Anti-School Bullying Forum Theatre in Rural Boarding Middle School in China – Empirical Analysis Based on Programme Practice｜DaTEAsia Vol.12

APA Citation

Qiao, X., Wang, Y., & Zhao, J. (2023). Anti-School Bullying Forum Theatre in Rural Boarding MiddleSchool in China – Empirical Analysis Based on Programme Practice. The Journal of Drama and TheatreEducation in Asia, 12, 43-64.

This Heritage Theatre programme was a new venture by the Hong Kong Drama/Theatre and Education Forum. They introduced to primary and secondary schools the story of Hong Kong’s famous local clan, the Tang’s, through an interactive performance done in two of Tang’s ancestral halls. The aim of the project was to discuss the relationship between history and heritage buildings, and the meanings and difficulties in preserving these buildings. As I happened to be a consultant of the project, I adopted a participant-researcher role in this study. The beginning of the project experienced good progress, until on the very day of final rehearsal with a group of secondary students in the audience, some unsettling things happened which nearly forced the performance to come to a halt at the middle—a clan member did not think the story was presented in an appropriate way! The incident let us re-think about the function of heritage theatre as applied theatre, and the methodological element we need to take into consideration for the best facilitation of such function to be performed.