In honour of Asian Heritage Month, Hymn of the Weaverbirds is a bittersweet and audacious Taiwanese play created by Taiwanese and Taiwanese diasporic artists. Moving across languages and oceans, the work began with a question: how did Taiwan become the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage? What emerged is an exploration of yin-yang and effects of gender norms on the palpable unbelonging permeating in contemporary times.

Western social constructs often organize the world through a masculine–feminine binary. This binary pushes men to assert masculinity by rejecting femininity, discouraging boys from vulnerability, care, and gentleness despite how essential those qualities are for connection. In contrast, the Taiwanese worldview is informed by the concept of yin yang, in which duality coexists within all things, with a trace of white within black and vice versa. Within masculinity, there is femininity; within men, there is the capacity for tenderness.

Drawing from this concept, Hymn of the Weaverbirds explores the reclaiming of male tenderness. Through Chinese wordplay, physical theatre, and Taiwanese nostalgia, the play recast vulnerability not as weakness but as a path toward intimacy and belonging.Its title draws on both the communal weaverbird, whose intricate nests become offerings of love, and the Mandarin term for heart, 心窩 (heart nest). Together, they form a metaphor: love asks us to weave together our hearts fully, even at the risk of judgment.

6:30pm doors open
7:00pm show starts

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About the Artists

Johnny Wu is a bilingual Taiwanese-Canadian interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. A graduate of Simon Fraser University, where he completed a double major in Theatre Performance and Criminology, his work explores the complexities of humanity through storytelling informed by social consciousness.

Unvarnished, audacious, and tender, Johnny’s practice draws from East Asian–inspired aesthetics, Taiwanese nostalgia, and queer cultural references. As a theatre artist, Johnny has collaborated on projects presented at institutions including the Queer Arts Festival, Summer Works Performance Festival, TaiwanFest, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Brooklyn College Play Festival, fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre, Green Thumb Theatre, The Only Animal, rice&beans theatre and Gateway Theatre.

On screen, Johnny is best known for his breakout role as Xing Xing, also known as Jinderella88, in the American comedy film Joy Ride, directed by Adele Lim and written by Teresa Hsiao and Cherry Chevapravatdumrong. The film stars Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola, and Sabrina Wu.

Jocelyn Yuchia Chang is a Taiwanese theatre director, writer, and interdisciplinary performance maker. She is the Artistic Director of ESP-I Performing Arts Group and a co-founder of World Wide Lab. Her work integrates Eastern theatrical aesthetics with Western actor training, developing a hybrid language rooted in embodiment, minimal staging, and audience imagination. Working across theatre, music, and multimedia, her projects range from large-scale music theatre to participatory performance and interdisciplinary collaborations with sound and live image. She is also the host of the podcast Artist’s ESP.

Banner image: Johnny Wu