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 Wen Hui and Eiko: Being Together

On January 3, 2020, I flew to Beijing to visit dance and media artist Wen Hui for a month as part of an artist fellowship funded by the Asian Cultural Council. Little did we know that China would be where the first cases of COVID-19 were identified, soon to become the worst pandemic in recent history. The fellowship was generous in that it did not oblige us to create a product. It only asked two artists, one in China and one in the U.S., to spend a month in each other's country. 

Prior to this trip, I had only been to China in Guangdong for two weeks in 1995. China’s first international theater festival invited me and Koma as well as Wen Hui and her ex-partner Wu Wenguang. We saw and liked each other's work then and more so again when they were in the U.S. It so happened that Wen Hui and I started to work independently from our partners several years ago. To visit each other for a month was not an easy task, but we both made an effort to clear our schedules to see what might happen. We decided that Eiko would be in China throughout January and Wen Hui would be in the U.S. throughout August. No rule was our rule.

Fast forward, the surge of coronavirus obliged us to abruptly shorten my trip by five days, and the pandemic made it impossible for her to come to the U.S. We then decided to meet over Zoom as frequently as possible and look at our footage together. By doing so, we recalled our time in China and continued our conversation and began editing videos.

These videos were not shot with a clear plan. But looking at them one by one, we saw a possibility to edit them together to create our video diary, which reveals how our friendship grew, how Eiko presented her work in China, and how candidly two independent artists  converse on a wide range of topics. We joked that our age difference of eight years, once significant when younger, is now much less. In fact, in the contemporary performance art field in China, Wen Hui is regarded as a historical figure. So it was liberating for us to talk without any professional frame or objectives. Our friendship and mutual respect transformed into a kind of sisterhood with a deep understanding of our differences. Though very active in the international performance scene, Wen Hui is firm in staying in China despite the hardships. I left Japan at the age of 20 and have lived in New York as an immigrant artist. But our values and desires seem surprisingly similar. We both embrace technology in particular ways. We shy away from overt technology, fast pace, and cleanness. We delve into raw material and hard history. We like to get physically dirty. We are opinionated and love working. Especially after this trip, I realize and respect that Wen Hui has had to work much harder to become who she is. In comparison, it has been much easier for me to voice my opinions in relative freedom. I have begun to question if I have used my potential fully and sincerely.

Continuing our dialogues and discoveries, we are slowly editing our video diary, aiming for it to be about 70 minutes long. We hope to share with others the immeasurable merit of two independent artists from two very different countries spending time together. And this pandemic has been our backdrop from my time in China and throughout our countless We Chat and Zoom conversations since..

Though we are first making a video for screening, we also plan to work together to create a live performance incorporating some video footage.

The contents:

•  Arrival

• Sharing memories

• Cooking and conversations

• Eiko’s video lectures and workshop in Beijing and Nanjing

• Meeting each other’s friends

• A visit to Nanjing Massacre Museum and Comfort Women Museum 

• A visit to Stone Forest Park

• New Year celebrations with Wen Hui’s family

• Eiko’s sudden leaving from Kunming