The Min Languages form the basis of Taiwanese, Hokkien, Teochew, and Hainanese. For most of the 20th and 21st centuries, Min languages have been looked down upon as dialects: students received corporal punishment for speaking their home languages at school throughout the Chinese speaking world, from Singapore to California. In artistic and dance traditions, Min peoples are often depicted as insular, uneducated, and uncouth.

Min Bridges seeks to change that. We’ve developed a series of original choreographies and reworkings of Min songs and folk, classical, and contemporary dances from throughout the countries where Min peoples live, which show the diversity of Min-speaking cultures wherever they may be, but in an elevated and respectful fashion that shows Min people not as two-dimensional stereotypes, but complex and modern societies, with strong and deep traditions.

This show reminds us of our centuries long history of coexistence, and how Min peoples have acted as a bridge between cultures, enriching all of us whichever side of the sea or strait we may come from. By delving deeply and elevating Min stories and the internal diversity of Asian and Asian American communities, we break the homogenization and dehumanization which is the prerequisite of violence, and replace it with bridges of love.

Bay Area Independent Chinese Dancers (BAICD) is a collective of Chinese dancers, choreographers, and allied artists telling our own stories firmly rooted both in our experiences living in the Bay Area and our cultural traditions. We are a fiscally sponsored project of Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, and are proud to present our first show with artistic collaborators Ishami Dance Company, Jenni Hong and Elise Knudson, Tiffany Lin Art, Jimmy Wing, and Swathi Narayaran.