The Auditory Memories of Southeast Asia

Video creator Chiu Chih-Hua and dancer Cheng Yi-Wen join together to conduct field research on Southeast Asians in Taiwan on the subject of unexploded ordnance in Laos, interpreting the scarred lives of those that have suffered through trauma with sounds, videos, and dancing bodies.

During the Vienam War, hundreds of millions of bombs were dropped or placed in Laotian territories. To this day, Laos is filled with uncleared landmines and unexploded ordnances that result in high death tolls and injuries each year. The Bombie Protocol, though delayed by the pandemic, is an art festival in Laos that seeks to reawaken public awareness on the brutalities of war and conflict by engaging them in this art project, thereby facilitating discussions, collaborations, and exchanges. Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, artists Chiu Chih-Hua and Cheng Yi-Wen were originally slated to participate in The Bombie Protocol but decided to shift their focus onto Southeast Asian residents in Taiwan when the festival had to be delayed. They conducted interviews spotlighting auditory memories to probe for life experiences throughout the war from interviewees. The interview videos became Chiu and Cheng's source materials for choreography and performance; they translated the sounds to further develop the relationship between sounds and bodies in contemporary art. During the sound workshop, performers experienced developments in their body movements and were able to internalize the field research to co-create a body language belonging to Southeast Asians with the artists. At the end of the year, Chiu and Cheng hosted a five- day performers' workshop and public performance at the Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre.