Here’s a short video interview of me talking about the inspirations behind Bound Feet Blues and the challenges of bringing it to the stage.
It was filmed just after the Heritage Panel that I took part in, discussing the role of heritage in South East Asian Performance with Anna Nguyen of Trikhon Theatre and Elaine Foo of TrueHeart Theatre.
There’s also a short snippet of me performing a scene from the show for the audience at the Heritage Panel.
Enjoy!
We have just finalised the programme for the upcoming showcase performance on Mon and I thought I’d share it with you. Click on the image below and the programme will open up in a reading pane.
The direct link to the programme is at https://app.box.com/s/uyt1pds75o3dapi6zuam
For those of you who are coming to the show – see you there!
For those who were too late to buy tickets – we hope to bring a full production to fruition in 2015 with a 2-3 week run so stay tuned…!
Here is my interview on Radio Verulam – click on the link below and a player will open up:
https://app.box.com/s/0n1njetp0eut0bv29dxg
It’s about 15 mins long. Enjoy!
I am thrilled that the brilliant Beverley Glick has agreed to chair the Q&A after the showcase performance of Bound Feet Blues on Mon 13 Oct at the Tristan Bates Theatre.
Beverley is an award-winning speaker and “story archaeologist” who works with individuals and businesses to find their authentic stories. She is the co-founder of the cult storytelling club The Story Party where I started my storytelling adventure that led me to create Bound Feet Blues.
I got to know Beverley a couple of years ago from a public speaking course we both took part in and since then, I’ve seen her working with Continue reading
Bound Feet Blues is as much about my own personal coming out story as it is about the story of great-grandmother with bound feet. Footbinding in the show is a metaphor for the binding up of who we really are, of our natural selves, in order to fit into an social construct of what a woman should be.
The story also explores how I used to be a tomboy and what that meant for me in terms of freedom vs constraint, power vs restriction, heartfelt love vs pretending to be someone I was not. For me, coming out was the ultimate act of unbinding and personal empowerment – signified by the freedom to wear whatever I choose, whether fully female or male attire or an androgynous combination of both….
This vintage photo shows two Japanese women, one in female clothing, the other in man’s clothes. I’ve not been able to Continue reading
I perform Bound Feet Blues without any costumes or props – or even any shoes. My aim is to invite the audience to experience the show in the way that we have all experienced stories being told to us when we were children – that is, by co-creating the characters, events and landscapes in our imaginations.
I use my left hand to map the process of footbinding – it starts off as a normal “foot” and is steadily contorted and “broken” into the twisted shape that you see in the photo below. For comparison, I’ve also found a photo of an actual bound foot – also below.
This performance photo was taken at the scratch night in March at Conway Hall.
The most prized foot was called “the golden lotus” – it was Continue reading
While women in Ancient China had to endure their feet being broken and bound in order to conform to the traditional Chinese cultural ideal of feminine beauty, some men endured castration in order to rise in the ranks of power.
This is a chilling photo of what castration meant for a man of that time
According to Green 9999 on Pinterest:
Eunuch-is a castrated man. In ancient China, castration was a traditional punishment or a means of gaining employment. During the Ming Dynasty there were 70,000 eunuchs, some by self-castration. Some of these individuals had Continue reading
I am very excited to share with you the new cover for Mindgame, my second novel and the first – and only – Malaysian lesbian thriller!
The cover is designed by Monsoon Books for the new ebook version that they will be bringing out shortly. It depicts the dark themes of the book quite well, I think:
# the mind manipulation is suggested by the dark swirling cloud to the young woman’s right
# the dream-like, hallucinations bubble up around her, partly light, partly dark
# behind all that, there is an ominous Continue reading
My solo show Bound Feet Blues asks the question: how do we as individuals, and as women, live authentic lives true to ourselves within a dominant culture that seeks to control our bodies and our spirit? Foot binding in ancient China broke a woman’s body physically – but also broke her spirit over the course of the many years it would take to create the perfect tiny foot. What dominant cultural traditions in our modern era play a similar controlling role in who and what we can be?
I’ve just received the proofs of the e-book of my second novel, Mindgame, the first and only lesbian Malaysian thriller. It is soon to be re-issued by Monsoon Books and I am now reading through the proofs – all 450+ pages of the book – to check it before publication. On re-reading the book, I see that this same theme that I explore in Bound Feet Blues also Continue reading
I was a great fan of The Avengers when I was a child.
I’d never seen a woman as feisty as Emma Peel before – and it opened up my mind to what a woman could be! Here she is in her famous catsuit and knee high boots…
Wow, or what?
But at that time, I was a tomboy and did not Continue reading
Bound Feet Blues - A Life Told in Shoes 