Bound/Unbound

Xiaolu Guo is a featured writer in Bound/Unbound, a multidisciplinary performance that took place on August 9 and 10, 2024. The event brought together a diverse team of artists accompanied by musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra.

The script, based on an original work by Xiaolu Guo, was co-written by Guo, Alex Ho, and Sun Keting.

“Growing up with bound feet in the feudal Qing Dynasty, Afong Moy in 1834 became the first Chinese woman to be brought to America, where she was displayed before the public as a ‘Chinese Curiosity’. Half a century later, Qiu Jin, a young revolutionary, challenged the stifling Manchu culture and changed the fate of women by unbinding her feet and taking up the art of sword fighting. Poet, author of manifestos, and leader of a revolutionary community, Qiu Jin was determined to save her country from the corrupt Qing government. These two women, bound and unbound, together compose a symphonic dance, a protest against the world of patriarchy into which they were born.”

Learn more here.