Slideshow That Won't Bore You To Tears

Sun Herald

Sunday January 27, 2008

Jason Blake

CHINA

Stables Theatre

Until February 9

Tickets $25-$43

Bookings 1300 306 776

Critic's rating: 8/10

MERGING the artfulness of the 19th-century lanternist's show with the artlessness of a selection of holiday snaps projected on the living room wall, William Yang's photography, travelogue and memoir are familiar, yet quite unique.

In his ninth show-and-tell, the Sydney photographer takes the audience through a 90-minute package tour of his four visits to China: the first not long after the government crackdown on pro-democracy supporters in Tiananmen Square in 1989; the most recent being his not entirely rigorous mission to climb some of the country's sacred mountains in 2005.

China is an outsider's tale, told from the point of view of a man who looks like an insider. A third-generation Australian, Yang passes as Chinese until the moment he opens his mouth. His grasp of the language is rudimentary, his unease with custom and ritual constantly betrays him. But when one young woman in a steelworks observes, "the blood of China runs in your veins", Yang recalls "being overcome with fierce emotion".

He seems to inspire fierce emotions, too. He recalls being jumped by a handsome young man after a boozy late night party in Inner Mongolia, only to have someone intervene before anything could develop. "That's the trouble with China," Yang observes wryly. "There are always five other people in the room."

Yang's gentle humour, his outsider's perspective and his eye for telling detail make for images as arresting as his stories: a red quilt drying in a dreary Beijing street; drowsy lovers in a park; bamboo forests quivering in the breeze. Nicholas Ng's improvisations on the erhu (Chinese violin) and pipa (lute) are astute and lyrical.

Working in front of a pair of large screens, Yang speaks without referring to notes. An occasional glance into a pair of rear-view mirrors mounted on a stand is enough. The show is scripted but his delivery feels off-the-cuff.

Occasionally he pauses, gazing at his own photographs, inviting us to do likewise. At those times, even though it falls some way short of being revelatory, China is quietly magical. JB

© 2008 Sun Herald

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