Creating alternative public spaces and negotiating identities and differences through community theatre praxes in Hong Kong and Taiwan

With the rise of mainland China in the twenty-first century, Hong Kong and Taiwan have endeavoured to sustain and reassert their own cultural identities to resist Chinese hegemony, and political and economic dominance. The community theatre praxes devised and performed by community members and applied theatre practitioners in Hong Kong and Taiwan in recent years have created an alternative public sphere, and negotiated identities and differences in various communities. They have presented the shifting and dynamic relationship of settlement and mobility in our glocalized cities. This article aims to employ two case studies to investigate how these community theatre praxes present diverse local people’s histories, concerns and issues, and thus negotiate the constantly changing identities of Hong Kong and Taiwan through re-presenting different local voices. This research will employ theories of public sphere, cultural geography, and participatory and engaging community art to explore the social and cultural implications as well as the various aesthetic strategies adopted.