Winners

本屆評選結果說明

About the Results

首獎 First Prize

Sparrows that live on (Fear)

Author / Alastor CHOW
Hong Kong

A dead sparrow was found in a warehouse, reminding the workers of a horror urban tale, and they are not the only one being messed up. Somewhere in the city, a man is forced to disown his sister, while a mother becomes a victim of domestic violence. A second-handed bookstore owner is making a tough decision and a Kendo apprentice is trapped in a fight with her master.

As the five performers leap among more than a dozen of roles, fear grows within everyone until the sun rises. The work is inspired by Roland Schimmelpfennig’s Der Goldene Drache.

Playwright’s Bio

Post-90s Hongkonger, graduated from HKUST majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Have been participating in professional and community productions under various positions, including playwright and producer. Currently a freelancer.

Playwright’s Comments

If you believe in destiny, my connection with the play Der Goldene Drache tells.

Imitating this play and assimilating the magical elements into my works were what I attempted for my debut creation. It was, unfortunately, atrocious. A few years later, one of my friends was about to direct this play and we brainstormed on the directing perspectives together. I was further inspired and eventually created Sparrows that live on (Fear).

Self-doubt always occurs when I have to rewrite the play script repeatedly. I reckoned if I chose the right path with enough talent. Thankfully, WSDC's award encourages me to carry on as a playwright. I truly appreciate the affirmation from the judges, as well as the support from my mentors, fellows, and most importantly, my family members. They have empowered my boldness to keep leaping forward in my artistic creation journey.

貳獎 Second Prize

CHRONICLE OF EXILE: WHO AM I?

Author / KUO Chen Wei
Taoyuan, TAIWAN

This text draws from many real-life incidents involving undocumented migrants in Taiwan, with the question “Who am I?” at its heart. Through cases of Taiwanese people of irregular status and undocumented overseas Chinese as well as identity documents, it explores the issues of identity and belonging in Taiwan. In addition, the topic is connected to Taiwan’s uncertain position within the international community, which affects how the Taiwanese people see themselves, emphasising the contradictory and ludicrous circumstances of the real world. All of this is presented with strong pacing, alternating sections of narration and performance, and puppetry.

The story begins with a young vocational high school student whose parents departed when he was very young. After his father’s death, he goes to the household registration department to change his guardian, only to find that his birth mother is someone else altogether, which throws his identity into doubt. As he searches for his mother, he encounters a young “black household” undocumented woman, and decides to help her, so the pair go on the run together. As the police come after them, a lorry suddenly arrives out of nowhere and rescues them. The police and army then surround the vehicle by land, sea and air in the middle of Taipei Bridge. As the loudspeaker remorselessly counts down, the boy can only watch the tragedy that unfolds before his eyes, sighing that the world does not care about their stories, but only about whether you can prove who you are.

Playwright’s Bio

I was born in Wan Li district of New Taipei City. After my parents divorced, I lived with my grandmother and moved to Dayuan Township of Taoyuan County. When I was a vocational high school student, my original goal was to be a chef. However, around ten years ago, I suddenly developed a strong interest and fascination for dramas. Because of this, I started to work as an actor in the theatre. I was determined to become a professional theatre worker to express my way of thinking and views about this world. I loved to take on challenges and enjoyed working in various positions in the theatre, such as director, actor, crew, writer and artistic administrator. My goal is not only to seek the meaning of life persistently but also to keep trying something new to make this world a better place.

Playwright’s Comments

Memories of Outlaws was actually for a piece of homework which my teacher asked me to do. I knew at the time there is no shortcut to writing a good piece, and likely to meet some disappointments along the way, but I had my passion to keep myself going.

Memories of Outlaws took me ten months to complete. There were more than twenty reviews and revisions, and two readings. I don’t think I would have completed it without the encouragement of my family, my teachers, and all my friends. Their feedback and comments help me to make this writing the success it is today.

I also want to thank the “SHOWING Theatre” group, who help enlightened me in all aspects of acting. Thanks to the teachers and mentors I met at the Department of Performing and Media Arts of Hsuan Chuang University, especially to Guo Shang-Sing, Ciyo Pisuy, and Hu Hsiu-Wei. Thank you for putting up with me. And I am thankful for everything that I have been through, the good and the bad.

Thanks to the “Raduate Institute of Theatre Performance department at the Taipei National University of Arts”, especially to three teachers, Chiu Kun-Lian, Shi Ru-Fang, and Ho I-Fan. I couldn’t make it without their guidance and support. I am also very grateful to my classmates and the three actors who participated in the writing readings –Lin Zhe-Hong, Jonathan Chi Chang Wei, and Hsu Chi-Kai. I am also very thankful to my teacher, Yu Shan-Lu, who spent so much time in helping me to review, correct and revise my script.

In 2019, Performosa Theatre created a project named “Drift Project” which led me to see various tragic stories in this world. Thanks to the director, Lin Hsin-I, who gave me a book named, “⼀線之遙：亞洲⿊⼾拚搏越界紀實”, which was about the unregistered households’ situation in Taiwan. Thanks to the director of the troupe, Hung Pei-Ching, and also the producer, Huang Hsin-Yu. Thanks to all the members attending “Drift Project”, I couldn’t complete Memoirs of Outlaws without your feedback and comments.

Thanks to the Union of Excluded Immigrants and Unwanted Citizens (UNIC) that protects the unregistered households’ rights and interests in Taiwan. Thanks to the teacher, Kung Lorna, who provided me legal advice and the opinions of writing.

Thanks to “Huang Tswei-Hwa”, the director of “Song Song Song Children’s and Puppet Theater”. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to experience “story theatre” which helped me explore my imagination, sense of rhythm, and knowledge of puppet show when I was trying to create Memoirs of Outlaws.

I want to say thank you to the foreign worker who was my companion when I was a little boy at the ironworks. It was my life experiences there that brought me the inspiration to write Memoirs of Outlaws. I would also like to give the honor and the glory to my grandmother and my aunt because they never stopped cultivating and nourishing me. I also want to say thanks to myself, “Chen-Wei, you’ve never forgot why you started your career in the theater, and you still keep moving forwards on the right path.” Besides, I really appreciate the strength and guidance that Baishatun Mazu has brought to my life.

I was born and grew up at the bottom of society. Living with my grandmother who worked in the ironworks gave me chances to experience inconstancy of human relationships. All the moments of my childhood influenced me deeply and help developed myself into a sentimental and rooted person. No matter where I go or how the surroundings may change, I will never forget who I am, where I’m from, and which direction I am heading, I shall keep moving forward to achieve what I want.

There should be many stories out there to be seen and heard if all the people around the world respect different races and backgrounds and have an open heart and mind to accept all differences between different people.

On my way of the Baishatun Mazu Pilgrimage to Beigang Township,
KUO CHEN-WEI

參獎 Third Prize

WE GROW TIRED OF LIFE IN THE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS BEFORE THE NEW YEAR ARRIVES

Author / Jasmine HAN
Guangxi, CHINA

An absurd family tragedy. The bulk of the script consists of monologues by four young people. Unable to return home for New Year’s Eve, they guess and imagine the family gathering they are missing. On the one hand, these speculations are mixed with their own anxieties and fears, making them overblown and one-sided; on the other hand, the details brought into collision in their fevered imaginations blur the truth. The story revolves around four households in a large family, going through mundane social interactions while speaking of illness, dreams and strange encounters. Alongside their stories, hidden secrets are gradually revealed. Their dialogue paints a picture of a family that is constantly moving and reproducing; at the same time, it reveals deep-seated mental disorders caused by cycles of bad behaviour that are hard to break. As 2020 arrives, unshakeable despair overwhelms the family. The play is divided into five sections with eleven main characters. The narrator of the first section is Wenwen, a 23-year-old overseas student, big sister Dongying and her husband Gaosheng’s son; the narrator of the second section is Pengpeng, a 35-year-old mother-of-two, Dongying and Gaosheng’s eldest daughter; the narrator of the third section is Tiantian, a 30-year-old unmarried attending physician, the only daughter of second sister Xiaohong and her husband Shidong; the narrator of the fourth section is Jiajia, the 15-year-old school-dropout only daughter of Jiamin, the youngest brother. The fifth section does not have a narrator, but instead presents an objective view of how this family gathering is most likely to unfold, in contrast to the first four sections.

Playwright’s Bio

Jasmine Han Jing was born in 1999, and is a third-year undergraduate at Nanjing University’s Department of Drama, Film and Television. During her studies, she participated in a playwriting workshop led by Sebastian Kaiser, as well as a performing workshop with Japan’s Shelf Theatre Company. She directed Trout Quintet at Nanjing University’s Black Box Theatre in December 2020. She is currently participating as a dramatist in the first project of an experimental community theatre: Cancer Buddies – Hamlet.

Playwright’s Comments

I have a fear of things that seem too perfect. The power of drama is precisely that it invariably reveals the truth through deception. What it shows us are the deficiencies of those apparently perfect things. The black spots on the sun, the stagnant water in the burbling spring. To put it simply, these are the dark moments of the soul. Only when I embrace these moments does the light have any meaning. This is the basis of my playwriting. I am very grateful to Mr Lü Xiaoping, who urged me to submit this play to the World Sinophone Drama Competition for Young Playwrights, and to the competition organisers for this recognition. Winning this award will serve as an encouragement for my future work.

評審委員

Jury

Austin Mang-Chao Wang / CEO of Taipei Performing Arts Center

[Final Review, Chinese and English Plays]

Austin graduated from Master of Fine Arts in Stage and Lighting Design, University of Southern California, USA. Worked as Senior Production Manager and Stage Designer for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, works like Moon Water, Songs of the
Wanderers. And He has worked with other troupes as well, such as Performance Workshop, Ping-Fong Acting Troupe, Contemporary Legend Theatre, and Ming Hwa Yuan Arts & Cultural Group as stage and lighting designer or technical director for their productions. Selected honors and awards: National Award of Arts presented by the National Culture and Arts Foundation (2014); chief stage designer for the opening/closing ceremony of Taipei Deaflympics (2009); jury member of Prague Quadrennial and the convener of Taiwan team, with the Taiwan Hall project winning the Gold Medal for Best Use of Technology (2007); and Belvedere International Achievement Award presented at the Poland Presidential Palace in Warsaw (2004). From 2016 to March 2021, he was the director of Taipei Performing Arts Center, and currently the CEO of Taipei Performing Arts Center.

LI Huan-Hsiung

[Second Review, Chinese Plays]

Li is currently Artistic Director at Mr.Wing Theatre Company, as well as Associate Professor Rank Specialist and Director at the Graduate Institute of Performing Arts, Tunghai University. As a founding member of the Rive-Gauche Theatre Group and Creative Society Theatre Company, Li made his name as early as the Avant-garde Theatre Movement of 1980s Taiwan and became one of the most active and influential figure in contemporary Taiwan theatre. Later in 1990s, Li expanded his career into the category of musicals, operas and multimedia stage productions, and becoming one of the most presenting theatre director in Taiwan.

Li’s recent directing works include: Giacomo Puccini's Turandot (Deutsch oper am Rhein/National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts-Weiwuying, 2015-19). Jonathan Dove's Monster in the maze (National Taichung Theatre, 2016). Mr.Wing Theatre Company's The Rainbow of Time: a musical; Turn Left, Turn Right: a musical ; Jimmy’s Subway:a musical; The Cherry Orchard 2047; Lutz Hubner's the company thanks (featured in TIFA); Starlight Theatre; Taipei Dad/New York Mom (featured in TIFA). Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, Richard Wagner’s The Ring Cycle, Richard Strauss’s Elektra, Richard Wagner’s Parsifal and On the Road with the NSO.

Katherine Hui-Ling Chou

[Final Review, Chinese and English Plays]

Distinguished Professor of Eng. Dept., National Central Univ., Taiwan; project director of Performance Center at NCU; founder of ETI, a digital archive of Taiwan’s modern theatre since 1985; Awardee of NCU Outstanding Research, 2005, 2009-14, 2020; Playwright/director of Creative Society Theatre Troupe since 1997.

After receiving her PhD of Performance Studies at NYU, USA, Katherine Hui-Ling Chou co-founded Creative Society Theatre Troupe in Taipei, and has been the troupe’s core member, director and playwright since 1997. Her artistic credits include: The Apocalypse of Fudingjin (playwright/director, Wei Wu Ying National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, 2020), Jian Ji: A Just Life (playwright, Grand Opening of Wei Wu Ying, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, 2018); President’s Invitation (director of the 3.0 edition, MFA Theatre Troupe of Nanjing Univ. China, 2015~); One Hundred Years on Stage (co-playwright, premiered in 2011); Have Wok, Will Travel (playwright/director, Creative Society, CS, premiered in 2011); He Is My Wife, He Is My Mother (playwright/director, CS, 2009, 2010, 2017, 2018); Dreams on Manuscript (playwright, 2009), to be AND not to be (playwright/director, CS, 2006-2008); Reel Murder (director, CS, 2005), Click, My Baby (playwright/director, CS, 2004), Dejavu (director, CS, 2003, 2006), Memory Album (playwright/director, CS, 2002); I Want You, I Want You Not (playwright/director, CS, 2000).

She is also the author of Performing China: Actresses, Visual Politics and Performance Culture, 1910s-1945, and numerous refereed journal articles and chapters of refereed books edited by Richard Schechner (MIT,USA), David Der-wei Wang (Harvard U. Press, USA), Ru-ru Li (Palgrave,UK), Steve Siyuan Liu (Routledge, Canada), etc. Her current research focus is on performing arts in creative industry, and digital theatre/performance. She initiated the World Sinophone Drama Competition for the Young Playwrights in 2015 and has since then chaired the Competition.

Shih-Lung LO

[First Review, Chinese Plays]

Shih-Lung Lo graduated from National Taiwan University with an MA in Theatre Studies, and he received his Ph.D. in Theatre Studies from Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris, France. From 2012 to 2017, he taught Chinese language and literature in Paris Diderot University and Paul Valéry University in France. In 2017 he joined the faculty of National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. Now he is Associate Professor of the Department of Chinese Literature, and Director of Chinese Language Center of National Tsing Hua University. His Ph.D. dissertation La Chine sur la scene française au XIX e siècle was published in 2015 under the sponsorship of Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. Besides academic writings, he has translated several French classical and contemporary plays, including Derniers remords avant l’oubli and Juste la fin du monde of Jean-Luc Lagarce, Caligula of Albert Camus, La Demande d’emploi of Michel Vinaver, Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse of Charles-Simon Favart, and Un verre d’eau of Eugène Scribe. He is also a regular contributor to Stage and Screen Reviews published by Nanjing University. From 2021 on, he participates in the production team of IC Broadcasting for the program “Open the Wardrobe: Stories Behind the Scenes.”

Wei-Ger TONG

[Second Review, Chinese Plays]

(Photo: 汪正翔)

Walter HSU

[First Review, Chinese Plays]

Jen-Hao Walter Hsu, Associate Professor and Chairperson, Department of Theatre Arts, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. His research focuses on modern and contemporary Chinese-language Theatres. He has published research articles in top-ranked journals in Taiwan and other countries. He is also an active performance critic in Taiwan.

Rossella Ferrari

[First and Second Reviews, English Plays]

Rossella Ferrari is Professor of Chinese Studies in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. Her main expertise is in the performance cultures of the Chinese-speaking world. Her research interests include avant-garde studies, intercultural performance, intermediality, adaptation, memory studies, and transnational and inter-Asian approaches to the study of Sinophone cultural production. She is the author of Pop Goes the Avant-Garde: Experimental Theatre in Contemporary China (2012) and Transnational Chinese Theatres: Intercultural Performance Networks in East Asia (2020), and the co-editor of Asian City Crossings: Pathways of Performance through Hong Kong and Singapore (2021).

Jia-Iuan CHIN

[First Review, Chinese Plays]

Jia-Iuan Chin is an associate professor at the National Cheng Kung University in the Department of Chinese Literature, where she teaches modern drama, theatre and theory. She has participated, directed and devised experimental theatre as well as produced the International Women Festival of Taiwan and some alternative theatrical works in experiment theatres and public spaces. Her PhD thesis centered on contemporary Taiwanese Opera and she has been published in several academic journals on themes relating to space, technology and audience. Chin seeks to link and combined the studies of performing arts and the observations of the public space to advance the way in which we talk about theatre aesthetic.

Victoria WANG

[Final Review, Chinese and English Plays]

Professor at the Department of Music of the National Tsing-Hua University and the Director of the Chun-shan Concert Hall on campus.

Graduated in 1991 from the Columbia University in NYC, MFA program of the Theater Management, Victoria started her professional career ever since. She had been formerly the Executive Director of the Chien Kuo Foundation for the Arts, the Executive and Artistic Director of the National Taichung-chung Theater, the Taipei Arts Festival, the Taipei Children’s Arts Festival and the Taipei Fringe Festival.

GAO Ziwen

[First Review, Chinese Plays]

Gao Ziwen, professor at Nanjing University, head of the Department of Theatre, Film and TV. He received a bachelor's degree in Chinese Language and Literature from Nanjing University and a PhD in Theatre. In 2011, he was a visiting scholar at Columbia University. In 2013, participated in the Austria Resident Artist project. In 2019, he was selected as Excellent Youth of Social Sciences in Jiangsu Province. His main research interests are avant-garde theater and theater criticism.Published book: The Thankless Children of Civilization: Staging China in American Theatre. Translation: American Avant Garde Theater: A History (written by Arnold Aronson). Stage Plays: Day and Night Here (2012), Pollution (2013) and Hometown (2019).

Cheng-Han WU

[First Review, Chinese Plays]

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.

Tarryn CHUN

[First and Second Reviews, English Plays]

Tarryn Chun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame, where she also holds a concurrent appointment in the department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and is a Faculty Fellow at the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies. She has published widely on modern and contemporary Chinese theatre, and she is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Revolutionary Stagecraft: Theatre, Technology, and Politics in Modern China, which examines the relationship between technological modernization and artistic innovation in 20th-21st century Chinese theatre. She is also co-editor along with Xiaomei Chen and Siyuan Liu of Chinese Socialist Theatres of Reform: Performance Practice and Debates in the Mao Era (University of Michigan Press, 2021), an edited volume that reexamines Mao-era theatre and dance from the perspective of praxis and personal experience.

(Photo: lisacohen)

LUO Liang

[First and Second Reviews, English Plays]

Born in Chongqing, China, Professor Liang Luo received her B.A. in Chinese and M.A. in Comparative Literature from Beijing Normal University, and her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. She is Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Kentucky. Her research was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the Humanities Research Centre at Australia National University, among many others. She is the author of The Avant-Garde and the Popular in Modern China (Michigan, 2014) and The Global White Snake (Michigan, 2021).

KUO Jian Hong

[Second Review, Chinese Plays]

Artistic Director of The Theatre Practice (Practice), award-winning theatre director, lighting and set designer, and independent filmmaker, Jian Hong has always taken on multi-faceted roles within the arts.

Jian Hong’s artistic vision encompasses the broad spectrum of Practice’s artistic output, which transcends themes, genres and forms. She is best known for being a pioneer in the Chinese language musical theatre genre with beloved works like If There’re Seasons…, Lao Jiu: The Musical and Liao Zhai Rocks!. Her experimental ventures include I came at last to the seas, where she led a team of international artists in the first-ever full commission by a Singaporean theatre company for the Esplanade Theatre by Huayi Chinese Festival of Arts. Meanwhile, her advocacy for the development of theatre for young audiences has led her to create award-winning works such as The wee Question Mark series and three-part initiative: The Nursery Rhymes Project.

As a veteran arts practitioner, Jian Hong is active in developing the cultural landscape of Singapore. Under her direction, Practice continues to a vital voice in the local arts scene, while charging ahead in its mission to always be a voice for the underdog.