Playwright’s Bio

Li Xiuyuan, born in February 1998 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, is a typical Aquarius and INFP personality. After studying at the School of Literature at Nanjing University for seven years, he happily graduated this summer. During his studies, his inherent laziness and lack of focus prevented him from producing scripts seriously—only under the guidance and pressure from his supervisor during undergraduate graduation and master’s thesis proposals did he manage to complete some commendable works. He once spent long periods immersed in theater work but suddenly realized that prolonged time in dark spaces could lead to chronic illnesses. Consequently, he dedicated significant time to exploring the vast world and joyfully discovered countless complex, fascinating, and story-worthy phenomena unfolding around him. Since completing the aforementioned script, he has finished writing two new play scripts. Life feels meaningful, and winning the Fanhua Award marks the best beginning for his creative journey.

Dramaturgy's Bio｜Cheng-Han WU

Cheng-Han Wu is a dramaturg, playwright, and translator. He received his MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale School of Drama. In 2022, he was awarded an Asian Cultural Council (ACC) Fellowship to study new play development in New York City. Currently, he teaches dramaturgy at National Taiwan University and organizes the Musical Theatre Writing Program for Taipei Performing Arts Center.

He has served as dramaturg for over 60 works, ranging from plays, musicals, screenplays, and interdisciplinary performances. His recent dramaturgy credits include Sparrows that Live on Fear and Homeland 1961 (World Sinophone Drama Competition Winners), Role Play (Taiwan National Theatre IDEAS Lab Project), Taiwan Holiwood (Studio M), The Big Meal (Wuzhen Theatre Festival), Teahouse (Shanghai Theatre Academy), etc. He is a member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.

His plays won Top Prize for New Taipei City Literature Award for Drama, Taipei Literature Award for Drama and two Taiwan Excellent Screenplay Awards. He has translated 20 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. He also translated the book, Simon Stephens: A Working Diary into Mandarin.

Director's Bio｜Yang, Shih-Ping

Columbia University, School of the Arts, Directing Program MFA. He is currently an associate professor at the Department of Theater Arts at National Sun Yat-sen University. Representative works include the Taiwanese musical 《April Rain》produced by Music Times, and Verdi's opera《La Traviata》 co-produced by Weiwuying and Kaohsiung Philharmonic Orchestra. He was the director of the Kaohsiung performance of《The Startled Bird》by Zhang Zai at the 3rd World Sinophone Drama Competition for Young Playwrights Festival and 《Homeland 1961》by Luo Jing at the 4th World Sinophone Drama Competition for Young Playwrights Festival. This is the third time that he has participated in this Festival.

Creative Team｜Department of Theater Arts at National Sun Yat-sen University

They look at each other - the old journalist is in the defendant dock, the middle-aged journalist is in the gallery and the young journalist is at the press table. They look back into the past, recalling every moment witnessed only by their own eyes, pondering how they survive and live until now. As journalists living in the present, carrying the weight of all memories on their shoulders, what kind of future are they envisioning as they look ahead?

Playwright’s Bio

Hong Kong playwright. Known by the pen name Lau Ying, she has written plays including ‘Letter in the Wind’ and ‘Wall and Door’, as well as theatre reviews and cultural features in the media.  She has also worked as a dramaturg, co-translator and devising actor in major theatre companies and school productions in Hong Kong. She believes that theatre is a place for understanding, connection, inspiration and imagination. She is dedicated to creating and imagining in Hong Kong.

Dramaturg's Bio｜Chow Ling-Chih

An art critic, curator, and creative consultant as well as a practitioner of dramaturgy, writing, and creative theatrical aesthetics, Chow also takes on diverse roles in many art festivals, exhibitions, performing arts, sundry tasks, and research projects.

Director's Bio｜Yu-Pi Chen

Yu-Pi Chen graduated from University of Essex with an MFA in Theatre Directing, and from National Taiwan University of Arts with an MA in Theatre.

Currently he is a lecturer at the Department of Performing Arts at Shu-Te University in Kaohsiung, also working as freelance director, playwright, actor, translator and curator. Yu-Pi has collaborated with artists and participated in productions such as music, dance, drama and circus. Some of his works were performed in Beijing and Macau. He founded Old Boy Theatre in his hometown Kaohsiung. 

Recent Theatre Credits:

Verdi: Rigoletto, Puccini: Tosca, Donizetti: L'elisir D'amore (Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival) ; One Way Try & Go, What is Home, Tshiū - á Siann, Whispers of Trees, City Upside Down (National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts Weiwuying); Musical Into The River (Frank C. Chen Organisation); Hello Marriage, Goodbye Love (Ju Chen Production); The Little Train of Courage, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The 12 Animals of the Chinese Zodiac, Pictures at an Exhibition, Le tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours (Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra)

Creative Team｜We ART Together Foundation

This play unfolds through a theatrical parody of filming a road movie.

Following the death of her father, Runyue—a travel blogger who has been inactive for over three years due to the pandemic—sets off once again on a journey into the unfamiliar. Her destination this time is Laos, a sun-drenched, impoverished socialist country in Southeast Asia.

Accompanied by Yongzhen, a young local girl working as her driver, Runyue begins the trip. Carried by the momentum of her previous travels, she seeks to uncover and narrate stories of “other cultures,” hoping to gain attention and clicks.

As she encounters a series of strangers from different countries, Runyue gradually opens up, assembling fragments of her inherited history shaped by migration and industrial construction.

In the latter part of the journey, she begins to notice the subtle imbalances and inequalities embedded in everyday life. Yet even then, she remains caught in a longing for the collective factory life of the past, unable to fully step into modernity.

Playwright’s Bio

Born in the 1990s in Fujian, I am a theatre practitioner with a Master’s degree in Arts from Nanjing University. I studied sociology as an undergraduate and later turned to theatre for my Master’s. Soon, I will begin my PhD in anthropology. To me, these fields are essentially connected—they are all ways to understand and respond to the environments we live in.

I’ve created a few theatre works in the past, some of which were fortunate enough to receive recognition, though I’ve never been fully satisfied with them. Looking ahead, I hope to explore new directions, such as applying theatre methodologies to research in the humanities and social sciences. I also plan to develop toolkits for puppetry and documentary theatre.

Dramaturgy and Director's Bio｜Joscha Chung

graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts with an MFA degree in Theatre Directing and a PhD in Theatre Arts. He is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Chinese Literature, National Chung Cheng University, and coordinator of its Program of Drama, Creativity and Artistic Visions.
As theatre director, Joscha Chung has directed Western plays such as The Venetian Twins by Carlo Goldoni, An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, Endgame and Happy Days by Samuel Beckett. He has also directed contemporary plays written in Chinese such as Ménage a 13 by Stan Lai, Liars and Today We Are Not Old by Blanca Chung. Apart from the spoken drama, Joscha Chung’s works in musical theatre include Italian operas such as The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, La Bohème, Falstaff and other contemporary operas and musicals written in Chinese. In 2015, Joscha Chung co-founded Boring-In-Unforgivable Theatre in Chiayi, Taiwan. The cross-cultural aspects of modern Chinese theatre from late nineteenth to the
early twentieth century have been Joscha Chung’s main field of research since his PhD dissertation. His publications are mostly peer-reviewed articles written in Chinese, which include discoveries and historiographical reviews of the origins of modern Chinese theatre. In a recent article, for instance, he reveals how an Austro- Hungarian magician made possible for Shanghai Jingju audiences to shift their habits from hearing to seeing.

Creative Team｜Department of Chinese Literature Chung Cheng University and BIU Theatre (Taiwan)