On February 10th 2024, the first day of the Chinese year of Dragon, I was invited to participate in an event celebrating the Chinese New Year and the cultural exchange between China and the UK, I met with Yuqi Wang. The event happened on a cruise ship sailing on River Thames. On the second deck of the ship there was a performance, and Yuqi was its director. In our conversation, he described to me how his life feels like here in London, and it sounds very much different from how a lot of people might have perceived London to be. I was intrigued for an interview with him, and he happily agreed. A few days later I met him on Zoom. Below is the text of the interview.
Q: You were born and raised in Shenzhen, right?
A: That's correct.
Q: Not a lot of kids from Shenzhen would choose to pursue a career in art industry, given the city earns its name from its technology innovation. What made you make such decision?
A: You are not the first one who asked me this question. I think the spirit of the city is still there in me, only it manifested on me differently. I try to innovate in the field of theatre and performance.
Q: At this point, do you think this would be your lifetime dedication?
A: What is a lifetime? Is it merely a term, or is it a way of seeing ourselves through the lens of daily experience? I am afraid I cannot put anything together with the word ‘lifetime’. But for now, I do feel there's still a lot I can do, that I want to do, in theatre.
Q: Can you share how your journey began, from China to pursuing a Master's degree in the UK?
A: It's actually quite funny, that I studied finance for undergraduate when I was in China. I am very grateful for the experience now. It was during that time that I had a realisation that I've been doing theatre/performance related things for almost my lifetime. I started the first theatre society in the university before turning it into a theatre company very soon.
Q: What did the theatre company do?
A: At first, we were only performing for teachers and students on campus. We did not expect the feedback from them to be this welcoming. A lot of events in school would look for performances to fill up the room, so we'll be like yea we can do it anytime, let us do it.
Q: And afterwards?
A: I think it is exactly because we always positioned ourselves as amateur that made people interested in us. We'd send them recordings of our performances and they couldn't believe it was originated by a group of students. We were having that so called ‘vigour’ at that time. Everything was new, and amazing.
It's never easy at the beginning. We started from doing shows for local schools,and younger kids quite like us.
Then we gradually started to get commissioned from local companies that are related to cultural industries for instance some educational entities. And after a few successful performances we sort of gained a bit reputation locally.
Q: How do you think these experiences have shaped your approach to theatre?
A: I think the most important understanding that I gained from that period was that theatre/performance making is full of details. And it is very laborious.
Because a lot of our company members were students, we could not operate as a fully developed or trained artistic group where performers only perform and directors direct. Instead, most of the time we had to get our hands dirty and created the sets, props, and everything by ourselves if they are wanted, needed. We always joked about this at that time saying we were all theatre supermen and superwomen.
But it was great. I got to know about different fronts of doing theatre, it expanded my understanding so much. It gave me a solid sense of what performing arts is really about.
Q: Do you feel the need to show yourself as Chinese?
A: I have no choice but to show myself as Chinese. It is rooted in me, and everything I do, I say, I create would be from a Chinese. Again, it's in the being, I suppose.
Q: Tell me about the theatre company you are in now? How did you join them? What did you do?
A: Of course. After my graduation in 2021, I was looking for things to do in London, just like any other graduates. And some of my friends, who are all theatre practitioner from different places across the world, were attempting to start a theatre company here in London. Some of them are Chinese, some from Switzerland, some from France, some from Portugal.
I remembered how excited I was hearing the news.
So I said, I might have missed the chance to be the founder but can I do shows together with you guys? More like play together. So that's how I became a part of the company.
From the very beginning we knew very clear what we want to do: we do shows about ourselves and our lives here in London.
Q: Can you give me an example on this?
A: Sure. Last June we did a show named Become - the show you saw on that ship - which is roughly an autobiographical story of one of our members. The performance was about how he started as an actor in Portugal, and how he arrived in London, and eventually, how he became who he is now. The story not only depicted a life journey but more importantly a spiritual journey, a mental journey. What really fascinated us that made us decided to do the show was, how we became who we are now, and how much influence the living experience in London would have on this.
The process of the rehearsal was a full-on self-investigation. We experienced so many little self-discoveries together during it. There were so many moments that we just slipped through in life that require a close-up inspection for us to fully grasp what the meanings truly are behind them.
It was during the preparation of that performance that I started to resonate with the saying: we do not understand to create, we create to understand.
Q: You did not follow the norms when doing an autobiographical show, which is to place the narration around the character. Instead, you put the emphasis on different spaces that the character ‘lives in’. Can you please explain what you tried to do in there and why you did it this way?
A:I think initially it was because, after watching a few autobiographical shows in London, I did not feel like they had left enough resonation within me that I could pick up in the following days. I started to think why that was.
I think character, even though in autobiographical shows, is limited, especially when put under a contemporary context. I think we can see the border of character on our horizons already.
I, instead, tried to do an autobiographical that is not only not focusing on the character, but also not focusing on human beings as a whole. Autobiographical shows are highly indulgent, I tried to avoid that trap whenever possible.
So yes, the show was about the bus, the Starbucks, the toilet and all these ‘environment’ that sketch out the silhouette of a living. I wanted the audience to be able to have a sensation that they vaguely grasped something, yet they cannot be sure.
I think a contemporary living gives the same feeling.
Q: It seems like you are very fond of the philosophical elements of theatre?
A: Indeed I am. I think eastern philosophy might be having a bigger saying in the worldwide artistic landscape now.
For a long time, art has been done under western ideologies. Eastern way of thinking was considered exotic and was merely an add-on for art.
What I try to do is to, not bring eastern culture towards London, but to find eastern cultural here in London.
Again, what I think is interesting is not the potential rising of eastern philosophy, nor the similarities and differences between the western and eastern thinking, but the very need for eastern philosophy. The need is the most contemporary within this topic. Why are we having this need now? How will it become in the near future?
Q: Can I say that you consider cultural exchange essential?
A: I think it is but not in the same way as how people perceive it at this moment.
Does cultural exchange really exist? I think it's a more urgent question. Maybe it used to exist but does it still exist now? If not, what has changed?
I always come back to an anecdote that I personally had. One time I brought my Chinese friends to a tapas restaurant which was highly praised by my other Spanish friends, but all my Chinese friends thought the food was extremely mediocre.
Who has the saying in this? The Spanish friends, who were more entitled in their ‘own’ food, and supposedly had more experience in tapas? Or my Chinese friends who had a ‘fresh’ tastebud for tapas?
I think this is a similar question to if cultural exchange is essential.
