Globalization: Cultural Disconnects or Shared Destiny?
February 20, 2013 – Vancouver & Richmond | Extremely timely in light of recent backlash against the China-Canada FIPPA agreement and the presence of Chinese miners in Northern BC, the upcoming 4th DocuAsia Forum attempts to compile the human stories behind broader social, political and economic shifts and envision a different kind of globalization – one that would move away from a model of cultural fragmentation to one of mutual understanding through discourse grounded in life and death concerns shared by all of us.
Co-presented by the David Lam Centre at SFU and Cinevolution Media Arts Society, the DocuAsia Forum is an annual Metro Vancouver event for exploring Asia-Canada relations as they develop. By bringing together filmmakers, artists, academics, community representatives and the general public, DocuAsia provides a platform for informed dialogue concerning the current cultural and economic development in Asia, and global implications for the future.
Extraction by Theatre Conspiracy (Sunny Sun, Jimmy Mitchell and Teresa Tang) photo by Chris Randale
This year’s program features Extraction by Vancouver-based Theatre Conspiracy (conspiracy.ca), a documentary theatre show that delvesdeep into the heart of intertwined cultural phenomena: China’s rise as an economic power and oil extraction in Alberta. Mining the biographies of non-actor performers, this bilingual (English and Mandarin) play digs beneath the surface of highly charged political debates to illuminate lives transformed by legendary traffic jams, boomtown fever, translation trouble and diplomatic intrigue in Beijing and in Fort McMurray’s tar sands, which has been called one of the largest industrial projects in human history. “To the Alberta that I grew up in, China couldn’t have been more foreign, more ‘other’,” states Tim Carlson, Extraction’s writer and producer. “Now these two entities have a lot in common: oil mainly, but the larger product is cultural — which forces us to take a nuanced look at how we trade ideas as well as resources or how we translate values while exchanging currency.”
Extraction will have its world premiere at The Cultch (1895 Venables St) from March 5 to 9. DocuAsia discussions will add flair to this captivating performance on March 6 and 7.
Tickets for Extraction from $17 (tickets.thecultch.com or box office phone number 604.251.1363)