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Kuo Pao Kun (193910 September 2002) () was a playwright, theatre director, and arts activist
[Kwok, Kian-Woon. "Remembering Kuo Pao Kun (1939–2002)." Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 4.2 (2003): 193–201.] in Singapore who wrote and directed both
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
and English plays. He founded three arts and drama centres in Singapore, conducted and organised a number of drama seminars and workshops, and mentored Singaporean and foreign directors and artists.
Kuo is acknowledged by both locals and foreigners as the pioneer of Singapore theatre, and was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1990 for his contributions to Singapore theatre.
[Omar, Marsita. "Kuo Pao Kun." 6 June 2007. National Library Board Singapore: Singapore Infopedia. 18 April 2008] His plays are characterised for their dramatic and social commentary,
[Lo, Jacqueline. "Theatre in Singapore: an interview with Kuo Pao Kun." Australasian Drama Studies 23 (1993)] use of simple metaphors and multiculturalism themes,
[Kuo, Pao Kun. Images at the Margins: A Collection of Kuo Pao Kun's Plays. Singapore: Times Books International, 2000.] and have been staged locally and internationally.
Early life
Kuo Pao Kun was born in Hebei Province, China in 1939 to Kuo Fung Ting and Zhou Qiao. He moved to Beijing with his mother in 1947,
and spent nine months in transition in Hong Kong before being called to Singapore at the age of 10 by his businessman father.
[Kuo, Pao Kun. The Coffin Is Too Big for the Hole ...and other plays. Singapore: Times Books International, 1990.]
Kuo lived with his father in
High Street
High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...
, and first attended
Catholic High School
Catholic schools are pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered under the aegis or in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school syste ...
's primary section. Due to various circumstances, however, Kuo transferred between both Chinese and English-medium schools many times. At one point, when he attended the
Chinese High School in 1956, his father transferred him to Kallang West Government Chinese Middle School (now
Dunman High School
Dunman High School (DHS) is a co-educational government autonomous secondary school located in Kallang, Singapore, offering the Integrated Programme and the Special Assistance Plan (SAP). It was originally located in West Kallang.
Since adopt ...
)
before moving him to Hong Kong due to the student unrest generated by politically activist Chinese high school and middle school students, largely out of concern for the political expedience of the unrest. When the student unrest ended in 1957, Kuo returned to Singapore to attend the English-medium Pasir Panjang Secondary School. Kuo attended a total of six schools in six years.
[Klein, Ronald D. "Kuo Pao Kun". Interlogue:Studies in Singapore Literature. Volume 4: Interviews. Vol. 4. Singapore: Ethos Books, 2001.]
In 1955, Kuo joined
Rediffusion
Rediffusion was a business that distributed radio and TV signals through wired relay networks. The business gave rise to a number of other companies, including Associated-Rediffusion, later known as Rediffusion London, the first ITV (commercia ...
's Mandarin radio play section at 14 years of age, (Lo) and worked as a broadcaster, in addition to performing and writing radio dramas and Chinese ''
xiangsheng
Xiangsheng (), also known as crosstalk or comic dialogue, is a traditional performing art in Chinese comedy, and one of the most popular elements in Chinese culture. It is typically performed as a dialogue between two performers, or rarely as ...
''.
His early years in Hebei and Beijing had led to his acquiring of his trademark Beijing-accented Mandarin, which he once described as "like having a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
accent in English", and which advantaged him as a broadcaster. After Kuo finished high school in 1959, his experience in broadcasting and bilingual advantage from his education enabled him to secure a job as a translator/announcer in Melbourne with
Radio Australia
ABC Radio Australia, also known as Radio Australia, is the international broadcasting and online service operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia's public broadcaster. Most programming is in English, with some in Tok ...
, where he worked for three and a half years.
In 1963, he took up an intensive, two-year drama programme with the
National Institute of Dramatic Arts
The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is an Australian educational institution for the performing arts is based in Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 1958, many of Australia's leading actors and directors trained at NIDA, including ...
(NIDA) in Sydney, while working in technical theatre at
the Old Tote.
The course gave him a "strong, solid grounding" in many aspects of contemporary Western theatre and introduced him to Western classical theatre.
During his studies in NIDA, Kuo also became engaged to choreographer and dancer
Goh Lay Kuan
Goh Lay Kuan (; born 1939) is an Indonesian-born Singaporean dancer, choreographer, educator, and pioneer of dance in Singapore. Together with her husband, Kuo Pao Kun, she co-founded the Singapore Performing Arts School (now The Theatre Practic ...
.
Career and works from 1965 to 1976
Upon returning to Singapore in 1965, Kuo and Goh founded the
Practice Performing Arts School (PPAS) on 1 July that year, providing professional dance and drama courses. The founding date was also the day that Kuo married Goh.
As public perception of Chinese drama during that era was that it had always been a part of cultural and mass political movements, many were unreceptive towards the charging of fees to teach drama. For many years, the dance wing subsidised classes in the drama wing. Despite the fact that the idea of professional theatre was not widely accepted then, Kuo noted that young people from all walks of life devoted themselves to theatre courses and remained highly involved in PPAS productions even after they had completed the drama course.
In 1966, Kuo translated and produced ''
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
''The Caucasian Chalk Circle'' (german: Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. An example of Brecht's epic theatre, the play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a b ...
'' in Mandarin, the first
Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
play performed in Singapore.
Kuo and Goh's first daughter Kuo Jian Hong was born in 1967, followed by their second daughter Kuo Jing Hong in 1971.
Singaporean Chinese contemporary theatre in the 1960s and 1970s was highly politicised, given the field's roots in social movements, the turbulent state reforms of the local social and political environment after Singapore's independence, and the increasingly political and revolutionary environment internationally .
The
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
in China, which began in 1966, impacted local Singaporean Chinese in the 1970s. Many were influenced by its trend of thought, viewing art, literature and drama as weapons of struggle and tools of social change.
Kuo's first plays, written from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, were also "highly politicised" and "critical of social issues."
One of the plays, titled ''The Struggle'' (1969), was written by Kuo to reflect the social turmoil resulting from rapid urban reconstruction and inflow of multinational investment, but its performance was banned by the authorities.
Critics also noted that Kuo's early plays characteristically displayed a clear-cut distinction between the "good" (tradition and class unity) and the "bad" (exploitative capitalists).
[Hong, Xinyi. "Tracing the life of Kuo Pao Kun." Straits Times 23 February 2006.]
In 1972, Kuo and his students and ex-students from PPAS launched the "Go into Life Campaign" to experience life of labouring masses in Singapore and Malay Peninsula.
Their guiding ideology was that "art came from life. Without knowing life firsthand and deeply, especially the life of the labouring masses, it would be difficult to write good artistic work".
The campaign resulted in the proliferation of original works based on real-life stories of labouring people, including ''The Fishing Village''.
Detention and effects
The growing force and increasingly political nature of Chinese theatre culminated into the 1976 massive leftist purge,
where hundreds, including Kuo, were detained without trial under the
Internal Security Act Internal Security Act may refer to:
* Internal Security Act 1960, former Malaysian law
*Internal Security Act (Singapore)
* McCarran Internal Security Act, a United States federal law
*Suppression of Communism Act, 1950, a South African law, rename ...
. Kuo spent four years and seven months in detention, during which the state revoked his citizenship.
Kuo described the detention as "a moment of humbleness"
[Devan, Janadas. "Kuo Pao Kun on plays and prisons." Straits Times 19 May 2000.] and "a very sobering experience– you get cut down, you know that you don't know enough."
The incident caused Kuo to undergo a major re-evaluation and reflection of his perceptions and thoughts.
He was released in 1980 under restrictions in residence and travel, and resumed teaching drama at
PPAS
The Professional Performing Arts School, colloquially known as PPAS, is a public middle and high school in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City.
History
PPAS was created in 1990 to meet the needs of two groups of students: those who wanted t ...
in 1981. The restrictions were lifted in 1983, and his citizenship reinstated in 1992.
After 1980
Written plays and productions
Kuo resumed directing, producing and writing plays immediately after his release. His first production, ''The Little White Sailing Boat'' (1982), was written and directed by him on behalf of 14 Chinese drama groups at the
Singapore Arts Festival
Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) is an annual arts festival held in Singapore. It is organised bArts House Limitedfor the National Arts Council. The festival is usually held in mid-year for a stretch of one month and incorporates t ...
, and was well received by the Chinese drama circles.
In 1984, Kuo wrote the draft of his first English play, a monologue entitled ''
The Coffin is too Big for the Hole''. Kuo later submitted ''Coffin'' in response to the Singapore Arts Festival guest director's call to local writers to present sketches of Singapore life. Some of these submissions were incorporated into a performance entitled ''Bum Boat''. Although ''The Coffin'' was not selected. He also wrote a monologue "No Parking on Odd Days" a story of a Singapore man who faced the fines he get from the traffic police. Kuo carried on to write the play in Mandarin, and staged it in 1985 with
Zou Wen Xue in the lead role. He then invited
Lim Kay Tong
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to perform the original English version. The performance was well received, and brought Kuo to the forefront of the English language stage in Singapore. Other plays such as Kopitiam was also recognised
''The Coffin'' has since been adapted and performed numerous times both locally and internationally, in countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, China,
Japan
and France.
In 2015, ''Mama Looking For Her Cat'' was selected by ''
The Business Times'' as one of the "finest plays in 50 years" alongside productions by
Goh Poh Seng
Goh Poh Seng (; July 1936 – 10 January 2010) was a Singaporean dramatist, novelist, doctor and poet, was born in Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya in 1936. He was educated at Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, received his medical degree from Uni ...
,
Michael Chiang
Michael Chiang (born 27 October 1955 in Muar, Malaysia) is a prolific playwright and screenwriter in Singapore. He is known as "Singapore's most famous and successful playwright".
From 1990 to 2009, Chiang was the editorial director of Mediacorp ...
and
Alfian Sa'at and others.
Institutions founded/co-founded
The Practice Performing Arts School (PPAS) (1965)
The
PPAS
The Professional Performing Arts School, colloquially known as PPAS, is a public middle and high school in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City.
History
PPAS was created in 1990 to meet the needs of two groups of students: those who wanted t ...
was founded by both Kuo and Goh as the Singapore Performing Arts School. It aimed to integrate dance, drama and music training, and create a symbiosis between creative performance and arts education.
Kuo served as principal
[Ho, Sheo Be. "Who's who from the school." Straits Times 27 June 1995.] of the school until 2002.
[PPAS. Practice Performing Arts School. 2008. 18 April 2008 http://www.ppas.edu.sg/mvision.html ]
The PPAS has played an instrumental role in grooming local talents,
some of whom mentored under Kuo. Graduates of PPAS include:
* Dramatist and
Cultural Medallion
The Cultural Medallion is a cultural award in Singapore conferred to those who have achieved artistic excellence in dance, theatre, literature, music, photography, art and film. It is widely recognized as Singapore's pinnacle arts award.
Histo ...
winner
Han Laoda, who participated in PPAS' eighth drama course in 1970.
*
W!LDRICE artistic director
Ivan Heng
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, body_discovered =
, resting_place =
, resting_place_coordinates ...
, and
Alvin Tan, artistic director of professional drama company,
The Necessary Stage
The Necessary Stage (previously known as M1 Theatre Connect and M1 Youth Connection) is a Singaporean non-profit theatre company with charity status. Formed in 1987 by Alvin Tan, The Necessary Stage was established with its own mission to creat ...
. Both attended the school's third directing workshop.
*
Ong Keng Sen
Ong Keng Sen (born 20 November 1963; ) is a Singaporean director of the theatre group TheatreWorks, which was founded in 1985.
Early life
Ong Keng Sen was youngest of six children born to immigrants from Putian, China. Ong joined the drama cl ...
, artistic director of
TheatreWorks and winner of the
National Arts Council Young Artist Award in 1993. He attended the school's second directing workshop in 1986.
The Theatre Practice (1986)
Kuo officially founded
The Theatre Practice
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
company in 1986 as the bilingual, semi-professional
Practice Theatre Ensemble (PTE), based on a plan worked out in 1967 with Lim Kim Hiong.
The company was later renamed The Theatre Practice in 1997. Kuo served as the company's artistic director until his death in 2002.
[TTRP. Theatre Training & Research Programme. 2006. 2008 April 18 http://www.ttrp.edu.sg/TTRP/index.html .] Kuo mentored a number of local talents who worked with the Theatre practice, including
Ang Gey Pin of
Theatre Ox, Verena Tay and Cindy Sim.
[Tan, Beng Luan, Lao Da Han and Soon Lan Lim, Stitch a quilt of memories: Stories about Kuo Pao Kun. Singapore: Creative O Developers' Lab, 2003.]
The Substation (1990)
Kuo founded
The Substation
The Substation (Chinese: 电力站) is Singapore's first independent contemporary arts centre. It was founded in 1990 by Kuo Pao Kun. The Substation is centrally located in the city's civic district and was the first building under the Nati ...
in 1990 from a disused
Public Utilities Board
The Public Utilities Board (PUB) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment of the Government of Singapore responsible for ensuring a sustainable and efficient water supply in Singapore.
The PUB regulates an ...
power station at
Armenian Street, with the aim of nurturing local artists
and to serve as a community-funded, non-profit
[Sasitharan, T. "Theatre doyen sells himself to raise funds." Straits Times 11 May 1994.] arts centre for workshops, concerts, lectures and exhibitions.
[Pandian, Hannah. "Crucible or Hotpot?" Straits Times 13 September 1991.] He first visited the station in 1985, and, with advice from architect
Tay Kheng Soon, submitted a proposal to the Singapore government to set up an arts centre. The proposal was accepted.
[The Substation. "History." 2007. The Substation. 2008 April 2008 .] Kuo himself oversaw the renovation and design of the building's interior.
In 1989, he formed a team with
Tan Beng Luan to prepare the launch of the arts centre as "The Substation – A Home for the Arts", and was appointed as its artistic director during its official opening in 1990.
Kuo served this role until he resigned in 1995, to spend more time writing and directing plays. He also stated that he stepped down to devote his energy to the
PPAS
The Professional Performing Arts School, colloquially known as PPAS, is a public middle and high school in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City.
History
PPAS was created in 1990 to meet the needs of two groups of students: those who wanted t ...
, of which he was acting principal, and to PTE, of which he was artistic director.
[Phan, Ming Yen. "Kuo Pao Kun quits as The Substation's artistic director." Straits Times 2 June 1995]
Under Kuo's direction,
The Substation
The Substation (Chinese: 电力站) is Singapore's first independent contemporary arts centre. It was founded in 1990 by Kuo Pao Kun. The Substation is centrally located in the city's civic district and was the first building under the Nati ...
's orientation during the 1990s was as an inter-disciplinary, multicultural
[Sasitharan, T. "Images at The Substation ." Straits Times 2 February 1991.] and pioneering arts space, particularly for experimental arts. With diversity, The Substation also provided a platform for young talent, who did not have the money or influence to mount their work elsewhere.
The Substation
The Substation (Chinese: 电力站) is Singapore's first independent contemporary arts centre. It was founded in 1990 by Kuo Pao Kun. The Substation is centrally located in the city's civic district and was the first building under the Nati ...
was initially criticised for its unsophisticated repertoire of new and young artists. There were also concerns that
The Substation
The Substation (Chinese: 电力站) is Singapore's first independent contemporary arts centre. It was founded in 1990 by Kuo Pao Kun. The Substation is centrally located in the city's civic district and was the first building under the Nati ...
promoted "rock culture", and that Kuo was being too lax in embracing any form of work as "art". Kuo's views remained unchanged by the criticisms; his primary concern was that "it is the process that counts. I am not interested in the end product, the finished piece. Where else will these budding talents get space to call their own?"
It was through his endeavours in
The Substation
The Substation (Chinese: 电力站) is Singapore's first independent contemporary arts centre. It was founded in 1990 by Kuo Pao Kun. The Substation is centrally located in the city's civic district and was the first building under the Nati ...
that Kuo's quote on failure arose:
"Instead of shunning failure, The Substation endeavours to thrive on it... that ''a worthy failure is more valuable than a mediocre success.''"
The Theatre Training & Research Programme (TTRP) at PPAS (2000)
The tertiary-level
TTRP, was located at
Middle Road, was founded in 2000 by Kuo and
T. Sasitharan, after a period when Kuo seriously considered closing down the PPAS due to lack of funds. When Kuo informed two of the School's supporters,
Creative Technology
Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singaporean multinational technology company headquartered with overseas offices in Shanghai, Tokyo, Dublin, and Silicon Valley (where in the US it is known as Creative Labs). The principal activities of the compa ...
's founder
Sim Wong Hoo
Sim Wong Hoo (; born 1955) is a Singaporean inventor and billionaire entrepreneur. He is the founder, CEO and Chairman of Creative Technology, a designer and manufacturer of products for personal computers and personal digital entertainment devic ...
(whom Kuo first met in the 70's when the latter studied music at PPAS) and the
Lee Foundation
Lee Foundation is Singapore's largest private charitable foundation. It was founded in 1952 by philanthropist and businessman Lee Kong Chian, and has since supported various educational causes, healthcare and medical endowments as well as disaster ...
about the closure, both responded with monetary donations. Sim made a S$2 million donation to the school in addition to offering the use of of
Creative's premises to house the new TTRP, while the
Lee Foundation
Lee Foundation is Singapore's largest private charitable foundation. It was founded in 1952 by philanthropist and businessman Lee Kong Chian, and has since supported various educational causes, healthcare and medical endowments as well as disaster ...
donated S$400,000.
Kuo remained as the programme's co-director until 2002.
Later,
TTRP was moved from
Creative Technology
Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singaporean multinational technology company headquartered with overseas offices in Shanghai, Tokyo, Dublin, and Silicon Valley (where in the US it is known as Creative Labs). The principal activities of the compa ...
's headquarters in
Jurong Industrial Business Park to its current premises in June 2005.
[Hong, Xinyi. "Practice makes perfect? ." Straits Times 26 July 2005]
The
TTRP was the result of Kuo's effort to create a training programme rooted in different classical Asian performance traditions.
[Practice Performing Arts Centre Ltd. Kuo Pao Kun: And love the wind and rain. Singapore: Crucible Pte. Ltd., 2002.] The programme covers
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
,
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
,
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
,
Indonesian
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesian ...
and contemporary Western theatre,
[Ariff, Shahida. "Putting S'pore on the world map." Straits Times 3 August 2002] and implements the ideals and ideas in theatre training that Kuo accumulated and developed over his lifetime career.
In the three-year course, students are trained in areas encompassing acting, performance, theatre theory and the practice of working across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Its curriculum includes courses in Acting Approaches, Movement, Voice & Speech,
Taiji
Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called " shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. T ...
and
Meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...
and immersions in Theatre Traditions. Faculty members included both local and foreign experts such as
Noh
is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...
master
Kanze Hideo and
Ma Huitian, and graduates from the program include actresses
Yeo Yann Yann
Yeo Yann Yann (born 20 February 1977) is a Malaysian actress. She has worked in theatre, television, and film. Her credits include '' Singapore Dreaming'', ''Thunderstorm'', ''881'', ''Ilo Ilo'' and ''Wet Season''.
She is a pioneer-graduate ...
and Leanne Ong Teck Lian.
The Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI) at Emily Hill (2013)
The TTRP has been renamed
Intercultural Theatre Institute
The Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI), formerly known as Theatre Training & Research Programme (TTRP), is a specialised, independent actor-training school in Singapore that offers a three-year full-time programme that trains actors through co ...
, located at
Upper Wilkie Road, as an independent theatre school for contemporary artists, conceived as a unique and unprecedented enterprise in theatre training, social and cultural interaction, and human understanding.
International links and influence
Kuo met with and invited many distinguished experts in the arts to Singapore to contribute to drama camps, seminars and workshops which he organised in Singapore.
Yu Qiuyu
Yu Qiuyu (余秋雨 in Chinese) (born 23 August 1946) is a Chinese writer and scholar.
Life
Yu was born in Qiaotou Town (), Cixi County (formerly Yuyao County), Ningbo, Zhejiang Province on August 23, 1946. He finished his elementary schoo ...
and
Ren Baoxian were invited in the early 1990s to PPAS as guest lecturers, and
Wong May
Wong May is a poet who grew up in Singapore, studied and worked in the United States, and now lives in Ireland. She won the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for 2022
Life
She was born in Chongqing, China in 1944 and moved to Singapore with he ...
was invited from Hong Kong to join PTE as resident director.
Besides initiating creative exchanges with the new theatres of Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, Kuo was also invited to foreign countries and international conferences, including the US, China, Germany, France, Japan and
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
, where he delivered papers and keynote addresses, and assessed theatres and drama institutions.
Kuo also collaborated with directors and artistes from
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, Hong Kong and
mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
in projects, including
Stan Lai,
Li Jiayao and
John Saltzer.
Kuo's plays have been translated into German, Japanese,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
,
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
,
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
and
French. Since the 1980s, they have been performed in Asian countries, including Hong Kong, Malaysia and China, as well as in Australia, the USA, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
In 2000, the
Tokyo Asian Art Festival organised a tribute to Kuo by staging three of his plays. The plays were each directed and performed by people of different nationalities in their own languages.
''The Coffin'' was directed by Putu Wijaya and performed by Teater Mandiri of
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
; ''
Lao Jiu'' was directed by Anuradha Kapur and performed by Dishantar of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
; and ''
The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree'' was directed by Makoyo Sato and performed by the Black Tent Theatre of Japan.
In 2015, during the Singapore Festival in France,
''The Coffin'' was the first Singapore play to be performed in French, alongside ''Emily of Emerald Hill'' by
Stella Kon
Stella Kon (''née'' Lim Sing Po, born 1944) is a Singaporean playwright. She is best known for her play, ''Emily of Emerald Hill'', which has been staged internationally. She is a recipient of the S.E.A. Write Award.
Biography
Kon was born ...
, translated and directed by
Marc Goldberg.
Death
In his last years, Kuo devoted most of his energy to the
Theatre Training & Research Programme
The Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI), formerly known as Theatre Training & Research Programme (TTRP), is a specialised, independent actor-training school in Singapore that offers a three-year full-time programme that trains actors through con ...
.
He was diagnosed with kidney cancer in July 2001,
and died on 10 September 2002, at the age of 63, from kidney and liver cancer.
[Oon, Clarissa. "Once more with feeling." Straits Times 18 December 2002.] He is survived by his wife and two daughters. Goh presently continues serving as the principal of the PPAS with Jing Hong who serves as Vice-Principal.
Jian Hong is currently the artistic director for TTP.
External links
The Theatre Practice home pageKuo's ITI profile pageThe Substation's home page
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuo, Pao Kun
1939 births
2002 deaths
Hwa Chong Institution alumni
Chinese emigrants to Singapore
Singaporean dramatists and playwrights
Recipients of the Cultural Medallion
20th-century dramatists and playwrights
Catholic High School, Singapore alumni
Dunman High School alumni
Writers from Hebei
People from Wuyi County, Hebei
Xiangsheng performers