A theatrical adaptation of Cheong-Sam – A Cabaia by Deolinda da Conceição, Macau’s first female writer and journalist, will be presented at The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival to shine a light on challenges faced by women in society
Deolinda da Conceição and the Underprivileged Women is a three-part play written by Luciano Ho, adapted from Cheong-Sam – A Cabaia by one of Macau’s earliest female writers, Deolinda da Conceição. The performance will be presented at the Portuguese Bookshop as part of this year’s The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival.
“This is the fourth time I am working on the literary work of Deolinda da Conceição and it is a great pleasure. I love the way she writes each tale. I hope that with this adaptation, through the recreation of this work, dialogues can be established between different communities and different cultures,” Luciano says.
Cheong-Sam – A Cabaia is the only book by Deolinda da Conceição, first published in Lisbon in 1956 by Livraria Francisco Franco. Originally written in Portuguese, it is comprised of 27 short stories that describe the condition of women in Macau and China in the 1950’s.
Luciano has been working with the content of the book since 2013, when he performed the first adaptation in a presentation in Taipei. In 2017, he held two presentations on the short story Cheong-sam in Macau. And in 2019, the work was adapted again at a bookstore, this time in a production by Mandy Ip, of Artistry of Wind Box Community Development Association.
The current show travels back in time to illustrate cases of domestic violence that happened in real life in Macau with three adapted stories from Cheong-Sam – A Cabaia: The Calvary of Lin Fong, Cheong-sam and Sai Long Cuai.
The play, which will last about an hour, will be performed by two actresses: Kate Leong, performing in Cantonese, and Nada Chan, in a Fujianese dialect, both embodying the titular “underprivileged women”.
According to Luciano and the two actresses, some of the situations faced by women as described by Deolinda da Conceição more than 50 years ago still remain in certain aspects of today’s society.
“Although the book was written in the 1950s, it is still very current. Even today, unfortunately, women can be in vulnerable positions in the family, and have marriage and gender role conflicts. I am wholeheartedly in this project,” comments Nada, who will perform in Southern Min, a dialect originating from the Chinese province of Fujian and spoken by 49 million people worldwide.
“It is an honour for me to be able to take part in this project,” adds Kate Leong. “Although I don't speak Portuguese and have a lot of difficulty with English, I can already understand some of what Deolinda da Conceição wrote.”
With production by Mandy Ip of Artistry of Wind Box Community Development Association, the show will seek to help spread interest in local literature and authors, while at the same time showing very strong concerns about the conditions of women in society today. Founded in 2013, Artistry of Wind Box Community Development Association is a non-profit arts group that seeks to promote local culture.
Cheong-Sam – A Cabaia was published in 1956 and consists of 27 short stories, most of which were originally published in Notícias de Macau, where Deolinda da Conceição worked as a journalist. The stories deal mainly with the position and condition of women in China and Macau, particularly portraying the struggle of westernized and educated Chinese women for emancipation in a deeply traditional and patriarchal society. They tell of the lives of Chinese women and men who succumbed to or struggled against oppression, discrimination, social injustice, extreme poverty and age-old superstitions. They also address issues of materialism, human solidarity and tragic interracial love stories. In 1979, at the insistence of Deolinda’s son António Conceição Júnior, the Government of Macau re-published Cheong-Sam – A Cabaia. In 1987, in a new edition, written by Yao Jing Ming, the book was translated into Chinese for the first time. In 2007, the International Institute of Macau (IIM) re-published the work in a commemorative edition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the death of Deolinda da Conceição, which was presented at the 3rd Meeting of the Macanese Communities.
Deolinda da Conceição and the Underprivileged Women
December 4 to 5 at The Portuguese Bookshop, 7pm
