Daniel:
We worked together on every dollar is a soldier/with money you’re a dragon during lockdown. This was an online interactive music/dance/spoken word/art piece like no other! We won a Digital Culture Award for it and we’ve since performed it live. The album version is also out , so it was a ‘success’ but even beyond that I think we both knew there was an amazing artistic alchemy there because each of us understands each other and our respective disciplines. Then, when I joined Kakling as Associate Artistic Director, An-Ting suggested I write something based on my life - aspects of which I’d told her about. . I started work then I realised the ‘play’ could only be conceived as a form of ‘gig theatre’ (halfway between a dramatic theatre piece and a rock concert. Because all I heard in the story was the music of my life. And of course there was really only one person I could imagine working on that aspect with.

AT:
Whenever I hear fragments of Daniel’s experiences from his youth, I often think, 'They are so dramatic and unusual. I wish I could see those scenes portrayed in a theatre production or a film.' So when Daniel was considering the subject for his new play, I suggested he draw inspiration from his own life. His stories, including his struggles with drug addiction and journey to becoming a successful actor and writer, are incredibly sincere and shocking; it's hard to believe they belong to a real person. As to becoming the composer of the play, I've always found Daniel’s poetic writing style inspiring. Thus, when he asked me to compose music for the play, many tunes naturally came to mind, as we had previously collaborated well on 'Every Dollar is a Soldier/With Money You're a Dragon'.

Daniel: The Dao of Unrepresentative British Chinese Experience explores a broad range of themes including race politics, addiction, mental health, personal and social history, shot through with ancient Chinese philosophy. It delves into the challenges of individuality outside both the mainstream and modern identity tribes, blending various styles and performance forms. It challenges conventional notions of ‘Chinese culture', 'community' and the diversity cliches of modern Britain. The intention is to make a state-of-the-nation story for our times.

There’s also incredible live music in an astonishing range of genres from punk, pop, psychedelia, electronica rap and acid rock plus poetry and tripped out video projection, superlative singing, dramatic scenes and bundles of comedy.

The basic theme was born out of displacement which I’ve felt throughout my life. And it ties in with the fact that when I was writing it it was around the ten year anniversary of the protest against East & Southeast Asian exclusion from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of the Yuan Dynasty classic The Orphan of Zhao. There’s no doubt in my mind that that protest fundamentally changed British theatre. Very soon after the Act For Change campaign group started and our stages and screens really have become incrementally more diverse. And the term ‘representation’ became vogue. But then I started realising that I personally could never ‘represent’ without being ‘unrepresentative’. Because I’m mixed race, I didn’t get good grades at school, I wasn’t a ‘model minority’, nice ‘Chinese’ boy/girl. I was a drug addict and a (very) petty criminal then I was an actor but being an actor didn’t ‘save me’ from a life of crime, it very nearly drove me back to it!

So I’ve created something based on my own very precise experience which I think might just paradoxically make it very universal.

Because it is only ‘semi’ autobiographical as it’s mythologised as an epic quest story. A quest first of all for The Definitive British Chinese Story but then for The Dao…

AT: Regarding the musical elements, I delved into extensive research on the music influencing Daniel's life, notably 70s punk like The Clash. I'm captivated by how this era's music boldly challenged societal norms. Today's artistic output often lacks the raw substance to address current issues. To counter this, I've incorporated a diverse range of music styles—punk, post-punk, rock, psychedelic, and experimental electronic—aiming to use musical expression to deeply resonate with the themes explored in Daniel's script.

Daniel: The beauty of Daoism is that it is simultaneously simple but deep, profound and mystical all at the same time. ‘Dao’ is variously translated as ‘the path’., the ‘road’ etc but most often as ‘The Way’. It’s about attuning yourself to the cosmic path: finding your own personal ‘Dao’ within the greater ‘Dao’. The two great Daoist philosophers were Laozi and Zhuangz. They’re both inherent in the play but Zhuangzi is the one who informs much of the narrative. Zhuangzi’s writings are irascible, funny, mysterious, endlessly thought-provoking, surreal, playful, with astonishing leaps of imagination. Two Zhuangzi stories are central in The Dao of Unrepresentative British Chinese Experience.:

The first is the ‘Butterfly Dream’. Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly but then upon awakening couldn’t decide if he was Zhuangzi dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi dreaming he was a butterfly. This translates to the butterfly dream in the play: ‘I dreamed I was Chinese… or was I Chinese dreaming I was a lonely mixed race kid dreaming I was…’

The other central Dao story is The Useless Tree. But I won’t spoil that for you. Come and see it and find out!

AT: Daoism holds a unique place in my cultural background, simultaneously close yet distant. It's something deeply ingrained in East Asian culture yet remains elusive for many to grasp fully. To me, the Dao is akin to the 'flow' of life. As I've grown older, I've learned to embrace this 'flow' rather than forcefully planning every aspect of life. This philosophy also extends to my approach to music. I believe a good melody is one that naturally arises and stays with you. Thus, when inspiration strikes, I refrain from noting down the tune, trusting that if it's a good tune, it will stay with me. This is how I embody the concept of 'following the flow/dao' in my compositions.

Daniel: There are three cast members including myself and we all play fictional versions of me plus another ‘properly’ Chinese kid from Hong Kong, bullying teachers, well-meaning teachers, a school football team of racist kids, a Roman Catholic priest serving as metatheatre dramaturg, a violent racist kid who can’t quite remember the incident that changed our protagonist’s life forever, a talking tooth, a racist police sergeant demanding his own White male narrative in the story thereby engendering an emo crisis. Other characters we play include Cloud and Obscure - younger and older versions of arguably the same activist sage seeker of ‘The Dao’ - while Mr. Model Minority hosts their own podcast where vox-pop callers analyse the aesthetics of racist nursery rhymes. There’s also a Chinese lady who sells buns in Chinatown but doesn’t see our protagonist as ‘Chinese’, violent ‘community leaders’ in Chinatown, Instagram ‘BESEA community leaders’ invited to meet the King in Buckingham Palace, Obscure’s sinister ‘boba liberal’ cousin Opaque as well as playing all the music on live instruments, singing, rapping and maybe even dancing.

AT: The variety of styles I've adopted for composing for the play makes the compositional process quite challenging. Additionally, the fact that the performance style blends elements of a rock gig, rap, musical, and play adds another layer of complexity. Balancing the pacing of the play with the changes in rhythm and musical styles presents both a challenge and an exciting opportunity!

Daniel: Astonishing music, multimedia, cosmic visuals, theatricality to the max, Dao and drugs and rock n’ roll!

AT: It’s deep and fun, simultaneously entertaining and emotionally touching at the same time!