| Summary: |
In 2012, Zuni Icosahedron (Hong Kong), Za-Koenji (Tokyo), and the Jiangsu Kun Opera Theatre (Nanjing) initiated the Toki Experimental Project, an intercultural platform devoted to the transmission of kunqu and noh through contemporary performance. Originating from a Shanghai Expo 2010 commission, Toki presents strategic interpenetration of national discourse and “minor” transnational dynamics. Most significantly, it provides a theatrical application of Chen Kuan-hsing’s influential notion of “Asia as method”. As epitomized by the yearly One Table, Two Chairs performances at Nanjing’s Toki International Arts Festival, Toki partakes in Asia as method’s effort toward “decolonization, deimperialization, and de-cold war” through aesthetic and epistemological deconstruction, endorsing a dialogic model of intercultural performance as inter-Asian relation. |
