My long-term field research, spanning over a decade, traces the trans-Pacific journeys of Cantonese opera actors — from Hong Kong to the early Chinatown settlements in the Pacific Northwest of America — and their encounters with Hollywood cinema in the early 20th century.
Inspiration comes from the biographies of these Cantonese opera pioneers of stage and screen, who in their profession became time and space travellers, crisscrossing epochs, gender lines, mortal and immortal realms, and the East-West divide.
Extending this trans-Pacific Cantonese opera imaginary, I resurrect the historical counter-narrative of the 'Chinese cowboy’, based on Chinese migration histories in the Pacific Northwest, alongside musical research into a shared sliding-tone technique linking Cantonese opera and early North American country music — leading to the adaptation of Western instruments such as the violin, Hawaiian steel guitar, banjo, saxophone, etc within the Cantonese opera ensemble.
I am now experimenting towards a concept album of songs for a concert or space opera, developing a hybrid performance language that bridges traditional Cantonese opera and Country and Western music.
This is a sample exercise re-combining music by female impersonator Yam Kim Fai and Canadian Indigenous musician Willie Dunn. (01:54) (to be added soon)