Jeremy Tiang 程异

In the spring of 1983, in a groundbreaking act of cross-cultural collaboration, Arthur Miller accepted an invitation to direct his play Death of a Salesman with an all-Chinese cast at the Beijing People’s Art Theatre despite not speaking a word of Mandarin. The production was a resounding success due, in no small part, to the multilingual talents of renowned Chinese actor Ying Ruocheng (Bertolucci's The Last Emperor) who translated the text and played Willy Loman.

This extraordinary encounter, which Miller detailed in his memoir Salesman in Beijing, is the inspiration for Salesman之死, which centers on Shen Huihui, a young university professor, who is summoned to the theater for a special task: to interpret for Arthur Miller, who will soon arrive to direct his iconic play – in Mandarin. Meanwhile, the Chinese ensemble, newly out of the Cultural Revolution, has never met “a salesman.” Will they be able to find common ground? Mostly based on true events, Salesman之死 is a multilingual tale of cultural confusion, impossible translation, and unexpected encounters amid the chaos of theater making.

published in American Theatre magazine

“Based on the wild true story of Arthur Miller — who very much did not speak Mandarin — going to Beijing in 1983 to direct an all-Chinese cast in a production of Death of a Salesman. …an incredible concept.” ~Vulture

10-28 Oct 2023 at the Connelly Theater, produced by Yangtze Repertory Theatre and Gung Ho Projects, directed by Michael Leibenluft

Photo credit: Maria Baranova

New Plays from Taiwan: What’s Next After Marriage Equality?

Why Don’t We Get Married by Liu Chien-Kuo
Halfway through a rehearsal, Xiao Ai’s girlfriend (and fellow actress) proposes to her—but in the flurry of wedding planning, will they lose sight of what marriage means? Meanwhile, in the audience, a mother and daughter have a difficult conversation about love—all interspersed with Taiwanese opera.

Love in Time by Chao Chi-Yun
Now that gay marriage has come to Taiwan, two sisters come up with a plan to stage a wedding for their late father and his former boyfriend—but Uncle Zun is still very much alive, and may not go along with their scheme. A play about love and loss, and what happens when progress comes too late.

The Red Balloon by Lin Meng-Huan
2049. When Lang Yong and his late husband had a child thirty years ago, they used genetic manipulation to ensure the boy would be gay too. Now their son wants to undergo orientation reversal surgery so he can be “normal”—but what does that mean in a world where anything is possible by medical means?

Reading at the Segal Theatre, 14 November 2020 in partnership with Gung Ho Projects and National Queer Theater, directed by Michael Leibenluft, with Diane Chen, Wai Ching Ho, Claire Hsu, Kenneth Lee, Teresa Avia Lim, Yang Wang, and Perry Yung

Photo credit: Sean Gasper Bye

London, 1958. The local council is planning to bulldoze the last remnants of Limehouse Chinatown, and the local people attempt to embrace this redevelopment without losing their heritage — until former Limehouse resident Eileen Cunningham returns to start a revolution….

A promenade play excavating the history of a community that has been completely erased, exploding lurid myths of opium dens and sinister Chinese gangs to reveal a place that was for generations of people, simply home.

“This unsentimental show constantly sets up a tension between nostalgia and pragmatism, the past and progress, youthful optimism and old memories, what is gained and what is lost. Tiang's script layers these ideas well in a piece that is made with love and acted with real vigour” ~Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

“An undeniably interesting and enlightening show” ~Time Out

Premiered by Yellow Earth Theatre at Limehouse Town Hall, London, July/ August 2014

Published in British East Asian Plays (Aurora Metro)

Photo credit: Robert Workman

Translation of Wei Yu-Chia’s Taiwan Literature Prize-winning play. In seven scenes, the world ends again and again, for any number of reasons: environmental collapse, war, government incompetence, unrestrained capitalism. Navigating this chaos are a panda, a polar bear and a duck, not to mention a genetically-modified chicken and a couple of humans. How can we coax meaning and happiness out of our brief time on this dying planet? When the dust settles, only one human being is left alive in the world -- but is he blessed or cursed to have survived? Eerily resonant, this play is something between a dire prediction and a last-ditch warning.

Staged reading at the PEN World Voices International Festival, Segal Center, Apr 2018, directed by Mei Ann Teo, with Eric Aviles, Wei-Yi Lin, David Shih, Elise Santora, Ching Valdes, and Jeena Yi

Featured in Performing International Plays

Playtext published by Laertes Books

Photo credit: Lipmann Wong

“I abandoned my mother and sister to the withered grassland, and came here by myself. Men are no good. We leave women behind to face the parched earth alone.”

Translation of a play by Chen Si’an. An idyllic island in the midst of boiling oceans. Hot enough to cook a hotpot. One maverick entrepreneur sees a development opportunity and begins to devise the most absurd schemes for environmental protection.

Presented at the Edinburgh Festival 2019 as part of the Royal Court's International Climate Crisis Plays, directed by Joe Douglas, with David K.S. Tse and Jeremy Ang Jones.

An adaptation of the eighteenth century novel by Cao Xueqin.

Premiered by Pan Asian Repertory Theater at the Clurman Theater, New York, Jan/ Feb 2017, directed by Tisa Chang and Lu Yu,

photo credit: John Quincy Lee

Translations of plays developed by the Royal Court’s International Department; presented at a reading at the Royal Court, Dec 2018, directed by Sam Pritchard and Jude Christian.

Underpass by Chen Si’an

In the depths of a Beijing underpass, a homeless mother struggles to protect her child. A disturbing panorama of the city’s hidden underside, that asks urgent questions about the value of human lives in an urban jungle.

Babyface by Zhang Zai

A young, single woman. An older, married man. A passionate on-again, off-again love affair. The Chinese term ‘little three’ has become shorthand for a national phenomenon – but what human story lies behind that phrase? A funny, erotic and surreal journey into modern Chinese love lives.

photo credit: Helen Murray

To the Lighthouse by Datouma

On 23 August 2017, a powerful typhoon hit Macau, Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta. The Macau Meteorological Bureau put out its warning too late, so Macau residents had no idea of the severity of the situation and were unprepared, leaving the city to suffer massive damage. This play attempts to narrate the events of Typhoon Hato from multiple perspectives, while investigating the historical, cultural and political currents underlying this incident. Characters include the Filipino-Chinese bungee instructor on Macau Tower and his gambling-addicted grandmother, a Filipino former domestic helper; the high school student who yearns to see the wide world despite her fear of heights and never having left the Macau peninsula; a typhoon enthusiast from Hong Kong; and the gods of wind and sea, who have taken on human form. These individuals of different ethnicities, classes and languages find their destinies brought together by the typhoon.

The Struggle of Trapped Beasts by Wublesara

In a town of plains and deserts, many aimless people lead existences full of hope, but not knowing what they’re hoping for. They created and lived through the town’s most glorious period, but have now lost themselves after its precipitous decline. All they can do is sit in the dark—because even their electricity supply is insecure—and gaze at the city of hope that’s been constructed in the desert. In this world of rapid social development, they allow themselves to be forgotten by time.The Struggle of Trapped Beasts

Homeland 1961 by Luo Jing

“Homeland 1961” is an old tenement building in Quanzhou that has since been converted to a hostel and coffee shop, owned by Chen Qiuyue. Her husband, a returned overseas Chinese, built this place and then departed, never to be seen again. Chen Qiuyue raised her three children here, but is now suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. When local officials notify her that the building is due to be torn down, her children have varied responses: to flee, or to fight back. As layer after layer of the family’s pain is revealed, Chen Qiuyue prefers to take refuge in her beloved Qizi operas. Her granddaughter shows up after many years away, and has to deal with her difficult relationship with her father as well as her collapsing marriage. Over the course of an afternoon conversation about Qizi opera, grandmother and granddaughter find common ground. When everything is in flux, what is worth holding on to? Whether or not the old building is torn down seems to be more than a question of bricks and mortar…

Bilingual ebook

A double bill:

Dragon Bone by Quah Sy Ren

Floathouse 1001 by Han Lao Da

"The thoughtful cadences of translator Jeremy Tiang." -- Corrie Tan, The Straits Times

Read Floathouse 1001 here

photo credit: Jiunn Wang

In 2015, China announced that its one child policy would now become a two child policy; today in China, men still outnumber women by 33.5 million.

wo women visit a shamen to ask for guidance, one has the money to buy her way out of the government's two child policy, the other doesn't. In this sharp quirky comedy, award-winning playwright Xu Nuo explores the complications that come with this change in policy, as well as the disparity of health provisions between rich urban and poor rural communities.

Presented at the Manchester Royal Exchange in October 2016 as part of the B!RTH Festival, directed by Emma Callander

Script available to download here

As Taiwan heralds east Asia's first equal marriage law, one man struggles with prejudice in a still conservative culture, while grieving for his late partner. When he is forced to disclose his HIV-positive status, what will the fall-out be?

Staged reading at the Arcola Queer Collective's Global Queer Plays festival (March 2018), directed by Vicky Olusanya

Published in Global Queer Plays (Oberon Books)