The Vault: Dialects and Dialectics

A reprisal of Kuo Pao Kun's Monologues in two Chinese dialects
Nelson Chia as Director
Nine Years Theatre
Staged at Centre 42 Black Box

Hang Qian Chou performed "No Parking on Odd Days" in Cantonese and Tay Kong Hui performed "The Coffin is Too Big For the Hole" in Teochew.

These performers had to perform in a language they were not familiar with. So apart from picking up a new language and the nuances, they had to understand and soak up the cultures.

It was packed there that night and I was surprised that actually a large majority of audiences were working adults in the 30-50 range. There were hardly any seniors in the room. Maybe there is growing interest on the ground about understanding our Chinese culture better and why did they all disappear? What happened between the mid-1960s to 1990s?

The plays themselves were about systems and the rigidity of the systems​in our country. How totally ridiculous such rigidity sounded and when spoken in Cantonese and Teochew took on each dialect's flavour.

Bring Teochew myself, I was transported back to being in my Dua Yi's home where she will converse with us in pure Teochew, which takes this very lyrical and poetic singsong rythmn. It was beautiful and I was almost moved to tears.

The post-screening dialogue was insightful and linked spoken language to body language and how inherent it is to a person's identity. What was remarkable was seeing a famous Malay playwright​ taking notes. He shared his comments and insights and as this was my first time crossing paths, I was very impressed by his openness towards other cultures.

Who am I? Where did my ancestors come from? Which part of China was it? Who can answer these questions before it becomes too late? Where did our ancestor disappear to? Why did it disappear in the first place? What happened in between?

I left the play with more burning questions.