Beyond the Shore: A Sea-Based Artistic Research Project focuses on Inter-Asian maritime histories and feminist mythologies, and presented through the medium of live performance, dance, film, and sound art.

Concept, Research, and Performance: Alysa Leung
Dramaturg, Research, and Performance: Evelyn Wan
Cinematographer: Anson Sham
Scenographer: Ayami Charlie Oki-Siekierczak
Music: Ting Ho Fung
and with fellow creative partners

photos by Anson Sham

Through this project, we map oceanic narratives of myth and history, to reinvestigate Hong Kong’s coastal histories and role as a port city in the colonial era. This work takes on an ocean-centric/ archipelagic perspective that focuses on coastal exchanges of bodies, goods, and knowledges and the relations between islands and ports in the South China Sea. If the ocean keeps memories, what does it record about us? From ancestral conflicts to mermaid myth to legendary female pirates, waves of historical myths and stories have nurtured the maritime civilisation of Hong Kong and its Inter-Asian waters.

Inspired by the Hong Kong mermaid “Lo Ting” and the pirate queen Zheng Yi-sao, the performance series centres mythology, history, and gender. We think through the role of feminised bodies of Lo Ting and Yi-Sao in their representations of the oppressed water-dwelling ethnic minority (Tanka people), and figurations of traumatic histories of war and conflict in Southern China. We turn to forgotten legends in the margins of official historical records to recuperate ocean-centric historical narratives as new historiographies of the Southern China coast.

Trailer, based on Itoshima edition

Performance Season 2023-2024:

  • Itoshima International Art Festival, Itoshima, Japan (Oct 2023)
  • Inter-Island Festival, Peng Chau, Hong Kong (Nov 2023)
  • ICAS Conference-Festival, Surabaya, Indonesia (July 2024)

Performance Season 2024-2025:

The project was under the Young Arts Tech Talent Residency Scheme by Hong Kong Arts Development Council to develop its next performance, Beyond the Shore: The Future of Memories. It won 2nd Prize in the Federation for Asian Cultural Promotion Clare C. and Friends Fellowship 2024.

  • HKADC Young Arts Tech Talent Residency: The Future of Memories, Hong Kong Arts Centre (2 March 2025)
  • LCSD Community Cultural Ambassador Scheme: Oceanic Legends (Fall 2025)

Beyond the Shore: The Future of Memories is a speculative science fiction immersive theatre production. Set in the distant future when humanity has been wiped out by a great flood after climate collapse, the audience enters a floating digital archive left to be discovered at sea. An AI bot and hologram performers guide them through a meditative journey, accompanied by live music, multimedia, and movement. Discover the forgotten voices of female oceanic legends and reconnect with their potential histories through this multi-sensorial immersive experience.

A new instalment centring local histories of Tai Po and Tuen Mun will be featured in the Community Cultural Ambassador Scheme 2025, with a dance performance, exhibition, and a series of workshops towards the end of the year. Stay tuned!