The Sugarcane Song is ascribed to helping mobilize what is arguably the first anti-colonial class-conscious agrarian uprising in recorded Taiwanese history, known as the Erlin Sugarcane Workers Revolt. Written by the Sugarcane Workers Union under Japan’s colonial rule in 1925, it had receded into oblivion until 2001, when a group of historians rediscovered the song. Southern Clairaudience proposes a dissonant reading of the re-excavated song and reimagines its long-lost melody by a group of sugarcane planters near Erlin as its geopolitical point of departure, seeking collaborators and audiences across (il)legible borders to respond through various performative situations. Hong-Kai Wang’s sound piece puts forward the question: Is it possible to create second chance(s) for hearing missing histories or knowledges through “resonance-making”? The audience is called upon to hear a speculative configuration of improvised sound documents, in which utterance, gestures, movements, vibrations, body heat, breath, and psychic feelings “weave together, reshape, separate, flow back, and come forward again.” (E. Savory)
Performers and participants: SowYee Au, Dena Beard, Chang Hsin-Hsien, Chen Bo-Wei, Chen Fu-Lai, Chen Siao-Chi, Chen Yi-Ju, Chen You-Wei, Chou Chia-Chen, Chou Shao, Duan Ziying, Eldhy, Arash Fayez, Hsueh Shu-Yu, Hsu Fang-Tze, Hsu Yong-Mao, Huang Hsiang-Ning, Huang Hsuan, Huang Pei-Wei, Hung Wei-Ling, Huang Yu-Lan, Ariko S. Ikehara, Diala Khasawnih, Dohee Lee, Li Mao-Hsing, Marie Martraire, Githinji Mbire, George Née, Pan Hsi-Lin, Dorothy Santos, Shi Chieh-Ching, Christopher Squier, Marshall Trammell, Tsai Pei-Hua, Tsai Yu-Han, Leila Weefur, Wu Chin-Fu, Wu Chin-Yi, Wu Shu-Yuan, Wu Ting-Chia, Wu Yi-Hua, Yao Min, You Yu-Ling, Yu Shih-Fang
Coproduced by Brilliant Time: Southeast Theme Bookstore, New Taipei City, Taiwan; Hong-gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; Kadist, San Francisco, United States; The Lab, San Francisco, United States; The National Culture and Arts Foundation Taiwan; Taisugar Yunlin Dongshih Sugarcane Supply Office, Yunlin, Taiwan
In memory of Wu Jung-Hui