SINGAPORE – Growing up as a child of the 1980s in Bangka – Taipei’s oldest district and the ideal spot to glimpse the historical face of the metropolis today – Cheng Tsung-lung says it feels like his childhood “played out in an X-rated cinema”. 

“The scene which impressed on me most was a row of women who stood behind the tattered curtains in the dark alleys under the pink, purple and green fluorescent lamps,” says the 47-year-old artistic director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre on the red-light district in Mandarin.