China’s music festival Modern Sky will be held in Helsinki, Finland, on August 26-27. It is the second time the festival, which has also been held in New York and Seattle since 2014, will be held in Finland.

“What? A Chinese music festival in New York?” That was how many Americans reacted to Modern Sky’s festival in New York’s Central Park in 2014, according to Michael LoJudice, director of international affairs at Modern Sky Entertainment, who has spearheaded the company’s international push.

“(Modern Sky CEO) Shen Lihui said, ‘OK, let’s do it, a music festival in New York.’ He is a little crazy,” LoJudice said.

Two years ago, the idea of a Chinese music festival was totally new for Americans. Modern Sky brought its own brand to New York for two days in October that year. That was the first time an Asian music festival had been exported outside the continent.

The company marketed the festival to the Chinese community, American-born Chinese and Chinese students — in fact pretty much anyone with a connection to China.

“For average (American) music fans, Mandarin pop is a foreign language, so it is not very accessible,” said LoJudice.

More than 6,500 people attended the gig in Central Park — smaller than the audiences for Modern Sky’s festivals in China. In New York, Chinese indie rock bands including Rebuilding the Rights of Statues, Queen Sea Big Shark and Second Hand Rose played alongside Western musicians like Cat Power, Ted Leo and Aimee Mann.

But not all foreign markets are the same. In Helsinki, for example, there is a very small Chinese community. So the company worked with Finnish bands that toured China and worked with the local government, which co-financed the event.

At the same time, the festival was timed to coincide with Europe Asia Roundtable Sessions (EARS), a conference for the creative industries. “That’s why we chose Helsinki over London, Tokyo or Paris,” LoJudice said.

Modern Sky’s efforts to head west have followed a proven pattern. For Japanese festivals, the first step toward growth was to gain more exposure among Western audiences. Japan’s 20th Fuji Rock Festival was held in mid-July and may be the best-known music festival in Asia.

“We book around 25 artists every year,” said Akira Okada, founder of the Taico Club festival, which focuses on intelligent dance music, a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the early 1990s.

“Half of them are from Western countries. They tell people in their countries that Taico Club is great, so we see more and more overseas audiences, especially from America and Europe,” Okada said.

The Vh1 Supersonic festival in Goa, India, was launched by radio DJ and MTV presenter Nikhil Chinapa, who was inspired after visiting different bars in Europe. The fact that English is widely spoken in India helped Chinapa in his efforts to expand Vh1 Supersonic. He and his wife started out by inviting DJs from Europe to host free beach parties.

The second step in the push westward by Asian music festivals is to build connections with overseas partners.

LoJudice has experience in the United States and an understanding of Chinese companies and artists. He came to China from New York in 2006 — when “everyone was looking for a Chinese partner” ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

After working in Modern Sky’s Beijing office for three months, he told CEO Shen that they could put together some partnerships. Shen said yes and the company launched its New York office.

“We were not sure how to sustain Mandarin rock music in a Manhattan office. How would the market react?” LoJudice said.

He said work in the early stages largely involved websites and design projects for bigger New York City firms that outsourced to Modern Sky’s designers in China.

“We weren’t sure if we could sell any Mandarin rock records. How would it work for bands coming over? We just did anything that brought money back to the company. We were working 100 hours every week.”

It can be hard for Asian music companies or artists to gain traction with Western audiences.

There are just 69 albums in history that have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and not one of those is Asian. Michael Jackson’s Thriller, released in 1982, has sold 65 million.

Although album sales are not the only way to rate music, they suggest that bringing Asian music to the West can be difficult. Most Asian music festivals in Western countries are held by, and for, local diasporas.

LoJudice said staging outdoor music festivals is never easy. “You need a lot of time. Visas (for artists) are a little complicated,” he said.

“When we produced our first overseas festival, our New York office didn’t have the connections we have now.”

And then there is the weather.

“Last year, in Central Park, we had a hurricane that week. We had a special guest who should have performed with Yoko Ono, but she got sick the day before and cancelled, that was too bad. It would have been pretty crazy.”

Despite the challenges, Modern Sky has been successful and has emerged as the only major festival brand from China operating in the West. It gives Asian artists a greater chance of exposure to Western audiences and those same audiences a greater understanding of Asia, particularly China.

LoJudice said music can overcome language barriers. For example, many Americans have heard of Youku, the New York-listed China online video and streaming service platform, which is promoted in the US even though its content is in Chinese.

The third step may be the most crucial — to export artists and gigs. To do this, they might have to work more closely together.

Some Japanese bands and artists like Mono and Cuushe, respectively, have put on great performances overseas. But they are in the minority.

“Japanese artists are too shy to go out of Japan,” said Okada, who plans to launch a booking agency to create tour routes for artists who played at the Taico Club festival and to export Japanese artists to Western markets and to other locations such as South Korea and Hong Kong.

LoJudice said Asian festivals need more cooperation and better consolidation, to share networks and resources within Asia. At the same time, they need to borrow ideas from older overseas festivals in Europe and America.

“There are a lot of cool things happening in China, but the distribution channel is filtered. It’s really hard to get it to the rest of the world,” he said.

“People get interested in China, but the media usually talks about economics and politics. There is not a lot of information about ‘cool China’, such as independent music, movies and art.”

The move aims to provide audiences with high-quality performances in the historic Opera House right in downtown Hanoi.

It is also an answer to recent public complaints that the Opera House has hosted too few high-quality shows.

Starting in September, the Viet Nam Symphony Orchestra, Viet Nam Drama Theatre and Viet Nam Cheo (Traditional Opera) Theatre will take turns performing at the Opera House.

Artist Thanh Ngoan, director of the Viet Nam Cheo Theatre, said the theatre’s performance schedule will include award-winning plays at national theatre festivals. By 2017, the theatre will perform there every Saturday and Sunday.

The Viet Nam Tuong (Traditional Drama) Theatre will launch performances on October 30 and November 2, while the Viet Nam Cai Luong (Reformed Opera) Theatre will start performing in October.

“The Opera House is a golden venue with a good location and magnificent architecture,” said Pham Ngoc Tuan, director of the Viet Nam Tuong Theatre. “The ministry’s decision gives us motivation to practise to give the best performance.”

“If it weren’t for the minister’s decision, traditional drama artists like us would not have dared to dream for a show at the Opera House, as the rental fee is too high,” he said.

Located just a few metres away from the Opera House, artists from the Viet Nam Drama Theatre have no proper stage of their own.

Their own stage has been transformed into a small rehearsal hall at the theatre’s headquarters, 1 Trang Tien Street. Most of the time, artists perform at the nearby Cong Nhan Theatre at 42 Trang Tien Street.

“We cannot afford to pay the rental fee of VND30-40 million (US$1,300-1,800) per nightly show,” said Nguyen The Minh, director of the Viet Nam Drama Theatre. “Our ticket income will never be enough to make ends meet if we rent the Opera House. That’s why we rarely perform there.”

According to artist Kieu Ngan, deputy director of the Viet Nam Symphony and Opera Theatre, opera houses in other countries are venues for top performing artists and are always the pride of their citizens.

“Our Opera House, in contrast, has rarely hosted such shows for the public, or only hosted invited-only shows in the past few years,” she said.

Artist Pham Anh Phuong, director of the same theatre, said the ministry’s plan is a good one.

“It’s an effective way to transmit artistic messages to audiences,” he said, “We don’t want to perform one or two nights, but several shows per month.”

While organisers of traditional performing arts have found it difficult to sign contracts that cover rental at the Opera House, various pop singers from overseas have been able to perform there in recent years because they can sell tickets at high prices.

“If tickets to traditional arts shows are charged at higher prices in order to cover the venue rental, no one would come see them,” said Tuan, director of the Viet Nam Tuong Theatre.

The Opera House was completed by the French in 1911 with an aim of bringing classical performing arts to both well-to-do Vietnamese and French people.

While completing the construction in 1990, architects Ho Thieu Tri and Hoang Dao Kinh noted that the total 600 seats would not allow shows to be presented to a large audience.

“Actually too many different activities have been organised at the Opera House, including award ceremonies of various sectors and schools,” said historian Duong Trung Quoc. “We should stop using the Opera House for so many kinds of activities. It’s necessary to think about using the venue for suitable arts.”

The ministry has assigned the Performing Arts Department to work with 12 theatres managed by the ministry to draft performing schedules through the end of the year.

Painter Pham Hong Minh always starts his performance with clumsy moves. He urges the audience to wait and wonder what will happen. Finally he stuns them — by burning, watering or simply rotating his work of art.

Minh was born in 1992 to a poor family in the southern central province of Binh Dinh. He lost his father at the age of six. His mother worked hard to bring up six children. Witnessing his mother’s strenuous life, Minh was determined his would be better.

Minh has nurtured a passion for painting since childhood. He taught himself and enrolled in the HCM City Univesity of Architecture, where he studied fine arts and practised street magic tricks as a hobby. One day, he had an idea: combine the two art types to create a new and amazing type of creation.

Tricks of art

“Painting seems to be a process in which the artist works independently and isolatedly,” Minh said.

“I want to share my passion with people. That’s why I pursue the art of performance painting. I want people to go with me from the beginning to the end of the creating process. It’s not just about enjoying a completed artwork as usual.”

He began looking at performance painting in other countries and created a style for himself.

He draws with paint, glue, glitter powder, fire and water. He sketches two paintings and then stacks them together to make a finished artwork.

In 2013, he participated in Vietnam’s Got Talent contest, creating portraits of musician Huy Tuan and actor Thanh Loc, two contest jurors, with fire and glitter powder.

His work drew praise from the judges and enthusiastic encouragement from the audience.

The performances often last five minutes and the audience have no clue about the outcome until the last second.

“I don’t see many artists like Minh in Vietnam, he seems to be the only one who does painting performance,” said actor Loc.

“In each performance, he combines different skills to wow the audience. And he never stops creating new pieces.”

Musician Tuan said the performance makes him feel he’s watching an action movie. “I can’t wait to see what the painting’s about. It makes me more curious than watching a magic show,” Tuan told Minh.

“You have beautiful music accompaniment, a good idea and a convincing performing style,” Tuan told Minh.

To make a successful five-minute stage performance, Minh has to practise at length and iron out wrinkles.

The first step is to find materials and decide how to make the painting emerge. Then he practises until the process is perfect.

For example, he buys many kinds of glitter powder until he finds the most suitable to go with the glue and make the painting radiant.

When using fire, he also works hard to find the suitable materials so that only one layer of the painting is burned and the one below is untouched.

“Beside, I have to practise to harmonise my movements with the light and music on the stage. When the music ends, the painting is finished,” he said.

After the fire painting performance, people asked him if he could paint with water. He complied.

“First I paint some sketches on canvas, but people still can’t imagine what will happen. Then I flush water on the painting and a portrait of Beethoven appears,” he explained.

“Actually, the liquid I use contains 30 per cent of transparent chemical substance and 70 per cent water,” he said, revealing some tricks of his trade.

Beside performing, Minh is busy with a newly opened painting class for children, conveying to them his passion for fine arts and teaching them the basic strokes.

“I never thought I would be a teacher, but because the parents enjoyed my performances, they urged me to open a class for their children,” he said. “Both the children and I find happiness in fine arts, that’s our common thing, we inspire each other in this class.”

The young artist hopes to one day open his own gallery, where he can share with visitors the secrets of his art and introduce new creations.

“The performance is really thrilling on the stage but it only lasts several minutes,” said Minh.

“I want the painting process and my works to live longer in the heart of the audience. Who knows? My performances might inspire some other artists and we will join hands to develop this art form in Vietnam.”

Along with the Vietnam Book of Records (Vietkings), he has proposed creating a 7m-long painting using a special material that he declines to name. He will soon perform this piece in public.

“It was a humble offer [by director Justin Lin],” said Joe, referring to his role in the film. Lin is no stranger to the actor, as the latter previously played in a movie also helmed by Lin, Fast & Furious 6.

Taslim said that Lin had called him while he was taking acting classes in the US, saying that there was a role that really suited him, and that he had readily agreed. “It’s my future goal to bring Indonesia[n] [actors] to more blockbuster movies,” he said.

Unlike his past roles, the father of two had to wear prosthetic makeup in Star Trek Beyond. Up to eight layers of makeup were pasted onto his face, making it at times difficult to breathe.

Joe added that he had also had to wear a costume up to his head. Weighing up to 8 kilograms, the costume made him sweat during the fighting scenes. “It wasn’t easy,” Joe said as he recalled the three-month shooting experience over the course of a summer. “But I’m grateful that I got the chance to experience it.”

He also spoke of his collaboration with renowned actor Idris Elba, who played the role of Krall. “Idris was great. He was a good brother who often gave me input. He helped me without patronising me,” said Joe. “As he was very serious, I was very serious during the filming as well. No crew dared to disturb us during the standby period because they were afraid it might disturb our concentration. Acting is taken very seriously over there.”

The actor is slated to travel to San Diego in the US on Tuesday to join the movie premiere on Wednesday. Often bringing his wife and children to travel along with him, Joe laughed when asked about how his daughter reacted to his role. “She loved it. She watches superhero movies and all that, so she wasn’t afraid of seeing my role. However, I was careful not to spill my role to her during the making. I was afraid she might tell her friends about my role while we were still shooting the film,” he said, laughing.

Last year, the dance attracted a large audience in HCM City. Last December, it was also performed in front an audience of 300 ministers, vice-ministers, cultural attaches, ambassadors and other dignitaries on the closing event of the Development for Europe programme in Luxembourg.

The show is held with the participation of a group of independent artists, including choreographer and dancer Vu Ngoc Khai, music composer Ngo Hong Quang and programme producer Van Quy Ngoc Ai.

Organisers said that the artists have kept the skillful mixture of interesting body movements in the contemporary dance with the melodic flow performed on chieng day (string gong), dan tinh (a three-stringed instrument from the Tay ethnic minority), dan moi ba la (three-piece mouth harp), dan moi mot la (one-piece mouth harp), dan bau (monochord), with singing.

Non’s concept was built based on the idea and meaning of “round sky, square earth,” which is also the icon of the “square green rice cake” (banh chung) and “round white rice cake” (banh day) that expresses the perfect connection of yin and yang – Vietnam’s spiritual belief.

Moreover, the two simple traditional cakes themselves embrace the elegant and subtle traits of the old culture, “learn to eat, learn to say, learn to wrap, learn to open”. These are the connective lines between the two artists – who have been living abroad for years – and their origins. It helps them to answer the question, “Who am I in a strange foreign land?”

By using body language, music and a way of expressing familiar elements, they are able to share their Vietnamese experiences and feelings while they have been living abroad for years. Thanks to those explorative journeys to the colourful and eventful outside world, they have discovered more love of the cradle where they were born, and more pride in introducing the most special features of Vietnamese culture to the world.

In addition, Non also explores the spiritual life of human beings in the modern era where technology dominates and possesses everything with an increasingly loneliness.

In order to bring contemporary dance closer to the audience, as well as to exchange experiences with colleagues, two workshops for dance and traditional music lovers will be held next weekend in HCM City.

The show will be performed at the French Cultural Centre, L’Espace, located at 24 Trang Tien Street. The two following concerts will be held in HCM City on July 26 and 27, at IDECAF (Institute for Cultural Exchange with France), located at 28 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1.

The Star Wars project includes a completely upgraded look for the Space Mountain rollercoaster in Tomorrowland, and Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple, where visitors become Jedi apprentices and use “The Force” to battle with light sabers against “the Dark Side”.

On a hot Friday, Joe, a 44-year-old father, brought his two sons to Hong Kong Disneyland. “I spend 30 minutes on average to have a ride,and I am OK with the capacity,” he said. “It’s my first time to the park, so I can’t tell if there are fewer visitors than before, but I found that only one-third of the space is occupied in the parking lot, and there’s no tour bus parking there.”

Disappointingly, Joe hadn’t experienced the Star Wars attraction. “The waiting time is 150 minutes for that game,” he said. “Maybe I will go there again later.”

Joe bought annual passes for his family. “We will definitely go there more than twice within a year. But frankly speaking, I prefer Ocean Park, because we like to see real animals.”

There are signs the magic may have worn off, as Hong Kong Disneyland reported a net loss of HK$148 million for the year ended September 2015, according to a report released in February by the park. The report attributed the poor performance to”external factors” such as the decreasing number of mainland visitors and “overall market condition and sentiment”.

Visitors to the park fell by 9.3 per cent to 6.8 million, of which mainland visitors accounted for 41 per cent – down from 48 per cent in the previous fiscal year.

It is a year full of troubles. Hong Kong Disneyland Managing Director Andrew Kam Man-ho, who had been managing the park since 2008, suddenly resigned “for personal reasons” in March. Then, a month later, the park announced its first large-scale layoff scheme since it opened in 2005, with approximately 100 employees being fired.

Despite all these hardships, the park decided to press onward. A ride system is undergoing testing at Marvel’s Iron Man Experience now, which should be launched at the end of 2016. It is the first Marvel ride-through attraction at a Disney Park. And a new 750-room hotel, Explorers Lodge Hotel, is currently under construction, slated to open in 2017.

“I have reserved my opinion on the effectiveness of these new projects,” said Sarah Leung Fong-yuen, director of the Federation of Hong Kong Trade Unions in Tourism.

She pointed out to China Daily that the two additional projects – Star Wars and Iron Man – would not help much to increase the park’s attendees, as Shanghai Disneyland is more attractive. “The new projects may be attractive to local visitors, but visitors from the mainland and Southeast Asia, who account for a large proportion of Disney attendees, prefer to go to the Shanghai park, which is three times as big as the Hong Kong park.”

Leung suggested the Hong Kong park highlight local unique features, for example, selling traditional Hong Kong snacks to visitors.

In comparison, Shanghai Disneyland is finding life much easier. Before its official opening on June 16, the theme park attracted more than one million visitors during its trial operation from May 7 to June 12. Analysts expect Shanghai Disneyland to become the world’s most-visited theme park, attracting at least 15 million and as many as 50 million visitors a year. By contrast, Walt Disney World in Florida, US, drew 19.3 million people in 2014, local media reported.

The launch of Disneyland in the mainland kicked off a battle between local theme parks and foreign brands. Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, said Disney’s brand would be no match for the scale of his theme park Wanda City.

“Disney shouldn’t have entered the mainland,” Wang said on China Central Television on May 22. “We will make Disney’s China venture unprofitable in the next 10 to 20 years,” he said, as he unveiled ambitions to surpass Disney as the world’s largest tourism enterprise by 2020. Wanda Group launched the first of 15 planned Wanda City parks on May 31 in the southeastern city of Nanchang, two week before the official opening of Shanghai Disneyland.

But Shanghai Disneyland remains confident and seemingly untroubled by Wang’s words. A spokeswoman for Disney declined to comment, saying only that Wang’s remarks were “not worthy of a response”.

According to a survey conducted by marketing consultancy Prophet, 48 percent of tourists say they are less likely to visit Wanda City in light of the opening of the Shanghai Disney Resort, reflecting Disney’s strong brand recognition. Wanda, on the other hand, lacks a clear brand strategy as well as a compelling reason for consumers to visit its theme park.

The poll, carried out during the period June 9-13, surveyed 300 Chinese consumers aged 18 to 55, with the aim of better understanding consumer behaviour with regard to theme parks in mainland China.

Wayang Bocor

Having been inspired by the magical shadow shows of traditional Javanese puppet wayang, Eko Nugroho created Wayang Bocor in 2008. Just like the traditional performance, Eko’s version of wayang still focuses on bringing human interest to the core of the story, while also adding modern elements such as lighting and digital music, to make the performances “fresh and exciting”. The show itself is very dynamic and requires further collaborative efforts with actors and narrators, as it is a scripted performance, with no puppeteer to control the storyline. The narrator tells a story that illustrates today’s society while the actors interact with the audience.

Curious? Don’t miss Wayang Bocor on July 29 at Potato Head Beach Club in Seminyak. The performance is free of charge and will start at 6 p.m.

Where: Potato Head Beach Club, Jl. Petitenget No. 51B, Seminyak

Celebrating Murni

Ketemu Project Space in collaboration with Sudakara Art Space is set to exhibit Murni’s paintings, as well as those of 15 other artists. They also will hold discussions about her art and its relation to feminism and taboo. Murni was a Balinese female artist who passed away 10 years ago. She learned and developed an inimitable traditional style of Pengosekan painting and was known for her explicit images of nude and sexual body parts in her paintings, stemming from her suffering after being raped by her father. The exhibition aims to give a voice to perspectives that have been silenced, marginalized or excluded in the context of the larger story of Indonesia art history and Balinese culture.

Dubbed Merayakan Murni (Celebrating Murni), this exhibition will run from July 16 until Sept. 18.

Where: Sudamala Suites & Villas Bali, Jl. Sudamala 20, Sanur

Impressions of Bali

Dutch artist Theo Zantman fell in love with Bali’s rice fields and decided to paint them. Up to 70 percent of his paintings were created on the spot in order to capture the surrounding’s feeling and atmosphere. Most of his paintings showcase the vast beauty of lush rice fields in Bali, and four years ago he was asked to paint rice fields in Java to show the differences. The result is his recent exhibition, Impressions of Bali, which takes place at Maya Sanur Resort & Spa. Aside from rice fields, he also loves to paint everyday life in the kampung, capturing the rapid changes. Currently residing in Buleleng regency in northern Bali, Zantman has a style that is greatly influenced by Vincent Van Gogh, and has so far held around 30 exhibitions. His sawah exhibition starts this July and will end on Aug. 31.

Where: Maya Sanur Resort & Spa, Jl. Danau Tamblingan 89M, Sanur

“TRIP”

A group of 18 young artists who formed Bali Emerging Artists are slated to host an exhibition called “TRIP”, which will showcase not only two-dimensional artworks but also installation art that illustrates their long journey of creating art. In this exhibition, the artists, alumni of the Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI) Denpasar, ISI Yogyakarta and Ganesha University of Education’s Fine Arts department in Bali, will display archives of sketches, photos or personal notes curated by I Made Susanta Dwitayana. The group will also offer workshops and discussions to share their insights and experiences during their creation process, as well as tips on how to build communities.

The art exhibition will take place at Bentara Budaya Bali, with an official opening on July 25 at 7 p.m., and will end on Aug. 3. The discussions will be held on July 31 at 3 p.m. (kes)

Where: Bentara Budaya Bali, Jl. Profesor Ida Bagus Mantra No.88A, Ketewel, Gianyar