Step inside the chaotic bedroom of Chinese millennials, a fantasy world where the real and the virtual intersect.

This play by a leading figure in cutting-edge contemporary theatre in China portrays the lives of young people addicted to the Internet and pop culture. It shares its title with the Shakespeare comedy about young nobles who take an oath not to court women. Set in a room bursting with strange and colorful items bought online, the female inhabitants have fun with absent companions by live streaming their existences via their mobile phones and computers. Though the wanton chaos of their daily lives might well repel us, for these girls it is their ideal world. As the time passes almost as if no one is watching, the divisions between stage and audience, the virtual and the real, slowly fade away.

Chinese Millennials

Every year at Festival/Tokyo, the Asia Series showcases an Asian nation’s performing arts and visual art. The fourth edition of the series focuses on China, especially the nation’s millennial generation born between the 1980s and 2000s.

This generation grew up after the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 and the start of the economic reforms in 1978. Today comprising 30% of the population of China, the millennials are a leading force in consumer trends. The generation has been online ever since it can remember as well as absorbing aspects of pop culture from America, Europe and Japan. It is no longer usual for young people in the big cities to have received education overseas and this kind of experience stimulates many artists to develop a critical stance toward contemporary society in their work, which is nonetheless rooted in their own nation’s history and culture.

Asia Series

Each year the Asia Series chooses one country in the Asian region and showcases examples of its performing arts, music, visual art, and more. Launched in 2014, the inaugural series presented South Korean performing arts, followed by Myanmar at F/T15 and Malaysia at F/T16. The fourth iteration of the series focuses on China. The showcase is curated based on research into the local arts scene, social conditions, history and culture. In this way, it conveys what is shared and differs within contemporary Asia, forming a foundation for sustainable exchange premised on the diversity of language and culture.