Controversial playwright speaks out after cancellation of gay-themed play starring Antony Wong
Hong Kong playwright Candace Chong reflects on the off-on-off decision to cancel her play We Are Gay starring Antony Wong
Under intense political scrutiny, the real drama in Hong Kong’s arts scene often happens not on the stage, but in the offstage machinations of censorship.
The planned rerun of Candace Chong Mui-ngam’s Cantonese play, We Are Gay – poignantly titled “We are the Happiest” in Chinese – has gone from defiant revival to seemingly insurmountable defeat within days.
In mid-August, a November rerun of the award-winning play was announced, and advance booking began for the shows that would be performed at the Xiqu Centre in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD).
Advance booking was briefly reactivated on September 24, after WKCD, in charge of renting out the venue, gave the official green light once again, but on October 18, the production team confirmed the worst: the show was cancelled.
The cancellation was for real this time, with WKCD taking the unusual step of explaining why: it had received “a large number of complaints” claiming the play “promotes confrontation and defames Hong Kong”, and that the decision was made in consultation with the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau.