words rachel mok

Chiu Kin Long finds much more in the city’s rail system than just transport

Many of us get so used to being crammed like sardines in a can twice a day in the MTR or railway, we don’t notice what happens around us on the train. For Chiu Kin Long, though, the railway is a constant lesson in life and art.

Heavily influenced by the great Charlie Chaplin and Marcel Marceau, Chiu always wanted to create his own mime show and, after his first theatre solo, A Hong Kong Professional Actor’s Nightmare in 2005, the desire grew even stronger. In particular, he wanted to make the ancient theatrical art relevant in the context of metropolitan life in Hong Kong – and the commuter railway system showed him how.

“One day I was in the MTR and saw an old man risking his life trying to rush through the doors while they were about to close,” he remembers. Although the man was struck by the doors, he persisted and finally managed to get on. “This left a deep impression on me and I knew if I was to do a mime show, I must use the daily things that happen in our city that Hong Kong people relate to.”

That’s why in his new – and first – solo mime production Heiquan Railway, seven scenes will tell stories anyone could have been through on a train or the MTR but paid scant attention to. The opening act, Old Man X MTR, is inspired by the elderly man Chiu watched battling to board his train. Audiences will see Chiu’s trembling legs trying to get him on the train, but failing again and again as the door alarm shrills and his fear grows. And there are all sorts of passengers on the train – a pregnant woman trying to get a seat, a teenager digging into his NDS and a working class man snorting like a pig when sleeping – each is portrayed by Chiu himself.

He will also morph into a lion dancer – and a mosquito. “I was wearing shorts in a really crowded train and I got bitten by one,” he recalls. “It was so annoying because, however crammed in we are, there is still plenty of space for a mosquito to fly!” Chiu’s imagination creates from such small incidents – to him, mime is about depicting characters in simple stories, something he learnt while watching Marcel Marceau.

“I remember the scene in which he was walking up stairs and suddenly slipped. He looked like he was about to topple,” the actor/director still cannot hide his amazement at his fondest memory of the French mime legend. “I was so nervous, I was like ‘oh no, he is going to fall!’… but then I felt very stupid because, of course, his feet were actually on the ground!”

Funnily enough, although Chiu has travelled by rail as frequently as most of us do, his love for it actually comes from manga maestro Leiji Matsumoto’s The Galaxy Express 999. “The galaxy express can fly into the space… it is so cool,” he says. “I used to think that trains in Hong Kong should be able to do that too!”

And he and a group of friends losing themselves in the labyrinth that is the Paris metro also reminds him how the railway points to the beauties of life. “I panicked as we lost our way, but then I saw people playing violins in the metro,” he smiles. “That’s when I started to calm down and realised I should pay more attention and see what was happening on the train.” After all, isn’t that what the whole show is about? Whether you are enjoying the silence on the Heiquan Railway or cursing the noise from the baby next to you in the MTR, there is always time to stop, notice and smile at the absurdities playing out in the surroundings.

Catch Heiquan Railway on June 12-14 at the Fringe Club’s Fringe Theatre. Performances begin at 8pm and tickets are $120 from HK Ticketing, 31 288 288.