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In December 2024, amid the bitter cold of winter and unpredictable political climate, 10 promising directors and producers from South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand came together. The workshop in Korea marked the official start of the “Asian Direction Trilogy: Remapping Asia, a Creator’s Network for Asian Contemporary Theater,” organized as part of the 10th anniversary of the National Asian Cultural Center (ACC). Participants traveled back and forth between Gwangju and Seoul with Executive Producer Yang Jung-woong for seven days of intensive lectures, research, networking, and discussions to explore their themes in teams from December 16 to 22. To get a firsthand account of the entire workshop, we conducted written interviews with Creative Producer Lee Hee-jin and ACC Academic Researcher Yang Su-yeon immediately after the workshop.

• Q1.Can you give us a short introduction to the “Asian Direction Trilogy: Remapping Asia, a Creator’s Network for Asian Contemporary Theater”?

   

  Yang Su-yeon

  This project is the first of a series that seeks to bring us back to discourses on what “Asian-ness” is. It is a project that will feature up-and-coming directors and producers from three Asian countries, namely, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, coming together to research, exchange, and develop their works. The three works created as a part of this program are planned to be showcased to the public in November of next year.

   

  Lee Hee-jin

  “Remapping Asia” is a project in which Asian artists explore and reinterpret different issues in contemporary society from their own perspectives. The overarching goal of the project is to “look at contemporary Asia from Asian perspectives.” By addressing social and cultural issues in their respective countries through performing arts, the artists create a space to reveal the commonalities and differences within Asia. Through that, they hope to broaden our understanding of each other and build a sense of Asian artistic solidarity.

• Q2.This program features an impressive lineup of participants. How did this come to be?

   

  Yang Su-yeon

  The three countries that have been chosen for the first year of the program are Korea and two countries that have seen remarkable growth in art and cultural scenes in recent years but have not been introduced properly in the Korean scene: Taiwan and Thailand.

  Taiwan actively supports the performing arts at the state level, with a particular focus on the creation of new forms of performing arts that go beyond traditional methodologies to actively combine contemporary technologies. As a result, many Taiwanese artists have been gaining popularity in the international performing arts scene in recent years. In this project, Taiwan’s National Theater and Concert Hall (a national theater in Taipei, Taiwan) is participating as a partner organization, and in 2026, three works developed through this project will be showcased to Taiwanese audiences at the National Theater and Concert Hall, Taipei.

  As for Thailand, Thai artists who have leaned into the unique culture of Thailand and the vibrant cities with emerging cultural scenes and their unique and diverse works have been brought to the attention of the art and cultural scene in Korea as well. However, given that Thai artists’ works have not been given much focus in the Korean performing arts scene, we have decided to highlight Thailand for this program.

   

  Lee Hee-jin

  This project brings together directors and producers from Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand to create works that reflects their local, cultural, and social contexts. The participants actively engage in their own work in their respective countries, exploring a range of issues in contemporary Asia from different perspectives and approaches.

  The Korean part of this project features Director Oh Se Hyuk, Producer Song Mi-sun, and Art Director Jung Haesoo. Director Oh has been working on works with societal messages in theater and musicals, and in this project, he explores the role of the mediator by combining increasingly forgotten media with the theme of shamanism. Song Mi-sun is a producer whose works span different genres in theater, dance, and performance, with a deep interest in experimental and innovative works. Art Director Jung Haesoo began her career as a sound designer and has recently gained attention for creating unique sensory experiences through her directorial work “Underground.”

  Taiwanese Director Wen Szu-Ni, famous for “This Is Not an Embassy,” joins us from Taiwan. Wen Szu-Ni works with themes of war, memory, and symbolism to delve deep into the historical experience and community of different countries and recreate them on the stage. In this project, Wen will design a fictional museum around the theme of war and showcase different perspectives on how each country remembers the war. Producer Lo Yinru has worked with independent artists in Taiwan to create performances that focus on audience interaction without being limited to specific spaces.

  Director Wyne (Chakorn Chamai) and Producer Bam (Sarun Porn Charoenraj) join us from Thailand. Wyne is an up-and-coming director who is experimenting with a variety of languages on the stage, focusing on community and participatory theater as facilitators of connection with the greater community. Bam is a producer, actor, and stage director who has taken various roles in theatrical works, and in this project, Bam will participate in the research work to shape the stories we hope to create together.

• Q3.What was the intent behind planning a workshop in Korea for this year’s project?

   

  Lee Hee-jin

  “Remapping Asia” is a three-year-long project featuring research and creative works in Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan from 2024 to 2026.

  The purpose of organizing the workshop in Korea for this year was to create a common ground for the project. Korea has been an important site in experiencing and documenting political and social change in Asia, encapsulating a wide variety of themes, such as democratization movements, urbanization, youth isolation, and traditional shamanistic cultures. In this context, the focus was on converging Asian artists to explore contemporary issues and share their experiences with each other.

  In particular, this project focused its research on the relationship between cities and people, remembering and reinterpreting things that are disappearing, social isolation, and ways of achieving solidarity. In doing so, we wanted to create a space where artists could go beyond simply making works and think deeply about the issues facing Asia today and the role art can play.

  The workshop in Korea was an essential stage in finding the common threads that the artists will be working to unravel in their coming work and setting the directionality of their cooperation.

• Q4.It is my understanding that the participating teams traveled to different places, like Gwangju and Seoul, to research people and spaces there. What were each team’s interests, what were the directors’ important questions or reactions during the research, how did their thinking evolve, and what were the outcomes?

   

  Lee Hee-jin

  This project saw artists from Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand investigating things that are disappearing using their own methodologies under the theme of “loss and reconstruction of memory.” All three teams worked with places, media, and people that are being forgotten to connect the past and the present.

  Team Korea worked with disappearing media and shamanism. Their focus was on things that are slowly disappearing from our memory, like old theaters or videotapes. The team visited Incheon’s Mirim Theater and Gwangju Theater of Gwangju and discussed things with Mr. Cho Dae-young, a collector of videotapes, and Mr. Cha Min-young, a collector of retro memorabilia. One striking thing they found was that the act of collecting and preserving things from the past went beyond a simple hobby to an act of protecting cultural heritage. Their research on shamanism yielded a lot of interesting materials as well. They met with Ms. Jeong Sun-deok, a shaman who has carried out many rites for those who were murdered during the May 18 Democratic Uprising in Gwangju, and Gosaribaksa, the writer of the webtoon “Rebirth in Paradise,” to listen to stories that connect the unseen and mundane worlds.

  Through this process, Team Korea realized that disappearing media and shamanism have much more to do with each other than they had thought, as both have to do with summoning the forgotten and connecting us with things that are not visible.

  Team Taiwan conducted research on the theme of war and the memory of state violence. In Gwangju, they visited sites related to the Democratic Uprising movement; in Seoul, they visited Yongsan Park, a former US military base–turned–urban park, and the demilitarized zone (DMZ). They also met with veterans of the Korean War and a broadcast producer who made a documentary about the war to explore how memories of war remain with individuals and states.

  Based on this research, Team Taiwan is currently working on a performance that involves designing an imagined war memorial with the audience. They plan to pose questions on how we remember and commemorate war, with the goal of bringing the audience members to reconstruct the memories themselves.

  Team Thailand focused on the themes of urbanization and alienation. They visited people who formed communities after returning to rural areas; the not in education, employment, or training (NEET) company, which helps alienated youth; and the “jjokbangchon” (a “cubicle village” or an urban slum made out of partitioned houses) and Mokdong’s cram school district, with the goal of taking in the duality of urban development and individual alienation in full. Team Thailand plans to delve deeper into the stories of alienated individuals in the city and the theme of disappeared relationships.

• Q5.What was the issue that proved to be of greatest common interest between the artists participating in the project?

   

  Lee Hee-jin

  The themes that our participants in the Remapping Asia project were most interested in were “shamanism” and “liquidpolitan (fluid cities).”

  At the beginning of the project, we proposed eight themes to our artists, many of whom were interested in two particular themes. The two themes expanded beyond discussions of cultural traditions or physical changes in cities to considerations of identity and community change and the issue of human disconnection facing Asian societies today.

  Shamanism was particularly seen as a symbol of loss and healing of community. Artists saw it as a medium for healing social wounds and recalling forgotten memories, which can serve as an important device for restoring communal experiences in our individualized contemporary world. Interestingly, in Korea, the current political and social situation has seen shamanism emerge as a way to resolve social conflicts or as the center of new ones.

  The idea of “liquidpolitan” led to investigations on how the individual and the community live and connect with each other in the rapidly changing urban environment of Asia today, driven by urbanization and gentrification. This furthermore serves as a representation of contemporary Asia’s fluid changes in culture and identity beyond the physical boundaries of the city.

  These two themes are at once universal issues shared by Asian countries and specific to each country’s cultural context. These differences and commonalities played a vital role in helping the project evolve into something more nuanced and in depth.

• Q6.How do the directors interpret and approach the concept of “Asian-ness?”

   

  Lee Hee-jin

  The concept of “Asian-ness” is quite difficult to define in a single, unified context. On the contrary, the directors participating in this project interpret it as a product of multilayered and complex experiences. Because the countries in Asia have different histories, cultures, and social contexts, subsuming them under the descriptor of “Asian” may feel too broad and abstract at times.

  The directors explore the idea of “Asian-ness” through shared historical experiences, community solidarity, and common issues faced by “Asians” in today’s society. For instance, phenomena like colonial experiences, war and division, rapid urbanization, and the conflict between the traditional and the contemporary are found to recur among various Asian countries. What is interesting is that these experiences are remembered and expressed in different ways across different countries.

  For instance, Director Wen Szu-Ni of Taiwan explores the issues of war, urban development, and loss by reconstructing them through imagined museums or performances, with a special focus on how historical events remain with individuals and the community. Director Wyne, a member of the Thailand team, explores the communities disappearing from urbanization and the lives of alienated individuals by revealing the unique Asian characteristics of each city. Team Korea connects the traditional element of shamanism with the contemporary sensibility of disappearing media to explore “Asian-ness” through the themes of ruptured and recovering memory.

  In the end, we approach “Asian-ness” not as a single, unified identity or meaning but as a fluid concept that is reconstructed within the regional specificity and historical changes in each context. This approach serves as an important basis for us to interpret Asia not as a fixed, singular image but to explore it through a fluid, endlessly changing perspective.

  Thus, our directors have chosen to interpret “Asian-ness” not as a monolithic identity but as an organic puzzle to be interpreted within their cultural experiences and societal context.

• Q7.Will this research serve as the basis for joint productions in the following year? What should the audience members look forward to?

   

  Yang Su-yeon

  The performances produced through this project won’t take the form of a joint creation. Joint creation is a process where artists from different disciplines and backgrounds create a work of art together. This project is a process of individual work that each artist develops with their areas and topics of interest, but it pays more attention and support to the process of artists from the three Asian countries exchanging, doing joint research, studying, and getting to know and understand the commonalities and cultural differences between them. Through this process of learning and understanding each other’s cultures and constantly asking the question, “How can we critically look at Asia from the inside, rather than looking at Asia from the outside, and provide a direction for the future?” we believe the resulting works will provide insights into “Asia” and new questions and implications for the audience.

   

  Lee Hee-jin

  The ultimate hope of the project is to discover “connections in diversity” rather than commonalities. While the artists work in their languages and modes of expression, the issues faced by the different cultures allow them to see their own situations in a new light. For example, the Korean team uses the themes of disappearing media and shamanism to revisit communal experiences and memories that are being lost in an individualized society, whereas Team Taiwan uses war and memory to question how the past is remembered and commemorated in contemporary Asian societies. Team Thailand focuses on the themes of urbanization and the marginalized individual to consider the role of the individual and community in a rapidly changing society.

  In the end, “Remapping Asia” is about artists shedding light on each other’s cultures through their own stories, discovering unexpected intersections and connections along the way. While each artist’s work is independent, the harmony of their work will go on to reveal a multilayered picture of Asia.

• Q8.Can you tell us about the schedule and plans for the “Asian Direction Trilogy?”

   

  Yang Su-yeon

  Following the Korea workshop in December, a week-long research trip to Thailand to explore the country’s urban culture and arts and culture scene will take place in March 2025, where the artist/producer teams will collaborate to refine their work. In July, a week-long workshop in Taiwan, facilitated by the National Theater and Concert Hall, Taipei, will be organized, where the artists will similarly experience the history, cities, and cultural scene of Taiwan, sharing the process with each other as they finalize their individual works. The performances will be presented in November 2025 in the form of a triple bill¹⁾ that creatively utilizes the spaces of art theaters to present the three teams’ works. We believe it will be a new experience for the audience as well, as artists from different genres and cultural backgrounds will have the opportunity to experience different perspectives on “Asia” in one day through exchange and research over the course of more than a year. We look forward to your interest and support.