When the Japanese mermaid meets the Hong Kong mermaid,
this residency invites the community to reimagine
Asia-Pacific sea myths.

Western lore often paints the mermaid as a seductive, tragic siren. In stark contrast, Japanese folklore presents the ningyo—a monstrous, liminal creature whose flesh grants agonising immortality. Drawing from the unsettling legend of Yao Bikuni, the 800-year-old nun, this project explores the mermaid as a figure of ultimate transgression: How do we re-imagine the more-than-human body in relation to the sea culture? 

Developed during an intensive fieldwork residency on the Sea of Japan coast in Tokeno, this performance is deeply rooted in local fishing traditions, coastal shrines, and the community’s living relationship with the ocean. Beyond the Shore layers these Japanese ningyo mythologies alongside the Hong Kong mermaid, Lo Ting.  

Through site-responsive movement research, sonic exploration, and experimental moving images, this work expands and redefines the choreographic vocabulary of the Asian mermaid. It challenges the boundaries between human and non-human, land and water, ancient myth and speculative future. Beyond the Shore invites audiences to dive deep beneath the surface of traditional storytelling to confront the authentic, monstrous realities of our ecological and spiritual connection to the sea.

Beyond the Shore is a research-based, multidisciplinary performance series that radically re-examines the myths, goddesses, and oceanic cultures of the Pacific. Moving away from Eurocentric, romanticized tropes, this project views marine folklore through a contemporary lens of feminist, posthuman, and sci-fi perspectives.