This week: The beginning of massive retrospective film series for pioneering Taiwanese actress/writer/director Sylvia Chang (張艾嘉) at Metrograph and for the “Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema” Chang Cheh (張徹) at Quad Cinema; premiere of a film about the Chinese Exclusion Act; a talk with Guggenheim Associate Curator Xiaoyu Weng; a new public art installation, and exhibitions at Taipei Cultural Center of TECO and Pearl River Mart Gallery in Chinatown; and more…
In addition to the below:
The opening for Po-Yen Wang’s solo exhibition An Obscure Silhouette where he looks at the multi-layered identity of a person is May 18, 7 – 10 PM at Flux Factory. The show “brings together a body of work exploring the multi-layered identity within a person, incorporating video, installation and sculpture. ‘Six Excerpts from a Journal’ juxtaposes outer space imagery and a monologue addressing the relationship between Taiwan and the US weaved with personal narratives. ‘Crossing’ utilizes the interior of rooms as a metaphor to illustrate an immigrant’s mindset in two different time zones. ‘A Fabricated Personal Archive’ manipulates childhood imagery found on the Internet to question the relationship between human memory and digital archive. ‘Construction of Intimacy’ seeks to expose the fragility of a digital portrait yet consolidate it with the physical self.”
Closing reception for Jia-Jen Lin’s Funes’ Broken Mirror is May 19 from 5:30 – 7:30 PM at Rubber Factory includes performances by Samuel Hanson (choreography/dance) and Yen-Ting Hsu (sound art) at 6, 6:30, and 7 PM. The exhibition is “an installation consisting of sculpture, video, found objects, and text wherein looks into the subjects and their visual representations, such as memories, relationships, modifications of objects and images, and our consciousness within this prevailing era of technology, using specific personal experiences as a point of departure. By employing her body and mind as a platform to process information, like a doctor with a “medical gaze” on the human body, Lin holds up a mirror to examine psychological experience and transcribe the abstract processes into a three-dimensional visual presentation.”
Coming up:
May 27 – Annual Passport to Taiwan Festival
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Our weekly listing includes open calls and other opportunities for artists, filmmakers, and others involved with Chinese culture in this intro section.
1) 4th D.C. Chinese Film Festival – The DC Chinese Film Festival has announced its open call for submissions. The Festival is determined to provide a global platform for Chinese-speaking filmmakers, films in the Chinese language, and films about Chinese-speaking cultures. We have been very impressed by the depth and breadth of its programming. Two years ago, we happened to be in DC during the festival and caught ‘The Chinese Mayor’ and was really impressed by the inquisitiveness of the audience and the long, unrushed, and thoughtful conversation with director Zhou Hao following the film.
Extended deadline: May 31, 2018
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2) Lotus Lee Foundation Travel Fellowship – Through the Travel Fellowship, Lotus Lee Foundation hopes to stimulate an in-depth discussion on the future development of the theater and performing arts industry. The fellowship aim to encourage students and young professionals to exam this topic from different perspectives including business model, the market expands, art & technology integration, investment, cross-cultural communication, etc.
The fellowship will provide its recipients an opportunity to explore the theater industry in Shanghai, China; to broaden their experience and knowledge on the cultural exchange; to deepen their insights on the future of international performing arts field.
Submission deadline: August 28, 2018
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We add talks, films, performances, exhibitions, featuring or relating to Chinese, Taiwanese, diasporic artists and topics to our event and ongoing exhibition calendars as we learn of them.
We post frequently on our Facebook page. So check the page for links we share and get a heads up on events before we include them in these weekly posts. For art, images, and other instances of Chineseness we see, follow us on Instagram.
We’re looking for contributors! If you’re interested in writing an article, contributing photos or artwork to be featured with our weekly events and exhibitions listing, letting us know about an event, send a pitch at beyondchinatown@gmail.com.
UPCOMING EVENTS
1) All About Ah-Long 《阿郎的故事》– Sylvia Chang and Chow Yun-fat co-wrote and co-star in To’s robust tearjerker as ex-lovers— and parents of a child—reunited after a decade apart. She’s a successful director based in the U.S. unaware that her baby survived childbirth; he’s a truck driver raising their son alone, trying to rekindle a lost love and win his son a better shot in life by going back into competitive motorbike racing. Bring tissues.
Dir. Johnnie To
1989, Hong Kong, 1989
Screens as part of the Sylvia Chang retrospective series
Friday, May 18, 6:30 PM
Tuesday, May 22, 7 PM
Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street
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2) Aces Go Places 《最佳拍檔》– Shattering Hong Kong box-office records on release and launching a beloved franchise, the first Aces Go Places is an action-comedy romp filled with jaw-dropping stunts, knee-slapping gags, and spy tech gadgetry. American detective Albert Au (Karl Maka) and slick cat burglar King Kong (Sam Hui) team up to bring mysterious villain White Gloves to justice, all while trying to avoid the wrath of Sylvia Chang’s hot-headed police superintendent.
Dir. Eric Tsang
1982, Hong Kong, 93 min.
Screens as part of the Sylvia Chang retrospective series
Friday, May 18, 9:15 PM
Wednesday, May 23, 3 PM
Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street
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3) My Grandfather – After suffering a breakdown at his wife’s funeral, a grief-stricken older man finds that he can only recognize his daughter-in-law. The discovery of a new love seems to improve his faltering health, but more heartbreak awaits just around the corner. The wistful, world-wise film that won Chang her first Golden Horse and due acknowledgement as a serious actress to be reckoned with.
Dir. Chun Hsiung Ko
1982, Taiwan, 84 min.
Screens as part of the Sylvia Chang retrospective series
Saturday, May 19, 12:45 PM
Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street
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4) 和 [hé] – Screenings and Artist Talks – As part of the contemporary art exhibition 和 [hé] presented by FOGSTAND Gallery & Studio in collaboration with the Taipei Cultural Center in New York, artists Song-Yun Ki, Jo-Mei Lee, Brandon Cramm, Jin-Da Lin, and En-Man Chang will talk about their works.
Saturday, May 19, 2 PM
Queens Museum
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5) Patriot Number One: American Dreams in Chinatown Author Talk with Lauren Hilgers – The Chatham Square Library hosts author Lauren Hilgers for talk on her new non-fiction title Patriot Number One: American Dreams in Chinatown.
In 2014, in a snow-covered house in Flushing, Queens, a village revolutionary from Southern China considered his options. Zhuang Liehong was the son of a fisherman, the former owner of a small tea shop, and the spark that had sent his village into an uproar—pitting residents against a corrupt local government. Under the alias Patriot Number One, he had stoked a series of pro-democracy protests, hoping to change his home for the better. Instead, sensing an impending crackdown, Zhuang and his wife, Little Yan, left their infant son with relatives and traveled to America. With few contacts and only a shaky grasp of English, they had to start from scratch.
In Patriot Number One, Hilgers follows this dauntless family through a world hidden in plain sight: a byzantine network of employment agencies and language schools, of underground asylum brokers and illegal dormitories that Flushing’s Chinese community relies on for survival. As the irrepressibly opinionated Zhuang and the more pragmatic Little Yan pursue legal status and struggle to reunite with their son, we also meet others piecing together a new life in Flushing. Tang, a democracy activist who was caught up in the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, is still dedicated to his cause after more than a decade in exile. Karen, a college graduate whose mother imagined a bold American life for her, works part-time in a nail salon as she attends vocational school, and refuses to look backward.
With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, Hilgers captures the joys and indignities of building a life in a new country—and the stubborn allure of the American dream.
The New York Times calls the book “rich and absorbing”
Saturday, May 19, 2 PM
Chatham Square Library, 33 E. Broadway
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6) Office 3D 《華麗上班族》– Sylvia Chang reunited Johnnie To, primarily known for his action movies, to create the remarkable Office, a stylish, buoyant musical shot in 3D featuring grand, eye-popping set design reminiscent of Jacques Tati’s classic Playtime. Adapted by Chang from her own stage play, Office takes place in an exquisitely realized high-rise where two new assistants attempt to climb the corporate ladder and please the head honcho—a wickedly imperious Chang.
Dir. Johnnie To
2015, Hong Kong, 119min
Screens as part of the Sylvia Chang retrospective series
Saturday, May 19, 2:30 PM
Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street
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7) Jeremy Lin in Conversation with Ronny Chieng – Join this MOCA Signature Event, featuring a conversation between the Brooklyn Nets’ Jeremy Lin and The Daily Show’s Ronny Chieng.
Jeremy Shu-How Lin is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He unexpectedly led a winning turnaround with the New York Knicks in 2012, which generated a global craze known as “Linsanity”. Learn more about him at www.jlin7.com.
Ronny Chieng is a Chinese stand-up comedian and actor born in Malaysia, raised in New Hampshire and Singapore. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in Australia in 2009 with a Bachelors of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce. Ever since then, comedy has taken over, leading him to be hired as a correspondent on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah in New York City. In 2017, he was cast in the Warner Bros. film adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s best-seller, Crazy Rich Asians. Learn more about him at www.ronnychieng.com.
Saturday, May 19, 5 PM
Hotel 50 Bowery, 50 Bowery
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8) Love Education 《相愛相親》– Into her fourth decade in the film industry—displaying a longevity almost unknown for actresses in Chinese-language cinema, or for that matter anywhere else—survivor Sylvia Chang shows a unique understanding of how times change, a subject at the heart of this sensitive story of a teacher near retirement (Chang) drawn into a squabble with her mother’s husband’s first wife (Wu Yanshu) over where to bury the man’s remains, all while observing the professional and romantic travails of her TV producer daughter (Lang Yueting). This is the New York premiere of Love Education.
Dir. Sylvia Chang
2017, Taiwan, 120 min.
Followed by a Q&A with Sylvia Chang
Screens as part of the Sylvia Chang retrospective series
Saturday, May 19, 7:15 PM
Sunday, May 20, 4 PM
Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street
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9) Shanghai Blues 《上海之夜》– Beginning against the backdrop of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the inimitable Tsui Hark’s kinetic, ultra-stylish slapstick comedy/historical romance/ backstage musical is one of the most important works of Hong Kong cinema from the 1980s. It revolves around the star-crossed affair between Kenny Bee’s nightclub clown and young damsel Chang, who meet-cute in a 1937 bombing and plan to find each other ten years later, only to have their reunion in devastated postwar Shanghai elaborately and often hilariously complicated by intervening fate.
Dir. Tsui Hark
1984, Hong Kong, 103 min.
Screens as part of the Sylvia Chang retrospective series
Saturday, May 19, 10 PM
Wednesday, May 23, 7:15 PM
Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street
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10) 39th Asian Pacific American Heritage Celebration Weekend Walks – New York’s Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Celebration is the nation’s longest running festival celebrating Asian diversity and participation in community events. It is the nation’s most prestigious such event and dedicated to celebrating Asian American & Pacific Islander identity. This year’s theme is celebrating “The Year of the D.O.G – Do! Organize! Give!” Everyone is encouraged to come out, meet participating nonprofit organizations, and DO/ORGANIZE/GIVE to a cause that you feel most passionately about.
Saturday, May 20, 11 AM
40 Mott Street
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11) That Day, On the Beach 《海灘的一天》– The little-screened debut feature by Edward Yang, the groundbreaking giant of the Taiwanese New Wave, shot by renegade cinematographer Christopher Doyle, features Chang and Terry Hu as two female friends brought together after a thirteen-year separation, their process of catching up illustrated through an innovative flashback structure which shows the director’s air for formal experimentation already fully in operation.
Dir. Edward Yang
1983, Taiwan, 166 min.
Screens as part of the Sylvia Chang retrospective series
Sunday, May 20, 1 PM
Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street
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12) The Essence of the Chinese Poetry – Author of 300 Poems by Han Chenqi, Prof. Han of Renmin University of China will discuss in this lecture an avant-garde approach he developed to write Chinese poetry, which is neither classical nor modern.
Prof. Han teaches Chinese linguistics and philology at Renmin University of China. He is also the past President of the Linguistics Society of Jiangsu Province.
This lecture will be conducted in Chinese, with no interpretation. Free, but advanced registration is requested.
詩為人人，人人為詩 – 韓陳其“韓詩三百首”創吟一席談
送您一本“韓詩三百首”圓您一個詩歌創作夢，讓我們蕩起雙槳在詩的小河中遊樂嬉戲吧！熟讀“韓詩三百首”人人都是好詩手！
您一定讀過“詩經”，“楚辭”唐詩宋詞吧！您一定知道詩歌的靈魂在於“想像”吧！然而，可能又有幾位真正想過和真正知道什麼是“象”嗎？中國人民大學韓陳其教授，從漢語的言意象的小花園裡走出，來到詩歌的言意象的大世界，用其“韓詩三百首”告訴您，漢語詩歌的靈魂之象，是一種什麼模樣，幫助您在尋找詩魂的過程中圓您一個美妙的詩歌創作之夢，歡迎參加華美人文學會5月20日下午2時至4時舉辦的韓陳其教授專題講座。
韓陳其，中國人民大學教授，一位既淡然純然而又詩情洋溢的學者。曾長期兼任中國語言學會理事，江蘇省語言學會會長以及韓國淑明女子大學，韓國首爾女子大學，韓國湖西大學的客座教授。韓陳其教授“於語言文字各部門，均所擅長，凡有所陳，無不愜心貴當，卓然有所樹立”（國學大師徐复評語）。主要著作“中國語言論”，“中國古漢語學”，“漢語羨餘現象研究”，“漢語詞彙論稿”，“漢語借代義詞典”，“語言是小河”，“韓詩三百首 – 言意象觀照中的原創中國漢語詩歌”等。研究成果約850萬字韓陳其教授，四十餘年的漢語研究構成一個獨特的基於傳統又新於傳統的“言 – 言意 – 言意象”的研究發展軌跡，創造了語言學界若干個“第一”或“唯一”出版了世界第一本“漢語借代義詞典”出版了世界第一本研究漢語羨餘現象的專著“語羨餘現象研究”在世界語言學界，第一次引入“語象”新概念，首次嘗試構擬設置了一個基於感官互通的漢語的言意象系統;運用獨創的漢語的言意象理論，創作“韓詩三百首 – 言意象觀照中的原創中國漢語詩歌”。
講座免費。因座位有限，請預先訂位。
Sunday, May 20, 2 PM
China Institute
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13) Globe Trekker: Chinatowns Screening – This special edition of Globe Trekker delves into the multiculturalism of Chinatowns around the globe. From Hong Kong to Peru, every major city in the world has one – Chinatowns chart the history of this vast migratory community spreading their culture, food and heritage across the world.
Around 34 million Chinese live overseas – travelers Lavinia Tan, Megan McCormick and Justine Shapiro travel to Penang, Singapore, Lima, San Francisco, New York City, London and Hong Kong to explore the magic and mystery of Chinatowns around the world.
Sunday, May 20, 3 PM
21 Pell Street
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14) Xiao Yu 《少女小漁》– Sylvia Chang directed René Liu, in her film debut, to an award-winning star turn as a Chinese girl who arranges for a mock marriage with an older American alcoholic (Daniel J. Travanti) in order to stay on with her boyfriend in New York. A strikingly compassionate drama that shows a rare understanding of both the immigrant plight and the bittersweet disappointments of old age, with top flight performances by both leads.
Dir. Sylvia Chang
1995, Taiwan, 1995
Followed by Q&A with Sylvia Chang
Screens as part of the Sylvia Chang retrospective series
Sunday, May 20, 7:15 PM
Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street
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15) The Chinese Exclusion Act: The Official New York Premiere – Join for the official New York premiere screening of The Chinese Exclusion Act with award-winning documentary filmmakers Ric Burns and Li-Shin Yu of Steeplechase Films. The screening will be hosted by Jack Tchen, founding director of the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, and followed by a discussion with the filmmakers and special guest Kavitha Rajagopalan, a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute and author of Muslims of Metropolis: The Stories of Three Immigrant Families in the West.
On May 6, 1882—on the eve of the greatest wave of immigration in American history—President Chester A. Arthur signed into law a unique piece of federal legislation. Called the Chinese Exclusion Act, it singled out by name and race a single nationality for special treatment: making it illegal for Chinese laborers to enter America on pain of imprisonment and for Chinese nationals ever to become citizens of the United States.
A deeply American story—about immigration and national identity, civil rights, and human justice; about how we define who can be an American, and what being an American means—the film examines the economic, cultural, social, legal, racial, and political dimensions of the law; the forces and events that gave rise to it; and the effect it has had, and continues to have, on American culture and identity. The evening program will also consider the connections between the Exclusion Act and the long fight for social justice, civil liberties, immigration, and who are to be included as “we the people.” Immediately evident will be the chilling parallels to today.
The film’s broadcast premiere will take place on May 29 as a special presentation of the acclaimed PBS series American Experience. Check your local listings.
Tuesday, May 22, 6:30 PM
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place
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16) Curators in Conversation: Xiaoyu Weng – MOCA presents a dynamic program series that engages curators, artists and cultural producers across generations and geographies in critical conversations to deeply investigate the aesthetic concerns, subject matter, and experiences within the Chinese and Asian American cultural community.
This conversation with Xiaoyu Weng, Associate Curator at the Guggenheim Museum, is co-presented with Asia Art Archive in America (AAA in A). It will be moderated by Jane DeBevoise, Board Chair of Asia Art Archive, and Herb Tam, Curator and Director of Exhibitions at MOCA.
Tuesday, May 22, 6:30 PM
Museum of Chinese in America
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17) Golden Swallow 《 金燕子》– In a rare teaming with a female action icon, Chang Cheh directs Cheng Pei-Pei as the latter reprises her character from King Hu’s 1966 classic Come Drink with Me. Golden Swallow has forsaken violence in favor of peaceful co-existence but when she is framed for a killing spree and tries to clear her name, romantic complications ensue. Chang fully avails himself of frequent collaborator Chia-liang Liu’s expertise as wuxia fight choreographer and stunt arranger.
Dir. Chang Cheh
1968, Hong Kong, 89 min.
In Mandarin with English Subtitles
Screens as part of the Vengeance Is His: Chang Cheh’s Martial Lore series
Wednesday, May 23, 5 PM
Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th Street
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18) One-Armed Swordsman 《 獨臂刀》– Hitting his stride as helmer, Cheh set the tone for his— and others’— movies to come, bringing emotional gravitas and cinematic style to the violent action with top Shaw Bros. star Wang Yu in one of their several films together. As the title character, Wang imparts real complexity to his characterization; beset by demons even before losing an arm, the swordsman must redirect his life and his fighting prowess as he mulls vengeance.
Dir. Chang Cheh
1978, Hong Kong, 97 min.
In Mandarin with English Subtitles
Screens as part of the Vengeance Is His: Chang Cheh’s Martial Lore series
Wednesday, May 23, 6:50 PM
Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th Street
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19) Five Deadly Venoms 《五毒》 – Shepherding a cadre of new stars who would frequently regroup for other movies—including his own—in varying combos, Cheh expertly juggled their fight stylings. Kuo Chui is Lizard, Lu Feng is Centipede, Lo Meng is Toad, Wei Pai is Snake, and Sun Chien is Scorpion; all are being tracked by fellow student Chiang Sheng to ascertain if they are upholding or betraying their kung fu teacher’s legacy, with a hunt for buried treasure as the litmus test.
Dir. Chang Cheh
1978, Hong Kong, 97 min.
In Mandarin with English Subtitles
Screens as part of the Vengeance Is His: Chang Cheh’s Martial Lore series
Wednesday, May 23, 9 PM
Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th Street
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20) Crippled Avengers (aka Return of the Five Deadly Venoms) 《残缺》- One of Chang Cheh’s most famous movies spotlights without-a-break extended sequences of hand-to-hand combat and bone-crunching brutality. Continuing his collaboration with the principal martial artists and actors from Five Deadly Venoms, Chang lets rip with a tale of three men hobbled—physically and otherwise—by a vicious warlord whose family has a history of sadism. The men band together to heal, regroup, and challenge their foe and his son.
New York premiere of 2K digital restoration
Dir. Chang Cheh
1978, Hong Kong, 99 min.
In Mandarin with English Subtitles
Screens as part of the Vengeance Is His: Chang Cheh’s Martial Lore series
Thursday, May 24, 5 PM
Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th Street
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21) In Search of Chinese Identity: China’s Hermit Tradition: The Importance of Solitude – Bill Porter knows more about the hermit tradition in China – and Buddhism, Tang and Song poetry, and the Chinese language—than just about any other living westerner. After spending three years in a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan in the 1970s, he has spent a lifetime studying and translating Chinese religious and philosophical texts. An anthropologist by training, Porter traveled deep into the Zhongnan Mountains in the late 1980s, discovering that the hermit tradition is very much alive in China today.
China Institute is honored to welcome Porter to help us search for China’s soul with a lecture and conversation about “China’s Hermit Tradition: The Importance of Solitude,” in conjunction with our current exhibition, Art of the Mountain: Through the Chinese Photographer’s Lens.
The search for solitude has been at the core of Chinese civilization ever since it began 5,000 years ago. Spending time alone, usually in the mountains, has been an essential part of all three major spiritual traditions in China—Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism—and it continues to be so today. In this unique event, Porter will share slides from his personal collection and talk about religion in China today and the tradition that has played such an important part in Chinese culture and in the teachings of Laozi, Confucius, and Bodhidharma.
Bill Porter (aka Red Pine) is an independent scholar, an expert on Buddhism and Chinese philosophy, traditional Chinese poetry, and a prolific writer and translator of traditional Chinese works. He has given lectures at many universities in the US, England and Germany on Chinese history, culture, poetry, and religion. His translations of texts dealing with these subjects have been honored with a number of awards, including two NEA translation fellowships, a PEN translation award, the inaugural Asian Literature Award of the American Literary Translators Association, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and more recently the Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation bestowed by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
After graduating from UC Santa Barbara, Porter studied anthropology at Columbia University with Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict. In 1972 he moved to a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan, where he lived for more than three years. Over the years, he has translated Chinese poetry and Buddhist texts, and authored many books about religion and philosophy in ancient—and today’s—China.
Thursday, May 24, 6:30 PM
China Institute
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22) Five Element Ninjas 《五遁忍術》– Exponentially upping his Venoms formula, Chang Cheh introduced a second quintet: the ninja disciples’ fighting styles here represent gold, wind, water, fire, and earth. With the weapons roster accordingly augmented, Chang also incorporates femme fatale Chen Pei Hsi into this all-stops-out ride about a blood feud between martial arts schools. On-screen talent Cheng Tien-Chi (who plays the hero, Shao) and Chu Ke coordinated the stunts and action choreography.
Dir. Chang Cheh
1982, Hong Kong, 102 min.
In Mandarin with English Subtitles
Screens as part of the Vengeance Is His: Chang Cheh’s Martial Lore series
Thursday, May 24, 7:10 PM
Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th Street
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23) House of Traps 《沖霄樓》 – In the last of Chang’s films to host the majority of the Venoms gang (only Lo Meng is absent) and one of the last movies that he made for Shaw Brothers, an all-male ensemble partakes in skullduggery and murder over coveted artifacts as well as a hidden list of conspirators in a pending palace coup. The showdowns in the titular abode force the fighters to contend with spikes, snares, suddenly slanting steel stairs, and a remarkably adaptable umbrella.
Dir. Chang Cheh
1982, Hong Kong, 98 min.
In Mandarin with English Subtitles
Screens as part of the Vengeance Is His: Chang Cheh’s Martial Lore series
Thursday, May 24, 9:20 PM
Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th Street
ONGOING FILMS, SHOWS, AND EVENTS
1) Come You Back to Maynila Bay – A community engagement printmaking project by Karl Orozco that uses hand-carved mahjong tiles to retell family narratives of his lola’s (grandmother) underground gambling den in the Philippines. In partnership with Think!Chinatown and Chashama, Orozco activates the space at 384 Broadway to create a public gambling hall and lead inter-generational printmaking workshops with Chinatown’s youth and elders.
Orozco will run printmaking workshops on Sundays throughout May. where he will invite audience members to play games of mahjong and create printed “bills” recording their winning hands. Inspired by his lola’s Manila gambling den – conceived to keep her absent husband homebound – and by his own childhood experiences being told that mahjong was “a game for adults,” Orozco hopes to create an inclusive gambling space where participants of all ages feel engaged and leave lucky.
Open Hours: Monday and Tuesdays, 2 – 7 PM
Saturdays and Sundays, 12 – 6 PM
Workshops: Sundays, May 13, 20 and 27, 1- 5 PM
Closing Reception: Sunday, May 27, 4 – 6 PM
Presented with Think!Chinatown
ART EXHIBITIONS
Group Shows, Local Artists, and Other Art Events:
Hong Kong artist Wong Ping and Chinese artists Song Ta and Shen Xin are part of the New Museum’s triennial group show Songs for Sabotage which “questions how individuals and collectives around the world might effectively address the connection of images and culture to the forces that structure our society. Together, the artists in Songs for Sabotage propose a kind of propaganda, engaging with new and traditional media in order to reveal the built systems that construct our reality, images, and truths. The exhibition amounts to a call for action, an active engagement, and an interference in political and social structures urgently requiring them.”
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Opening and Newly Listed:
1) The Mississippi Delta Chinese (Pearl River Mart Gallery, 5/18 – 7/7) – What places in the U.S. do you think of when you think of Asian Americans? San Francisco? Los Angeles? New York? How about the Mississippi Delta? That’s the question Brooklyn-based photographers Andrew Kung and Emanuel Hahn explored as they embarked on their audiovisual project, The Mississippi Delta Chinese. Through a mixture of audio recordings, portraiture, and environmental photography, this exhibition explores the lives, experiences, and perspectives of this lesser known Asian American population: the Chinese community in the rural South.
Read the New York Times‘ coverage of the project
Taylor Pang, a fourth-generation Chinese-American, works for the Department of Agriculture in Clarksdale, Miss.
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2) Kang Muxiang – Rebirth (5/17 – 9/15, Garment District Plazas, Broadway btwn 41st and 36th Streets) – A public art installation consisting of seven monumental embryonic sculptures made from recycled elevator cables from Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building from 2004 to 2010.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g0QI0N32vw
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3) [和hé] (Taiwan Academy in New York (TECO), 5/18 – 6/22) – The exhibition, which is accompanied by a film series, aims to capture the impacts of globalization on Taiwanese society through various lenses, and through the perspectives of the participating artists.
As of now, the foreign worker population in Taiwan has grown to over six hundred thousand people, yet they exist outside of Taiwanese society. [和hé] presents a diverse collection of mediums including photography, videography, art installation, and sculpture. The exhibition uses Taiwan as a subject to question our ideas and interpretations of commonality, of being-in-common without presuming a common-being, of searching for commonality without defining that one specific thing we all share in common.
Curated by FOGSTAND Gallery, the contemporary art exhibition [和heʼ] features 9 artists : Chang En-Man, Lee Jo-Mei, Lin Jin-Da (from Taiwan) and other artists including Joo Choon Lin, Chun Kai Feng (Singapore), Song-Yun Kim (Korea), Fiona Burke (Ireland), Samuel Weinburg (USA), and Brandon Cramm (UK).
Alongside the exhibition, 4 films and documentaries, “See You, Lovable Strangers,” “Stilt,” and “Towards the Sun,” have been selected for screening. The first 3 films examine the challenges new immigrants face in Taiwan, as well as the issues of the rural-urban divide. The fourth film “Black Bear Forest” addresses the relationship between humans and the natural environment by taking the audience into the world of an indigenous tribe—Bunun, and the life of Taiwan’s very own protected animal, the black bear.
Opening reception: May 18, 6 – 8 PM
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Closing soon:
Po-Yen Wang – An Obscure Silhouette (Flux Factory, 5/18 – 5/20)
Jia-Jen Lin – Funes’ Broken Mirror (Rubber Factory, 4/21 – 5/23)
Cici Wu: Upon Leaving the White Dust (47 Canal at 291 Grand Street, 4/18 – 5/27)
Crystal W. M. Chan Solo Exhibition (The National Arts Club, 4/30 – 5/25)
Current shows:
Visit the exhibition calendar for details for the current shows listed below. Check the museum’s or gallery’s website for hours of operation.
Po-Yen Wang – An Obscure Silhouette (Flux Factory, 5/18 – 5/20)
Jia-Jen Lin – Funes’ Broken Mirror (Rubber Factory, 4/21 – 5/23)
Cici Wu: Upon Leaving the White Dust (47 Canal at 291 Grand Street, 4/18 – 5/27)
Crystal W. M. Chan Solo Exhibition (The National Arts Club, 4/30 – 5/25)
Subject: China (NYU China House, 4/13 – 5/31)
Dik Liu: Still Lifes (Gallery 456, 5/4 – 6/1)
Yan Shanchun: West Lake II (Chambers Fine Art, 4/19 – 6/2)
Yun-Fei Ji – Rumor Ridicules and Retributions (James Cohan Gallery (Grand Street), 4/28 – 6/17)
Hao Liang – Portraits and Wonders (Gagosian, 5/8 – 6/23)
Chen Dongfan: Nevermore (昨夜星辰昨夜风) (Fou Gallery, 4/14 – 6/24)
The Fuck Off Generation Chinese Avant Garde in the Post-Mao Era, Part 2 (Ethan Cohen, 5/10 – ??)
Liu Wei – 180 Faces (Sean Kelly Gallery, 5/5 – 6/16)
[和hé] (Taiwan Academy in New York (TECO), 5/18 – 6/22)
Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong: Constellation (Seward Park, June 2017 – June 2018)
The Mississippi Delta Chinese (Pearl River Mart Gallery, 5/18 – 7/7)
Spirited Creatures: Animal Representations in Chinese Silk and Lacquer (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 10/21/17 – 7/22/18)
Mel Chin: All Over the Place (Queens Museum, 4/8 – 8/12)
Land: Zhang Huan and Li Binyuan (MoMA PS1, 4/15 – 9/3)
Chinese Medicine in America: Converging Ideas, People, and Practices (Museum of Chinese in America, 4/26 – 9/9)
On the Shelves of Kam Wah Chung & Co.: General Store and Apothecary in John Day, Oregon (Museum of Chinese in America, 4/26 – 9/9)
Kang Muxiang – Rebirth (5/17 – 9/15, Garment District Plazas, Broadway btwn 41st and 36th Streets)
Cecile Chong – El Dorado / The New 49ers (Lewis H. Latimer House Museum, 5/12 – 10/14)
One Hand Clapping (Guggenheim Museum, 5/4 – 10/21)
Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 8/26/17 – 1/9/19)
Lead image: Tian Tan Buddha, Ngong Ping, Lantau Island in Hong Kong. Photo by Andrew Shiue