fat bird will perform “519 happy academy” on Apr 7, 8, and 11 at 7:30 in the shenzhen university new blackbox theatre (深大师范学院B座负一层新黑匣子剧场). please come!
四月7、8、11日晚上7点半在深大师范学院B座负一层新黑匣子剧场胖鸟剧团将演《519幸福学园》欢迎观赏！
Huang Liguang designed the poster.
Tag Archives: fat bird
FBI: 2009 The God of Argriculture Plan
Fat Bird developed FBI: 2009 The God of Agriculture Plan through a series of workshops that explored the meaning of eating in post “3-Deer” China. “3-Deer” products had been exempted from food safety inspections because of the companies previous contributions to society. However, the contamination of milk products shook the confidence of processed food consumers, resulting in the rise of comephobia, a pyschological condition marked by hallucinations, high levels of anxiety, and market place aggression. See the results of FBI effort at the Fringe Club City Festival!
comephophia VS 食物恐惧症
It seems that Three Deer scandal remains a sensitive topic. Even as representatives in the People’s Congress are arguing over whether or not stars who advertised for the company, in Shenzhen Fat Bird has adapted FBI: 2009 Shennong Plan to fit more snuggly into the rhetoric of Coastal City’s plan du month – “知性女性聪明消费 （The Intelligent Woman Shops Smart)” advertising focus.
So, as of last night, the advertising and and title of the play have changed. The play is now called “胖鸟VS食物恐惧症 Fat Bird Takes on Comephobia”. “Comephobia – fear of eating” was in the original production an ironic medical condition. This weekend, comephobia will be staged as a real social problem. The other major change to the piece is the staging of ritual. In Hong Kong, the piece also spoofed Falun Gong. In Shenzhen, the rituals have all been “upgraded” to modern dance.
Strange indeed which venues fear what. In Hong Kong, there was pressure to make sure everyone understood that “FBI” was an ironic naming of the theatre troupe. In Shenzhen, we must make sure that everyone realizes the troupe is making a joke about a problem that while real, isn’t so serious that it can’t be mentioned at all. FBI still hopes it will be able to sing its theme song to the tune of the Olympic theme song. However, that decision has not yet been imposed.
Time of the show has also changed from 3 to 4. The venue, 2nd Fl, Coastal City Mall, above Jusco.
FBI in Shenzhen!
On Mar 14 and 15 at 3 p.m, Fat Bird will perform “FBI: 2009 Shennong Plan” in the second floor public space of Coastal City. The space is located just above Jusco. After both performances, there will be an open discussion with with the audience about food safety and regulation.
This performance continues and elaborates Fat Bird’s efforts to use theater as a vehicle for encouraging public debate. Fat Bird began as a street theatre troupe which made strategic invasions into public space. In contrast, the Coastal City performance marks Shenzhen’s acceptance of Fat Bird into mainstream venues.
Come, enjoy, debate, and support Fat Bird! One bird, so much good.
Don’t worry about eating Chinese food…
Fat Bird tries to out-absurd society – the 2009 Shennong Project being a case in point – but, alas society has once again outflanked Fat Bird…
The 2009 Shennong Project plays with the idea that food-phobias are out of control in China. In response to the Sanlu milk powder incident, Fat Bird imagined a world in which food-phobia was the first indication of an evolutionary transformation of humanity. Accordingly, the Fat Bird Institute has set up tests for those afraid of China food to discover if they are “elementals”, harbingers of the future.
However, two weeks before Fat Bird will premiere “Shennong”, the Nanshan District Government opened the first “放心食品节 (safe food product festival)” on Dec 30, 2008. The Chinese opens itself to all kinds of interpretation. Fangxin usually means “stop worrying” or “no need to worry” so the festival is explicitly a “don’t worry anymore about eating food products” festival. Sponsors include the 深圳食品行业协会 (Shenzhen Food Products Federation).
How does the irony slip past unnoticed?!
fat bird in hong kong!
On January 10-11, 2009 Fat Bird will perform “FBI: 2009 Shennong Plan” at the Fringe Club City Festival 2009. FBI is, of course, the acronym for Fat Bird Institution.
FBI: 2009 Shennong Project is organized as a series of public announcements, propaganda events, and onstage performances that are adapted to local audience concerns.
Organization of Public Announcement. During a pre-show press conference, FBI Chair Yang Qian explains how recent Chinese food crises are in fact signs that human evolution is entering a new stage. Specifically, toxic food allows the earth to weed out food dependent people, revealing the new human as the ones who directly ingest elements. All human beings are welcome to join FBI’s pursuit of a new and glorious future humanity.
Organization of Propaganda Events. At each of the onstage performance, FBI sets up an information table, where an FBI believer challenges passersby and audience members with the questions: “Are you afraid of China food?” and “If so, would you consider joining FBI?”
Organization of Onstage Scenes (for Hong Kong performance, January 10-11, 2009; time 30 minutes; 7 participants). Each scene is comprised of: multi-media and performance. FBI handouts and propaganda materials will also be available at each performance.
Images of the first FBI handouts from the December 4, 2008 press conference in Hong Kong:
fat bird red and blue
English translation of the handout:
FBI Report to Hong Kong Citizens: The Chinese Food Problem and a New Stage in Human Evolution
People of Hong Kong:
Greetings! Recently, under the pressure of population, environmental, rapid urbanization, and globalization, the quality of Chinese food has become increasingly questionable. Chemical residues in food and chemical additives with no nutritional value are now common. In addition, there are constant reports of industrially processed foods. This year, the “Three Deer Milk Powder Incident” transformed the question of food safety into a focus of social concern. “Three Deer” milk products carried the prestigious “No National Food Inspection” label because in previous years their products had all passed inspection. The contamination of Three Deer” milk products resulted in the collapse of confidence in national food safety regulation. This crisis and the high level of distrust of all food was the background for the appearance of a new illness—comephobia. Comephobics display high levels of anxiety, suffer from hallucinations, and are frequently aggressive. There is a danger of comephobic outbreaks in the richest of China’s eating regions. According to our information, health departments throughout the country are as yet unable to cure or control this disease.
However, the crisis in Chinese food safety is actually a signal that humanity has entered a new stage in evolution. Accordingly, FBI has a special announcement: the results of our research show that there is a special class of human being that does not depend on ordinary food in order to live. They are among us. We call the “elementals” because they are able to secure nutrition from other sources. Elementals are uniquely adapted to the current environment and do not suffer from comephobia. Given ongoing environmental degradation, they embody the hope of human survival and evolution.
FBI is the acronym of Fat Bird Institution, the department of the Global New Life Diversification Federation that is responsible for researching and optimizing the opportunities for human evolution caused by the pressure of the Chinese food environment. We have been secretly tracking the existence of elementals for a long time. However, we were unable to develop an easy method for distinguishing elementals from the rest of the population. The Three Deer Milk Powder Incident enabled a breakthrough in FBI’s work on identifying elementals. Our research shows that children who drink melamine contaminated milk powder and develop kidney stones are in fact elementals. When this research was extended to the adult population, our identifications were 99.46% accurate. FBI decided to announce our presence and research to offer an invitation to all people. Come to an FBI identification station and take the melamine milk test and determine your true nature. The mass distinguishing of human natures is the second core mission of the “2009 Shennong Plan”.
During the January 2009 Hong Kong Fringe Festival, FBI will set up an identification station in the basement of the Fringe Club. We welcome every Hong Kong citizen to begin self-identification. We will also provide entertainment.
fat bird performance, may 16-23
yang qian and kang kang
one of fat bird’s goals is to develop an audience in shenzhen for theater. truth be told, experimental theater hasn’t yet caught on. however, there is an audience for regular theater, including musical theater. just this past week, fat bird performed “once a year”, a 90-minute comedy inspired by the play “same time, next year” by bernard slade. although the run was suspended during national mourning for the wenchuan earthquake victims, when it resumed, it was to standing room only audiences. what’s more, there is now a move to extend the run for an additional five days. yang qian performed the man and kang kang, the woman who meet once a year for sex and conversation. performance photos, here.
first montage
this past week, i’ve been co-blogging with peter charlton from silo theater on the floating lives blog. he has inspired me to try re-presenting experiences in montage form. so below is my first montage, of the main exhibition hall in the bienniale.
浮生自语/ Floating Lives
Silo Theater has returned to shenzhen!!!! this time to create floating lives with fat bird. we have been waiting and working to create this project since song jie and yang qian first met silo at the macau fringe 2002. we will be setting up a project blog at: http://floatinglives.blogvis.com. we invite all friends to come to the site and participate in the creation. here’s a first picture of the group:
mandatory group photo
front row (left to right): mary ann o’donnell, milou veling, bart sabel, jochem hartz, song jie, zhang yang
back row (left to right): jia huiwen, kang kang, yang qian
front row (left to right): mary ann o’donnell, milou veling, bart sabel, jochem hartz, song jie, zhang yang
back row (left to right): jia huiwen, kang kang, yang qian
诗歌人间：Poetry in the World
poetry in the world
last night, the center book city (中心书城) hosted the first “poetry in the world” poetry reading. the event was produced by the shenzhen newspaper conglomerate (深圳报业集团) and the shenzhen publishing conglomerate (深圳出版发行企业). the managing producers were jingbao and shenzhen center book city. fat bird was one of the assistant producers, along with shenzhen newsnet and feiyang 971 music radio. i mention all this because poemlife did not participate. instead, the powers that be in shenzhen’s cultural ministries turned to 诗刊 for literary endorsement. now, from the point of view of cultural functionaries, the move from poemlife to “poetry” is understandable. unlike poemlife, “poetry” is a well-established cultural institution with good party credentials. in contrast, poemlife hovers at the edges of party control in virtual space. lamentably these politics meant that lai’er editor of poemlife and one of the original visionaries behind “poetry in the world” did not participate in last night’s reading.
we missed lai’er because last night was something of a triumph for poetry in otherwise unpoetic shenzhen. “poetry in the world” brought together poets from diverse generations and spaces, who might otherwise not share the same stage. thus, elder poets luo fu (洛夫) and duo duo (多多) read, as did a younger generation of poets lei pingyang (雷平阳), wang xiaoni (王小妮), yang jian (杨键), duo yu (朵渔), and yu jian (于坚).
in retrospect, what strikes me is the contradiction of the shenzhen art scene. there is money to bring in china’s leading poets for one evening and then a discussion the following day, but not the money or interest to nuture more longterm events like monthly readings or open mikes. my doubts have been reinforced by rumors that poetry in the world might not continue; it seems that for some, once was enough.
once edited, i will upload fat bird’s readings.
Shenzhen Noted 