On 23 August 2017, a powerful typhoon hit Macau, Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta. The Macau Meteorological Bureau put out its warning too late, so Macau residents had no idea of the severity of the situation and were unprepared, leaving the city to suffer massive damage. This play attempts to narrate the events of Typhoon Hato from multiple perspectives, while investigating the historical, cultural and political currents underlying this incident. Characters include the Filipino-Chinese bungee instructor on Macau Tower and his gambling-addicted grandmother, a Filipino former domestic helper; the high school student who yearns to see the wide world despite her fear of heights and never having left the Macau peninsula; a typhoon enthusiast from Hong Kong; and the gods of wind and sea, who have taken on human form. These individuals of different ethnicities, classes and languages find their destinies brought together by the typhoon.

Playwright: Datouma

Datouma was born in 1989, and began writing at the age of nine – mostly fiction and plays, with an emphasis on experimenting with the fringes of form and the many varieties of narrative. Publications include the novellas Murder Television and How to Write a Non-Bestselling Novel, and the novel Skinner. Murder Television was adapted as a play with the same title, and performed in 2016. Datouma received First Prize at the 2^nd Douban Writing Competition – Fiction Category, was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 16^th Chinese Media Literature Awards, and was shortlisted for the 1^st Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize. Other work has appeared in Harvest, Selected Short Stories, Huacheng, Fiction World, Shanghai Literature etc.

Dramaturg: Yi-Wei Keng

Director: Shih-Hue TU

Shih-Hue received her M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College (New York) in 1997, and returned to Taiwan to continue her theatre career in 1998. Since then, Shih-Hue has produced, written, directed and performed for the Playbox Ensemble Theatre and as a guest artist to work with other contemporary Taiwan theatre companies. She was awarded the British Council Arts Scholarship of 2001 and 2004 International Artist-in-Resident Program (Australia) held by Taipei Artist Village. Three of her works have been published, Breakfast For One in 2002, A Voyage To The Island ~ A Solo Operetta in 2003 with its premier production in the same year and re-creation in Avignon Off 2010 and A l’Est du Nouveau 2012, Road Kill in 2007. In 2008, she published a book Solo Performance that is so far the only book discussed on this particular subject in Mandarin speaking society.

In a town surrounded by plains and deserts, aimless inhabitants lead existences full of hope, without knowing what exactly it is that they’re hoping for. They built the town up and lived through its most prosperous period, only to find themselves lost after its precipitous decline. All they can do now is sit in the dark—because even their electricity supply is insecure—and gaze up at the dazzling city that has been constructed across from them in the desert. In a world of rapid social development, they have allowed themselves to be left behind.

Playwright: Qi Wen

Qi Wen is a young Mongolian playwright and graduate of the Shanghai Theatre Academy. She composed for and performed in the documentary play Builders (建築家) at the Nanluoguxiang Theater Festival. Her playwriting credits include Still Loving at the End of the World (天荒情未老), Mantis Sparrow Cicada (螳螂黃雀蟬) and it’s okay to cry.

Dramaturg: Betty Yichun CHEN

Born in 1983 in Taipei, Betty is a dramaturg and translator (Chinese/English/German). She studied English literature and theatre studies in Taipei and Bochum. Since 2009, she has translated a dozen of contemporary plays from German into Chinese, including authors such as Elfriede Jelinek, Dea Loher and Roland Schimmelpfennig. She has worked intensively with the Taipei Arts Festival as interpreter and dramaturg for the co-productions between Taiwan and Germany from 2012 to 2015. Her contribution as translator goes beyond the linguistic level and involved communication between different cultures and procedures. She has also co-organized various workshops and lectures on documentary theatre practices and dramaturgy in this framework. She also works as independent dramaturg and collaborates with artists/groups such as On & On Theatre Workshop, Vee Leong, Snow Huang, Fangas Nayaw and Christine Umpfenbach. Since 2019, she was commissioned as dramaturg for several new productions in Taipei Arts Festival. Her translation of DRAMATURGY IN THE MAKING: A User's Guide for Theatre Practitioners by Katalin Trencsényi is the first book on contemporary dramaturgy in the Chinese speaking world.

“Homeland 1961” is an old tenement building in Quanzhou that has since been converted to a hostel and coffee shop, owned by Chen Qiuyue. Her husband, a returned overseas Chinese, built this place and then departed, never to be seen again. Chen Qiuyue raised her three children here, but is now suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. When local officials notify her that the building is due to be torn down, her children have varied responses: to flee, or to fight back. As layer after layer of the family’s pain is revealed, Chen Qiuyue prefers to take refuge in her beloved Qizi operas. Her granddaughter shows up after many years away, and has to deal with her difficult relationship with her father as well as her collapsing marriage. Over the course of an afternoon conversation about Qizi opera, grandmother and granddaughter find common ground. When everything is in flux, what is worth holding on to? Whether or not the old building is torn down seems to be more than a question of bricks and mortar…

Playwright: Luo Jing

Luo Jing was born in Quanzhou in 1982. She is a college professor with a PhD in Literature who writes plays in her “spare” time. She graduated from Xiamen University in 2010 with a degree in theater and traditional Chinese opera, and is now a lecturer and researcher at Huaqiao University. In 2008, she completed her first play, The Daily Rented Room, which was named an “Outstanding Script” at the Fujian Province Thirtieth Anniversary of Reform and Opening Up Modern Playwriting Competition. In 2009, she received First Prize at the 23^rd China Tian Han Play Competition. In 2018, her play Embracing Midsummer won Third Prize at the Fujian Province 27^th Playwriting Conference. In 2019, she finished her script Homeland 1961, which won Third Prize at the World Sinophone Drama Competition For Young Playwrights.

Dramaturg: Cheng-Han WU

Cheng-Han Wu is a dramaturg, playwright, and theatre critic. He has served as dramaturg for over 50 productions and new plays, including Tropical Angels the Musical (Taichung National Theater), Love and Information (National Taiwan University), Measures Taken (Taipei National University of the Arts), Mulan the Musical (Studio M & Tainaner Ensemble), Teahouse (Shanghai Theatre Academy), The Piano Lesson (Yale Repertory Theatre), Angels in America (Yale School of Drama). He is a member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. He has also translated many plays into Mandarin, including August: Osage County and Wit. His English translation of the Taiwanese playwright Wei-Jan Chi’s Playing the Violin has been invited for a staged reading hosted by Lark Play Development Center and Signature Theatre in NYC. His plays won Top Prize for New Taipei City Literature Award for Drama and Taipei Literature Award for Drama. Currently, he teaches dramaturgy at National Taiwan University, organizes the Musical Theatre Writing Program at Taipei Performing Arts Center, and also serves as Regional Managing Editor for The Theatre Times. He received his MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale School of Drama.

Director: Yang Shih-Ping

Graduated from Columbia University in the City of New York and Taipei National University of the Arts with a major in Directing. Now is a theatre director and is teaching in department of Theatre Arts, National Sun Yat-sen University.