Hand Stories

It starts with hands: his father’s hands, his brothers’, his countrymen’s, and above all his own. Told through wordless, utterly playful scenes featuring hand puppets, poetic music, and striking visuals, Hand Stories is Chinese puppeteer Yeung Faï’s deeply personal family history during the vast changes that swept China during the 20th century.

Hand Stories is a magical hour-long show that brilliantly interweaves modern multimedia effects with the ancient Chinese puppetry tradition. Yeung Faï unravels his own autobiographical story, which takes him from China to the streets of Hong Kong, Brazil, and Europe, through traditional depictions of concubines, tigers, and warriors–plus a vision of a guardian angel in the form of a fan of the 1980s rock band Queen.

Yeung Faï is part of the fourth generation of his family to deal with the startlingly expressive form of traditional Chinese hand puppeteering. Hand Stories joins Faï with French puppeteer Yoann Pencolé and a creative team that includes the intense visual design of Taiwan’s Yilan Yeh and with the original music of Colin Offord of Australia.