🌏 SundayFringe Blog: Whispers from the East — A New Wave at theSpaceUK
This August, something gentle, fierce, and ancient walks the cobbled streets of Edinburgh.
Not with fanfare.
But with ritual. With rhythm. With roots.
theSpaceUK opens its doors to Asia’s New Wave — a gathering of voices from Hong Kong and Taiwan that don’t just perform… they remember. They burn. They breathe.
This is Asia Base, a bold bridge between East and West. A shimmering thread across the sky of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, woven from grief, dance, firelight, and fierce, quiet hope.
🕯️ The Body as Memory
In Ah-Ma by Cathy Lam, performed by Kasen Tsui, a granddaughter’s voice becomes elegy. A solo theatre piece lit with ancestral warmth, slipping gently into silence — yet never truly gone.
In Sàng Tsáu, the Hsu Chen-Wei Dance Company conjures Taoist ritual into physical poetry. It’s not a show. It’s a reverence. A farewell. A rebirth.
And in Good Morning and Good Bye, every movement is a hymn. A sunrise. A whisper between generations.
🎭 The Pulse of Now
What happens when Gen Z ambition collides with burnout? Dance Dance Involution erupts. Dorothy Chow, Ashley So & Shirley Wong tear through hustle culture in a wild, witty critique of quiet quitting and chaotic dreams. Directed by Eugene Ma, this is satire with soul.
Meanwhile, DOTS (by Annie Cheung) dives into high-functioning depression with startling honesty. It’s funny. It’s dark. It’s true. A mirror held up to a world too busy to stop — but still hurting underneath.
And Sole to Soul speaks through image and motion, reshaping Chinese womanhood with every step. Visually stunning. Deeply rooted. Unshakably present.
🌸 These Are Not Just Shows
These are acts of survival.
Rituals of remembrance.
Declarations of resilience.
Company leader Cathy Lam says it best:
“These performances are more than shows — they are acts of remembrance and survival, whispers of silenced histories and fierce declarations of hope.”
This is what SundayFringe is for.
Finding the performances that do not shout — but change you.
That leave traces of incense on your clothes, and echoes of ancestors in your heart.
🎟️ Go if you can. Sit in the dark. Let the stories move through you.
This is Asia’s New Wave, and it’s rising.
📍 Find them at theSpaceUK venues across Edinburgh.
📸 @theSpaceUK | #AsiaBase | #SundayFringe
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