ABSTRACT
Postcolonial artists in Singapore and Hong Kong face a challenge regarding the positioning of their creative work between their indigenous identities and Chinese identities because of the vicissitudes in the image of China in their respective sites and their respective understanding of Chineseness.1 Constantly reformulating or recombining cultural identities on each site into different possibilities makes the experimental theater a pertinent medium for their expression. Challenges are both ontological and epistemological, in that both societies are culturally dynamic and politically vulnerable. Ontologically, they must decide whether the creative work should come from an acknowledged Sinic tradition, albeit constantly adapting to changes in an environment over which they have no control or be intrinsically exempt from any such tradition to allow for an absolutely decontextualized reappropriation and reassociation of cultural resources. This ontological dilemma alludes to the extent to which cross-cultural subjects should adopt, rather than transcend, Chinese identities.2
