Whispering Flower

Choreographer & Performer: MUI Cheuk Yin

Description

A traditional wedding is an extravagant celebration – the bride and the groom exchange vows, the guests offer congratulations, and a ritualised ceremony is staged to symbolise marital bliss. But beneath the pageantry and the couple’s commitment to each other, marriage can signify complex family and social obligations.

Double Happiness: The Promise of Red is the latest work by celebrated Hong Kong choreographer Mui Cheuk-yin. Created in collaboration with actor and wedding chaperone Chan Kin-man – a young male practitioner in a local profession traditionally dominated by older women – the poignant and thought-provoking performance reflects on the thoughts and emotions of those fulfilling their formal duties.

Unfolding in eight chapters, the work draws on the performative symbolism and aesthetics of traditional Southern Chinese wedding rituals, including the giving of extravagant gifts, the combing of the bride’s hair, offering tea to family elders, and having the marital bed blessed by a bouncing baby boy. Around this framework are interwoven allusions to the ancient custom of bridal laments once practised in Hong Kong walled villages, and the legend of Cantonese opera heroine Princess Changping – a Ming dynasty princess who, after staging a marriage to save her family from enemy forces, took her life in a suicide pact with her husband.

Double Happiness: The Promise of Red surprises and transfixes – demanding stamina and humour from the performers, and compelling the audience to meditate on the personal and political meanings of honesty, loyalty, promise and contractual commitment.