Department of Cultural Affairs

Photo from DOCA
Magician Zhou Ruixiang, right, uses his magic eye to burn a hole through paper.

Photo from DOCA
The hole burns bigger and bigger.

By Ariston Ramos

Last year’s Taipei Arts Festival featured the magic show “Transhumanism: A Preview” (新人類計劃：預告會). Magician Zhou Ruixiang (周瑞祥), show director Chen Yudian (陳煜典), and cross-category artist Wang Gang (王磑) impressed audiences with their performances.
This year, the Festival invited the trio to once again display their sleight-of-hand talents in “Transhumanism: A Fair” (新人類計劃：園遊會). This three-in-one performance will be playing from August 15 to 21 in the Guangfu Theater at Taipei’s Zhongshan Hall. Seventeen performances will combine magic, drama and video to show how our physical and psychological perceptions are the starting point of our relationship with the world around us.

Photo by LRM
Zhou bites off a piece of the glass he used to drink wine.

“Transhumanism” is a three-year project that seeks to express the untapped potential of the human body and thereby demonstrate that while all performance is in some sense a fiction, it also contains a good measure of truth.

In 2019, Zhou, Chen, and Wang portrayed the blueprint of this project in “Tranhumanism: A Trailer.” That year, they also performed what they called “Transhumanism: Case No. 1” during the Nuit Blanche Taipei Festival. In April this year, they performed “Transhumanism: Post-trailer” on video. The threesome sought to demonstrate how our physical powers could be brought to a higher level than we are used to.

Photo by LRM
As he speaks, Zhou keeps chewing the piece of glass.

This time, “Transhumanism: A Fair” will showcase eight powers that lie deep in our bodies: Materialistic Eye (唯物之眼), Spiritual Eye (唯心之眼), The Ascetic (苦行僧), Skills, Chakras, Physical Skills, Natural Powers, and Thunder Gate.

Zhou Ruixiang, 29, has more than 14 years’ experience in magic. He has performed live, on television and on video. In recent years, he has used magic as a tool to reach an understanding of the meaning of life. In 2016, he formed a cooperative with Chen Yudian and Wang Gang. Chen is a member of the production team for Kongkong Wave, a group of installation artists and has both created installation art and acted as creative director. Wang Gang’s cross-category creations include painting, sculpture, video art, photography, and graphic design.

Photo by LRM
Left to right: show director Chen Yudian, Magician Zhou Ruixiang,
and cross-category artist Wang Gang.

Their joint project, “Transhumanism,” is meant to give the audience a different kind of theatre experience. “We combine drama and magic performances to deconstruct the traditional image our audiences have of theater,” said Chen.

“Through magic, we also try to present the thin line that separates imagination and reality, human emotions and reason,” he said. “We hope to allow ourselves to know more, especially through discovery of the hidden powers of our bodies.”