Combining childhood memories with “The Miscellaneous Morsels of Youyang”, a collection of stories from the Chinese Tang Dynasty era (9th century), “Big Nothing” is a shadow-puppet theater piece where personal memories and ghost stories, dream and reality cross over.
The 30 volume collection of stories, “The Miscellaneous Morsels of Youyang”, differ from many of the texts written in the period. These stories do not have morals, many seeming nonsensical. Some stories feature a mouth growing out of people’s arm and demanding food, while others are about a man turning into a pagoda. The stories were an important influence to Lu Xun, the father of Chinese modern literature, who cherished the collection and wrote similar strange stories himself, such as one about the spirit of a snake turning into a beautiful woman. Dai Chenlian grew up in Shaoxing city with his grandmother. In the play, the image of his grandmother begins to melt together with that of Lu Xun, who is also from the city of Shaoxing.
Dai Chenlian creates his own shadow puppets, sometimes becoming the resident of his own fictional world – A world where lighthearted humor can suddenly transform into something uncanny, and where the nonsensical creates new meaning.

Dai Chenlian

Dai Chenlian

Dai Chenlian, born in 1982 in Shaoxing City, China, graduated from the China Academy of Fine Arts in 2004 and began to make art since 2006. He works with the essential elements of theatre art —story, action, sound, lighting, construction, and gesture— and breaks them into the smallest possible units, in order to reveal the condition, process, and movement of thought in the most direct way. Multiple elements such as space, construction, light, oral record, image, puppetry, poetry reading, musical construction are incorporated in his works. Dai Chenlian brings in stories from the news and of ordinary people that he meets to create his own narration and imagination of the world. He attempts to document unnoticed emotions and events in a time of social transformation, the price that people have to pay to live, and the twists and turns of their destinies. His major works include Qin in Restrospect (2019), Big Nothing (2018), Spring is Splendid Color (2017), Spring River Flowing East IV (2015).

Style of performance: Screening + Streaming

Schedule:Friday, November 6, 2020 – Sunday, November 8, 2020

*No surtitles

<Screening>  Venue:Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Theatre East
6th (Fri.), 7th (Sat.) Nov.
①13:00-14:00 ②16:00-17:00 ③20:00-21:00
8th (Sun.) Nov.
①13:00-14:00 ②16:00-17:00

*Reception will open 30 minutes before the screening starts.
*The screening will be held in the original setting of the performance.
*For the artistic reasons, all seats will be removed and audience will sit on a cushion on the floor.
(As part of our COVID-19 measures, the capacity will be reduced to under 50%.)

Friday, November 6, 2020 – Sunday, November 8, 2020, 13:00-

*Available until 23:59 on the day (the content is the same as screening)
*Lecture Performance by Dai Chenlian is streamed for free. (Please scroll down.)

东来紫气满函关 (Big Nothing)

Screening: ¥500
*Please refrain from bringing children preschool age and younger.
*The entrance will be by the order of arrival.
*Please make sure the booking is made under the name of the person attending.

Streaming: ¥500

Tickets on sale:

10:00, Saturday, September 26

How to Book

Screening:Peatix
*Registration is required
Streaming:Streaming+

Tokyo Festival Executive Committee[Toshima City, Toshima Mirai Cultural Foundation, Festival/Tokyo Executive Committee, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture(Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre & Arts Council Tokyo)]

competition@tokyo-festival.jp