People can become desensitised to bad news when a lot of it comes in quick succession. For Hong Kong’s arts scene, cancellations of live performances began nearly three years ago because of the citywide anti-government protests. Then came Covid-19. It has driven many to despair, but playwright Candace Chong Mui-ngam appears quite blasé over the prospect of her new play We Are Gay never seeing the light of day.
“There is nothing we can do. I was fuming in the early days of theatre shutdowns. But what good does it do if I rant about it? Nothing will change. The only option is to stay calm and tell yourself you are witnessing something really unusual,” she says.
That sense of resignation is not uncommon in Hong Kong. Ever since Beijing’s heavy-handed crackdown on dissent following the 2019 protests, the fear of arrest has meant that concerns about the government’s handling of the pandemic, or its implementation of a new national security law, rarely venture beyond online tirades.
Now, the loss of artistic freedom might force one of the most unflinchingly honest and celebrated Cantonese-language dramatists of her generation to reconsider her life plans. “I think I may retrain as a property agent. I like the idea of finding a home for people,” Chong says early on in the interview.
A promotional shot of Candice Chong’s new play We Are Gay. Photo: Hong Kong Arts Festival
A promotional shot of Candice Chong’s new play We Are Gay. Photo: Hong Kong Arts Festival
Some of her plays, written as allegories, have become uncomfortably close to the bone. Wild Boar (2012), for example, was about the pressures faced by journalists determined to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of a local historian. May 35 (2019) expressed fear that China’s bloody crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy movement will one day be forgotten.
A brief stint overseas doing a residency at the University of Iowa’s International Writing Programme in autumn 2021 brought perspective to the enormity of the changes in Hong Kong, she says.
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“I never thought I would be better off working in Broadway or the West End because this place [Hong Kong], these people, have their own values that should be captured by their own scripts. But now, I’d definitely tell my kids to go somewhere else if they want to do what I do,” says the 45-year-old mother of two. “No resource is more valuable than freedom.”
She recalls the first time she self-censored: earlier this year, when she wrote a play called Madam Sew for a children’s theatre production. “There was a part where I had used symbols that could be seen as a political comment about how one culture is intent on destroying another. I thought long and hard about it. I didn’t want to cause trouble for the theatre troupe and so I changed it,” she says.
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Until two weeks ago, when rehearsals for We Are Gay had to be called off because of Hong Kong’s fifth wave of Covid-19, she was working with director Tony Wong and the cast of the play in preparation for a March 19 premiere at the Hong Kong Arts Festival. News that it was officially cancelled came on February 22.
“Actually, I’ve had to ask myself whether a play I wrote back in 2018 should still be produced,” she says. (It was originally planned for the 2020 festival).
The fact that the characters are not in a heterosexual relationship allows the play to explore aspects of relationship and love that are fascinating
Candice Chong on her play We Are Gay
The dark tale of a ménage à trois of three gay men in Hong Kong, one of whom is a sexaholic, which ends in murder might be read as a negative stereotype of the “promiscuous gay lifestyle”. But Chong defends the play, highlighting the different circumstances from which it arose.
Back in 2018 (“when the world was normal”), Hong Kong was seen as a fairly tolerant city for Asia and she felt that the queer community was at risk of complacency.
“That’s why the Chinese title of the play is We Are The Happiest, which takes the other meaning of the word gay. I’d just read Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy, translated as We Are Very Happy in Chinese. And like the North Koreans in the book, I feel that many in the gay and lesbian community outside of the few activists may feel that they are fine here, even though they can’t even hold hands in public. I decided not to tiptoe round any topic in the play,” she says.
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Today, the lack of equality has been brought into sharper focus. On top of frequent homophobic comments by pro-Beijing right-wing politician Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, a lawmaker in a legislature made up only of “patriots”, the Housing Authority is now arguing in court that same-sex households should not be given access to public housing.
But Chong still feels that the play has value. “The fact that the characters are not in a heterosexual relationship allows the play to explore aspects of relationship and love that are fascinating,” she says. Unfortunately, there is no plan for the Hong Kong Arts Festival to reschedule at the moment.
Still, she is not that serious about changing job, it turns out.
“Everything I do, I do it so that I can write better scripts. I think David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross is an excellent play about property agents. Maybe I can try selling property and then write something like that one day!”
Candace Chong originally wrote the play We Are Gay in 2018 - it was intended for the 2020 edition of the Hong Kong Arts Festival.
We Are Gay explores the story of a ménage à trois of three gay men in Hong Kong - one of whom is a sexaholic - which ends in murder.
Chong is clear that she didn't write the play as a critique or criticism of the hyper-sexual lifestyle of some gay men, but she does explain that - at the time of writing - in 2018, when the world was quite different, she felt that Hong Kong's queer community was at risk of complacency.
“That’s why the Chinese title of the play is We Are The Happiest, which takes the other meaning of the word gay..." explains Chong. "I’d just read Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy, translated as We Are Very Happy in Chinese. And like the North Koreans in the book, I feel that many in the gay and lesbian community outside of the few activists may feel that they are fine here, even though they can’t even hold hands in public. I decided not to tiptoe round any topic in the play,”
However, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic meant that the 2020 festival was cancelled, and We Are Gay was shelved.
We Are Gay had been included in the program for the 2022 edition of the Hong Kong Arts Festival and - up until recently - rehearsals were under way with an opening night scheduled for 19 March. However, as the Omicron surge hit, rehearsals had to be cancelled. Now, the festival has announced that the planned production of We Are Gay has been cancelled.
“Actually, I’ve had to ask myself whether a play I wrote back in 2018 should still be produced...” says Chong, reflecting on the latest cancellation - acknowledging that the play may never get to be performed.
While the Hong Kong Arts Festival has appears to have no plans to reschedule We Are Gay, Chong does feel that the play still has value.
“The fact that the characters are not in a heterosexual relationship allows the play to explore aspects of relationship and love that are fascinating...” says Chong.
The outlook for theatremakers in Hong Kong continues to be uncertain.
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