Macau’s dependency upon the gaming industry alone has hindered the development of other areas, according to Macau-born actor Vong Tin Ian, who currently works full-time at a Hong Kong theatre company. Despite the government’s pledge to promote art and culture, Tin Ian says it lacks long‑term vision and a trans‑departmental co-operation strategy to foster the industry How did you become an actor? Why get you into theatre in the first place? I was born and raised in Macau. I left after graduating from high school. The reason I am doing theatre now is serendipity. I used to play soccer and basketball in high school and wanted to study the environment for undergraduate education. I felt that the pollution was very serious and wanted to study environmental protection to change the world. But there was this one time I had a friend who was involved in drama and theatre. He asked me to fill in because he was short of an actor for a show. I said I didn’t know anything. But he convinced me it would be fine. So I joined the show. Later on, performance opportunities kept rolling in. So I took part in a lot of shows when I was in high school. When I was about to choose my major for college, I asked myself, what do I really want to do. The experience I had had in high school performing made the goal clearer. So I took the entrance exams for many theatre schools. I was accepted by many schools but finally chose the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and spent five years studying there. After graduation, I started travelling frequently between Hong Kong and Macau, taking up many freelance jobs. In February 2014, I became a full-time actor at Chung Ying Theatre Company in Hong Kong. In Macau, I have my own theatre group. I’m the Artistic Director of Brotherhood Art Theatre in Macau. Do you primarily focus on theatre? Last year, I joined a TV drama in Hong Kong. The show was about gambling. Some scenes were shot in Macau. At the end of this year, the TV show will be turned into a movie. In mid-October, we’re going to re-shoot some scenes. Did your identity as a Macau local get you the part? No. Only when we started shooting the TV drama and chatting backstage did the crew find out I’m from Macau; also, there’s another director from Macau as well. The difference lies in that we really know about the details. Some other crewmembers may have a vague idea about the eco-system of gambling. Sometimes they have doubts about why a certain character behaves in a certain way. And I will tell them “I know this. Let me tell you”. I shared many stories about Macau. It’s interesting that I was telling a story about Macau through a production made somewhere else. Many stories, movies, about Macau are told, made through organisations or production companies outside of Macau. Why can’t we tell our own stories? That’s right. The reason I didn’t return to Macau to develop my career but had to stay in Hong Kong was that Macau is so one-sided. Many areas still don’t have an industry. Many organisations and companies still have the old concept and haven’t made a breakthrough. There are many things that can be achieved through art. The companies can convey their messages through theatre groups as well. Theatre is very accessible, in the sense that music may be hard to comprehend, dancing may be too abstract, but theatre is very direct and easy to understand. The unsophisticated way is, of course, to tell you directly. But how can we make you feel so that you can understand comprises many possibilities. The Macau Government, even the educational departments, still have the old way of thinking – let’s stick to what we’ve been doing so far, or let’s do what other people are doing. There’s no innovation and it’s such a waste. There are many ways to promote an organisation, an idea. For instance, theatre will make you feel immersed and vividly see what’s going on. It gives vitality and moves people. The feelings will last for a long time and are much more effective. But this potential has not been developed yet. I can’t say it’s never been developed before but it’s always a light touch and there’s no consistency. There’s no soil for us to grow. As an actor, when there’s no job, I can’t survive here in Macau, unlike in Hong Kong where there are more opportunities. That’s why I have to pursue my career in Hong Kong – and here in Macau I have my own theatre group and I sometimes do volunteer work for other groups during my spare time. What kind of projects do you mean by conveying messages through theatre? Besides commercial shows, we mainly do educational programmes. Because the regular performances usually take place during the night; during the daytime we will host small plays with themes on campuses or for other groups, such as sex education, environmental protection, depending upon what the group commission us to do. Through communicating with students and interacting with the audience, we convey the message. In recent years, this form in Hong Kong has become very popular. This is normally what theatre performers’ routine is like. What’s your take on the current Macau theatre scene? A theatre group in Macau can’t survive independently. There’s no long-term support scheme from the government. For example, Hong Kong Repertory Theatre has more than 30 years of history. They receive long-term support from the local authorities so that they can cultivate the audience and make efforts in education. So that in 30 years, some students watching their shows before may engage in the area or become a loyal audience so that the whole scene grows. They can make 10-year plans or 5-year plans. Only with a long-term scheme, we can cultivate talent and keep them, in order to produce good shows. But here in Macau, the theatre group depends upon annual subsidy. We may survive for this year but have no clue whether the government will grant us the subsidy next year. Without a long-term goal, it’s hard to develop. There’s always this uncertainty. We do have talent here in Macau. But they’re all amateur; not in the sense that they are not good but they can’t do it as a full-time job. It really matters. Many of them have another job to make a living and can only join theatre groups during their spare time. It’s becoming normal. On the other hand, there’s a lack of education. Every aspect is separated. Art is art. Education is education. The government doesn’t have the strategy to converge, mix or even to work together so that one aspect can benefit from the other. In Macau, the usual is more like “Hey, I have my way of doing things, don’t intervene”. There’s no system or environment to develop the art and cultural industry. I would really like to have a local brand, not for sale but simply to represent Macau to show to the outside world that we have an established theatre brand. You spoke about Brotherhood Art Theatre . . . Our group was established in 2010 by a group of enthusiasts. The core members have studied in different areas, such as me in acting, some studied producing, lighting, stage, etc. Having mastered the skills, the group is more mature and the goal clearer. The shows that what we put on are very diversified. We like to do some plays that can be widely accepted by the audience, nothing too abstract. In Macau, we can’t really copy and paste the European way of theatre. The audience have a totally different upbringing. European audiences are so used to theatres and have a very different point of view and cultural education. We don’t want to do shows that just keep ourselves entertained. It would be meaningless if our audience cannot understand us. But it doesn’t mean that the shows we do are common or plain. We want to be close to the audience. We want to create something that’s based on this society, this social circle, and this living environment. For example, last time we did a play about two delivery guys getting trapped in a lift in an industrial building. This time, Field of Dreams tends to discuss the situation of local athletes. We interviewed lots of professional soccer players in Macau. The difficulties that the local athletic scene is facing are similar to those that we in the art scene are facing. Are we really short of talent? No, but the environment doesn’t allow us to pursue our dreams in our homeland – Macau. This is something close to Macau society, close to us. Every year, we also have an event for writing scripts called ‘First Script’. We have invited very good teachers from Hong Kong to conduct workshops. In the past three years, we’ve produced 13 scripts. And we’re launching a book of a collection of these scripts. It’s a document of local theatre, it’s a second life given to the script, and it’s also a record of contemporary Macau society. If you look back at these scripts in 10 years, it would reflect the current times of Macau. The time that we are living in now results in the works of the screenwriters. Maybe in 10 years when we look back, we will realise “Macau used to be like this” or “Wow, nothing’s changed at all”. Who comprises local theatre audiences? Audiences consist of people from different age groups but mainly from 20 to 35 year old, according to my experience and observation. Many of them are students or they started having this hobby when they were still students. It’s rare that a housewife suddenly wanders into a theatre. In Macau, there aren’t many ways to do promotion. Outdoor billboards are controlled by government who don’t necessarily need to help you promote your shows. And we don’t have that much budget to make commercial ads. We mainly use social networking, such as Facebook, which naturally have more exposure to the age group I mentioned before. What’s the operational model of your group in terms of business? Around 60 per cent of our operational spending comes from government financial aid through the annual subsidy scheme, while 40 per cent comes from the box office. The box office is very important. Take Field of Dreams as an example: there are 1,500 seats per show, three nights in a row, selling for MOP200 or MOP180 a ticket. That’s many thousands of dollars. Of course, we thought about being independent. But if we go our own way, we will be more like a production company that may have to take up jobs that we don’t want to do. I don’t deny [the importance of] business. Some artists don’t want to get involved in business. I think there’s a balance. There are commercial sponsorships, there are government subsidies. And our core value of art wouldn’t be forced to change that much. The government subsidy really helps to relieve some financial burdens. What do you think can help develop the industry? A long-term support scheme from the government is crucial. We will have a group of talent and we can manage to keep them so that we can consistently put forth good shows and nurture the audience. If the government has the intention, that’s something that they should really consider doing. The value for art cannot be quantified. It nourishes the population’s heart and soul. The Health Bureau helps us with physical health. Why shouldn’t the government pay more attention to this mental health aspect? Secondly, trans-departmental co-operation by the government can be very helpful. For example, as I mentioned before, art and education can really complement each other. The education department can commission theatre groups to perform plays and workshops. It would be a win-win situation. Besides government support, we have been putting a lot of effort into our own as well. We have to knock on people’s doors. For instance, the production team of Field of Dreams consists of around 50 people. The expenditure is tremendous. We have to ask for sponsorship. We really appreciate that a lot of people helped us with the means that they could. If we have a success this time, maybe the next time the companies would come to know that this would be a nice way to promote them and would be more willing to be involved and help us or other theatre groups as well. This business model is actually very common in Hong Kong already. And your upcoming show in Macau . . . ? Field of Dreams is a very inspiring story. It will be performed from 6th to 8th November in Sands Theatre. Now we’ve been busy preparing. It’s a story about dreams. The story takes place in Macau. We’ve been talking with schools as well. I think it’s a show that’s very appropriate for students. The Macau Government subsidised part of my education. That’s why I have always felt like I need to give back to Macau society. After I became a full-time actor, despite some workshops and events, I haven’t been on a stage in Macau for almost two years. I told my company in Hong Kong that I needed to be back in Macau to meet Macau audiences. I’d like to bring what I’ve learned and show it to Macau audiences as well.
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