Transgressive local act: tackling domestic violence with forum and popular theatre in Sisterhood Bound as Yuan Ze Flowers

Abstract

This paper examines a community theatre project in Kaohsiung County, Taiwan that aimed to tackle domestic violence through a collaboration between local community female elders and the facilitator. The paper investigates how an outside facilitator could unfix the assumed community identities which tend to exclude outsiders or sub-groups, in this case the outsiders were Vietnamese brides. It also explores how the Boalian techniques such as the joker, forum theatre and ‘hot-seating’ were adapted and changed in the Taiwanese cultural and social context in order to engage the local audience and encourage them to suggest alternative ways to solve the domestic conflict presented in a devised performance. The paper also demonstrates how these local community female elders employed the popular theatre strategies in the performance to tackle domestic violence. With subversive laughter, their performance stimulated the audience to defy the secrecy and horror of domestic violence in the community by their bold transgression of gender, ethnicity, age and profession. Their performance also demonstrates the possibility of extending an ethic of care to the Vietnamese brides in their community.

Keywords:

• domestic violence
• community performance
• forum theatre

Notes

1. The title of the play comes from one of the most commonplace plants in the Taiwan countryside – Yuan Ze flower, or Globe amaranth. Humble but vibrant, it flowers in clusters, with nearly full retention of their colour even after being dried and preserved. It serves as an offering on Chinese Valentine's Day as a symbol for enduring love, fraternity and sorority. The Da-Hu Community Theatre Group's female elder performers chose the title in the hope that their sisterly love for Vietnamese brides can bind them together with the local Taiwan sisters in such a way that they can share their mutual experiences as women facing domestic violence and combat the problem together.

2. The lyrics and melody were composed by a local Hakka band in Meinong and sung by members of the Foreign Brides' organisation in Meinong. The lyrics are as follows: ‘Big Wide Sky, Big Wide Land, Vast Pacific Ocean with no ends, I can only rely on Taiwanese men. Left and right did I think, I can't find where my hope lies. Vast wide sky, and vast wide earth, I have nobody to rely on but Taiwanese men. Bright moonlight above, Panicky my heart is, my hometown is far. My friend opens this literacy class, for me to walk out of my lonesome corner with no more loneliness, in this literacy class, class of sisterhood, we trust and love each other to save from suffering, it's a class of collaboration, connecting sisters from all over the places, when time goes like this for long, this foreign town can become our hometown’. The song has become very popular in the community of foreign brides in Taiwan as well as their friends. It symbolises the communication, collaboration, empathy and understanding that the local community has extended to their new female immigrants, shown by way of grassroots activities and culture.