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Huayi: Bangka’s earthy streets leap onstage with Cloud Gate’s 13 Tongues

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Taiwan's Cloud Gate Dance Theatre  will present the internationally-acclaimed 13 Tongues as part of  Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts on Feb 3 and 4.

Taiwan's Cloud Gate Dance Theatre will present the internationally acclaimed 13 Tongues.

PHOTO: LIU CHEN-HSIANG

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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.

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