Lament of the Wandering Head

★★★★★ Nominated for the 24th Taishin Arts Award
★★★★★ Nominated for the 2nd Taipei Theatre Awards — Best Independent Spirit

Taiwan-based performing arts company Sun Son Theatre (身聲劇場) presents Lament of the Wandering Head, one of the most representative experimental works of the company's signature practice of integrating performance, music, and movement. The work draws its inspiration from a supernatural legend widespread across Southeast Asia—the flying human head, found in the folklore of China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, and Malaysia, said to detach at night in search of human excrement and women's menstrual blood. Sun Son Theatre takes this image of bodily rupture and transforms it into a metaphor for the collective trauma and individual dislocation experienced by Chinese diaspora communities across the twentieth century and beyond, caught between nation, bloodline, and land.

The work imagines a condition of "flying heads" that occurs only among women—a mythic inheritance whose descendants have scattered across countries and cities. At its centre is the story of a Malaysian Chinese woman studying and living in Taiwan, tracing the currents of this restless, displaced history. Like many marginalised and little-known communities, the Flying Head clan exists between myth and memory, ghost story and lived history, suspended between imagination and reality.

"My body is a headless train. My body is a legless boat. How do I find my way East or West?"

Performed by Taiwanese artists alongside Penang-born performers long based in Taiwan, the work weaves together storytelling, live music, physical movement, and chants to trace the ghostly, wandering fate of women in migration and displacement. With a spare stage, the full physical presence of its performers, non-linear poetic language, and a sound world carried by live music, the work is at once a ritual of summoning—invoking the lingering ghosts of colonial history—and a moving inquiry into the politics of identity today.

Now in its 27th year, Sun Son Theatre is a distinctive voice in Taiwan's music and physical theatre scene, known for the seamless integration of performance, musicianship, and movement within a single performer. In this production, the performers play live music featuring Taiwanese gongs, cymbals, and drums alongside Southeast Asian gong ensembles and flutes, while the text weaves between Penang Hokkien and Mandarin. Through these elements, audiences are invited to connect with experiences that resonate far beyond any single community—migration, colonialism, and the ongoing search for identity and belonging.

Lament of the Wandering Head has been nominated for Taiwan's prestigious Taishin Arts Award and shortlisted for Best Independent Spirit at the 2nd Taipei Theatre Awards. The work comes to George Town Festival for two performances—a deeply meaningful homecoming, as the performers bring the work back to the city from which one of them came.

About Sun Son Theatre
Founded in 1998, Sun Son Theatre is a distinctive contemporary theatre company renowned for integrating live music, physical movement, and drama. The company's name reflects its core artistic philosophy: the dual focus on "Body" (Shen1) and "Sound" (Sheng1). Emphasising collective creation, Sun Son Theatre draws inspiration from diverse traditional arts, reimagining them for the modern stage. Their productions are a unique blend of world musical instruments, chanting, puppetry, and multimedia animation, characterized by performers who seamlessly transition between the roles of actor, dancer, and musician. 

Central to the company's identity is its cross-cultural foundation. Founder Leonson Ng Chong Leong, originally from Sabah, Malaysia, shaped the company's spirit from its earliest days, and the core ensemble has long included both Taiwanese artists and Malaysian performers based in Taiwan. Leonson Ng passed away in 2021 following a traffic accident, but his vision and presence remain woven into the fabric of the company's work.

Over the years, Sun Son Theatre has continually expanded its artistic and stylistic range, pushing the boundaries of interdisciplinary performance. Its innovative approach has earned the company recognition as a “Taiwan Top” Performing Arts Group, alongside the distinction of “Best Performing Arts Group” in 2025.

Dramaturgy: Koh Choon Eiow
Concept: Chuang Hui Yun
Co-Director: Chang Wei Loy, Chuang Hui Yun
Playwright: Chuang Hui Yun
Music Compose and Live Performance: Chen Zi Yin
Vocal: Low Pei Fen, Chen Zi Yin
Actor: Chuang Hui Yun, Low Pei Fen, Chen Zi Yin
Penang Hokkien Dialect Instructor ,Voice Over: Wong Kief
Taiwanese Lyric Writer: Liu Hsiu Ting
Costume Designer: Tan Meng Chit
Props: Chang Wei Loy
Administrator and Surtitle Operator: Hung Hsuan
Title Calligraphy: Tan Meng Chit
Company Logo Calligraphy: Chang Wang