Art as chronicler, counselor & consoler

The second edition of a cultural festival in Xiamen, Fujian province, puts untrained actors and dancers at center stage.

Against a pitch-black backdrop and a mesmerizing song about self-expression, a woman begins to tell her story to another, revealing that she has been pregnant five times but has given birth just twice. The narration is conveyed in a light manner, but without making light of the matter at hand. Rearing two boys, the couple could not afford to raise more children, and the woman's other three pregnancies were aborted.

This heart-wrenching tale is based on the woman's real-life experience, adapted into The Story of Giving Birth, a play screened online in the second edition of the Luminous Festival just finished. The festival aims to provide an artistic platform for minority groups and others whose voices often go unheard. Because of the pandemic, events in this year's festival were staged both online and offline, most of the latter in Xiamen, Fujian province.