hán Jià” will be presented at Share NYC by Artists: James Cao, Tracy Song and Hibanana Studio(Miao Jing&Liu Chang). They are New York-based visual artists and VJ, currently studying in NYU-ITP and SVA.

Winter Break is called “Hán Jià” in Chinese. While, majority of people who aren’t students doesn’t have “Hán Jià” any more. Based on the school context, “Hán Jià” is a good time to relax and celebrate the whole previous semester. In other side, during winter break, artists won’t stop getting inspiration and developing their ideas. In contrast, there is a complex in our mind that we wish “Hán Jià” would never end.

In “Hán Jià” audiovisual performance, artists will combine their developed projects with experiences and inspirations in break. Their performance is related to generative art, algorithm art, sound visualization, and immersive experience. In addition, this performance could be a metaphor of a conclusion for the last year and a new commencement for new year.  (share.nyc)

Sunday, January 25, 8 PM – midnight
Share.nyc @The (OA) Can Factory, C-101, 232 3rd Street, Ground Flr
Free

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3) The Celestials  – In late 19th-century New England, 75 young Chinese laborers known as “The Celestials” arrived to work in Calvin Sampson’s shoe factory in the midst of a union labor strike. Chinese-American author Karen Shepard reimagines their story and explores how the Celestials brought to light issues of cultural identity, racial tension, assimilation, and immigration. (NYHS)

Wednesday, January 28, 6:30 PM
New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West
$30/admission; $18/NYHS members

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4) A Chinaman’s Chance  – From Jerry Yang to Amy Chua to Jeremy Lin, Chinese-Americans are now arriving at the highest levels of American business, civic life, and culture. What makes this story of immigrant ascent unique is that Chinese-Americans are coming to the fore at the same moment that China has emerged at the center of the global scene. What does it mean to be Chinese-American in this moment? How do the answers to that question alter our notions of just what an American is and will be?

In many ways, Chinese-Americans today are exemplars of the American dream: in a century and a half, this community has gone from indentured servitude, second-class status and outright exclusion to economic and social integration and achievement. But this narrative is simplistic and many issues remain: some Chinese-Americans are still left behind; the American dream in general is eroding; a China dream may be emerging. How would other Americans look at their countrymen of Chinese descent if China and America became adversaries? As Chinese-Americans explore what constitutes success, virtue, power, and purpose, they hold a mirror up to their country in a time of flux.

In A Chinaman’s Chance, Eric Liu pieces together a sense of the Chinese-American identity in these auspicious years for both countries. He considers his own public career in American media and government, his daughter’s efforts to hold and release aspects of her Chinese inheritance, and the still-recent history that made anyone Chinese in America seem foreign and disloyal until proven otherwise. (NCUSCR)

Sunday, January 29, 8 PM
Cleary Gottlieb, 450 Park Avenue, Floor 28
Free, but RSVP required

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5) Wu Shuang (吴霜 / 吳霜), Wu-nique Soprano – Award-winning soprano Shuang Wu combines coloratura singing with a sense of humor in this evening of comedic vocal entertainment. With music styles ranging from traditional and Chinese opera to American musical theatre and Chinese folk song, the daughter of Chinese playwright Wu Zuguang (吴祖光 / 吳祖光) and pingju Opera performer Xin Fengxia (新凤霞 / 新鳳霞) gives her US debut concert. (Carnegie Hall) Update 1/23 – 4 PM, the promoters just informed us that Wu Shuang’s concert has been postponed until the fall.  We will post details about the rescheduled concert as soon as we know.

Thursday, January 29, 8 – 10 PM
Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue
$45/adults; student and senior discounts available at the box office

Ongoing Films and Shows

1) Film Chinois – Written by Singapore-born playright Damon Chua and directed by Kaipo Schwab, Film Chinois is an atmospheric noir drama with equal measure of spy-versus-spy intrigue and dangerous romantic liaisons set in 1947 China, an uneasy time between WWII and the imminent Communist takeover two years later.  The play won the Ovation Award for Best World Premiere Play.

Randolph, a fresh-faced American operative, has been sent to the imperial city on a secret mission. He makes progress until he meets a Chinese woman who calls herself Chinadoll, his would-be adversary and lover. Is their relationship doomed from the start? How does the star-crossed couple navigate the thin line between personal passion and patriotic imperative? And how is their cat-and-mouse game linked to the amoral Belgian Ambassador and his current squeeze, Simone, a willful local songstress?

As Randolph plunges deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness that was once the most beautiful city in the world, he finds his life imperiled, even as he begins to unravel the mystery of a piece of old home-made film, and a beautiful woman who seemed to have vanished into thin air.  (Pan Asian Repertory Theatre)

Singapore Poetry had a chat with Damon Chua.

January 17 – February 8, 2015
Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, 520 8th Ave.
Regular Tickets $51.25
Seniors (65+) $41.25 use code TRFCSr
Groups (10+) $37 use code TRFCGrp
Students (25 and under, w/ valid ID, 2 per ID) $25 use code TRFCStu

One special event is coming up:

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2) Wang Jianwei: Time Temple Exhibition Related Events – The Guggenheim has two ongoing programs presented in conjunction with the exhibition:

• The Morning Time Disappeared –  Inspired by Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis (1915), this 55- minute film explores the transformation of contemporary China and looks at how the boundary between reality and fiction becomes blurred and abstracted. Like Kafka’s novella, the video positions itself in a state of imaginary realism. (Guggenheim)Daily at 1 and 5 PM through February 15, 2015New Media Theater, Guggenheim Museum
  Free with admission
• Exhibition Tour in Mandarin – Guggenheim gallery educator Fuchiawen Lien focuses on themes and artworks in the exhibition Wang Jianwei: Time Temple.Every Saturday at 12 PM through February 15, 2015Guggenheim Museum (Meet at the entrance to the exhibition in Tower 2)
  Free with admission

Exhibitions

Closing soon:

Sun Xun: The Time Vivarium (Sean Kelly Gallery, 1/24)

Michael Wang: Rivals (Andrea Rosen Gallery, 1/24)

Opening and newly added:

Gu Zhongsheng: Gradually Fog Up (Ouchi Gallery, 2/3 – 2/8; Schoolhouse Art Gallery, 2/12 – 3/28)

Wong Kit Yi in Crystal Ball, Feng Shui & Tarot (Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, 1/22 – 2/21)

Anicka Yi: You Can Call Me F (The Kitchen, 512 W 19th St, 3/5 – 4/11)

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.  We’ve noted exhibitions for which a review has been published.

Sun Xun: The Time Vivarium (Sean Kelly Gallery, 1/24)

Michael Wang: Rivals (Andrea Rosen Gallery, 1/24)

Hsu Kuohuang: Views of Taroko Gorge (M. Sutherland Fine Art, 1/31)

Gu Zhongsheng: Gradually Fog Up (Ouchi Gallery, 2/3 – 2/8)

Phoenix: Xu Bing at the Cathedral (Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 2/15) (review)

Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao’s New York: Assembled Realities (Museum of the City of New York, 2/15)

Sui Jianguo – Blind Portraits (Doris C. Freedman Plaza (SE entrance to Central Park at 60th and 5th), 2/20)

Wong Kit Yi in Crystal Ball, Feng Shui & Tarot (Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, 1/22 – 2/21)

Wang Jianwei: Time Temple (Guggenheim Museum, 2/26)

Shi Jing & Wu Didi (Chambers Fine Art, 2/28)

Shi Jinsong ‘s Art Fair – Free Download (Klein Sun Gallery, 2/28)

The Art of the Chinese Album (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3/29) (WSJ Review)

Waves of Identity: 35 Years of Archiving (Museum of Chinese in America, 3/1)

Memory Prints: The Story World of Philip Chen (Museum of Chinese in America, 3/1)

Polit-Sheer-Form-Office: Polit Sheer Form!  (Queens Museum, 3/8)

Gu Zhongsheng: Gradually Fog Up (Schoolhouse Art Gallery, 2/12 – 3/28)

Anicka Yi: You Can Call Me F (The Kitchen, 512 W 19th St, 3/5 – 4/11)

Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion (New York Historical Society, 4/19)

Mao’s Golden Mangoes and the Cultural Revolution (China Institute, 4/26) (review)

Image: Cable car to Lantau Island (大嶼山), Hong Kong, Photo by Andrew Shiue