Hairpin Beneath 钗之后
a collaborative project with Zishi Han

Emerging from Zishi Han and Wei Yang’s ongoing collaborative research project into historical Chinese homoerotic literature, Hairpin Beneath is an evolving performance that intertwines multiple narratives to explore queer existences in China and the Chinese diaspora. The point of their departure is a Ming dynasty anthology of homoerotic stories, ‘弁而釵’ (‘Biàn ér chāi’). The title of the book implies the scene of a man taking off his ceremonial headgear and putting on a woman's hairpin. Structured around a set of excerpts from the book, they loosely interpret its storylines and draw on a variety of Chinese historical and contemporary cultural practices, such as poetry, Chinese Opera, literati landscape painting, Danmei literature, pop music and reality TV shows.

Oscillating between live reading and video projection, they assemble formally distinct but correlating components of the performance to dwell amidst the blurry boundary between the fictional and the biographical. Live reading texts are drawn from ‘Biàn ér chāi’ (bai hua version), translated into written vernacular Chinese by 执迷 (Zh. m.), published in instalments on 书香门第 (Shū xiāng m.n d.). Excerpts are edited and translated into English by Zishi Han and Wei Yang.

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13/03/2025

Swarm
Tropez, Berlin

30/06/2024

Swarm
Tropez, Berlin

28/05/2024

The Digest
Pickle Bar with Slavs and Tatars
Kunstraum MEMPHIS, Linz, Austria

18/02/2024

Hairpin Beneath 钗之后
Pols, Valencia, Spain

02/02-03/03/2024

Spring Exhibition 2024
Kunsthal Charlottenborg Forårsudstillingen, Copenhagen, Denmark

18/01/2024
Pickle Bar presents
West Den Haag, the Hague, The Netherlands

15/11/2023

Tea Room Relay
Delfina Foundation, London, the UK

28/10/2023

THANK YOU!
Pickle Bar, Berlin, Germany

Tropez,
Berlin, Germany

about the show

produced by Zishi Han and Wei Yang,
performed by Zishi Han and Antone Liu

Ink Agop for Tropez

Kunstraum MEMPHIS,
Linz, Austria

about the show

photo by Memphis

pols,
Valencia, Spain

photo by Luis San Gregorio

Spring Exhibition 2024
Kunsthal Charlottenborg,
Copenhagen, Denmark

about the show

photo by Christian Ravn Brems

photo by Jenny Sundby

Pickle Bar presents
West Den Haag,
Den Haag, the Netherlands

photo by Dana LaMonda, West Den Haag

photo by Augustina Cai

Tea Room Relay
Delfina Foundation,
London, The UK

photo by Augustine Paredes

THANK YOU!
Pickle Bar,
Berlin, Germany

Photo by Augustine Paredes

Hairpin Beneath 钗之后 a collaborative project with Zishi Han

Tropez, Berlin, Germany

Kunstraum MEMPHIS, Linz, Austria

pols, Valencia, Spain

Spring Exhibition 2024Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark

Pickle Bar presentsWest Den Haag, Den Haag, the Netherlands

Tea Room RelayDelfina Foundation, London, The UK

THANK YOU!Pickle Bar, Berlin, Germany