Today, stand-up comedy has become a beloved form of entertainment, appreciated for its humour and straightforward style that directly hits the audience’s funny bone. In Cantonese, stand-up comedy is also known as “dung duk siu”, a term established in Hong Kong in the early 1990s, a literal translation of “stand-up comedy”.
Yang Hao, born in Chongqing and currently residing in Hong Kong, has elevated stand-up comedy to a new level. Since 2018, he has ingeniously blended dance theatre with stand-up comedy in Cantonese and Mandarin, presenting a distinctive personal contemporary art form. This unique combination, which Yang Hao humorously dubs “dance-up comedy”, gives birth to the evolving series Legend of Hao Hao.
Legend of Hao Hao not only gathers Yang Hao’s critical reflections on his identity as an artist but also integrates his spontaneous ideas during mundane moments, local culture and global influences with a clever fusion of comedy and contemporary dance. References include such highlights as movies, karaoke, even kung fu, presenting a unique artistic feast that combines diverse elements.
Through Legend of Hao Hao, the audience is treated to a journey filled with humour, self-deprecation and profound contemplation, exploring Yang Hao’s unique artistic realm and his forward-looking challenges to contemporary art forms.
Yang Hao
Born in Chongqing, Yang Hao currently lives in Hong Kong. At age 12, Yang was admitted to Beijing’s China Song and Dance Troupe Dance School. After graduation, he joined the China Opera Theatre, the Guangzhou Song and Dance Company, and then the Guangdong Modern Dance Company. In 2007, he received a full scholarship to pursue a BFA degree in contemporary dance at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
Yang has had artist residencies at the Seoul International Dance Festival and ImpulsTanz (2014). He was also a Yale-China Arts Fellow and has worked with such institutions as the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Y-Space, New Haven International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Las Halls, World Dance Alliance Summit Forum in Angers and Tanzmesse.
Yang Hao works with Alice Rensy to intertwine stand-up comedy and dance theatre, film and live performance. Legend of Hao Hao is the first full-length stage work in the research series, commissioned by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council’s JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power 2019 and selected for the HKADC’s Mainland Performance scheme – Shanghai 1862 Theatre, with an eight-city China tour in 2022.
In 2023, Yang graduated with an MFA degree from the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, focusing on the practical and philosophical connections between the performing arts and technology.
- Approximately 60 minutes in duration.
- Free seating.
- You are recommended to arrive 15 minutes before the event starts. No admission for latecomers.
- Programmes are subject to change without prior notice. HKPAX reserves the right to make the final decision regarding the arrangements.
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