Enabling Horizons for the Disabled: Dreams, Liberation and Visions of Hope in Performing Arts, Creative Writing and Film from China and Taiwan

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

From the traditional era through most of the twentieth century, people with disabilities were largely ignored in China and Taiwan. In the rare cases where they received attention, they were typically viewed as inauspicious, incapable of contributing to family and state and thus relegated to the margins of society. In the last thirty years, the role of people who are blind, deaf, mobility-impaired and cognitively impaired has changed dramatically as they have become both the subjects and authors of literature, film and performance works.

This panel will explore how creative works from China and Taiwan offer possibilities of fulfilling dreams, attaining liberation and salvation and fostering hope as they explore the lives of people with disabilities. Yunjeong Joo uses data collected from interviews and field work to examine the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe’s My Dream song and dance performance and their training program and to explore the interaction of the individual dreams of performers with disabilities and the China Dream campaign promoted by the Chinese government. Sociologist Tasing Chiu investigates the ways in which poetry, fiction and life writing by authors with visual disabilities in Taiwan offer opportunities for liberation and salvation. Steve Riep, a specialist in contemporary Chinese language film and literature, demonstrates how recent films from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan show characters with disabilities living empowering, successful and meaningful lives filled with hope as they pursue a wide variety of career paths free from the stereotypes of earlier periods.

Area of Study

• China and Inner Asia

Session Organizer

• Steven L. Riep, Brigham Young University

Chair

• Tasing Chiu, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan

Individual Presentations

• China Dream or My Dream? Disability Art Theatre in China - Yunjeong Joo, Seoul National University Asia Center

• Liberation, Rebirth and Salvation in Literary Works by Blind People in Taiwan - Tasing Chiu, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan

• Visions of Hope: Depicting Blindness and Other Disabilities in Contemporary Chinese Film - Steven L. Riep, Brigham Young University