In Jade Circle, Jasmine Chen explores themes of family and connection in both Mandarin and English
Performance weaves together dance and theatre as artist unveils the story of her late grandmother
Jasmine Chen’s Jade Circle. Photo by Pedro Augusto Meza
Gateway Theatre presents Jasmine Chen’s Jade Circle, produced by rice & beans in association with Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, from March 6 to 17, at 1, 4, and 7:30 pm
“A MEDITATIVE OFFERING” is how Jasmine Chen describes her multidisciplinary piece Jade Circle.
Labelling it as a “play” doesn’t quite capture the performance accurately, Chen tells Stir in the weeks leading up to Jade Circle’s premiere at the Gateway Theatre. This is because it’s derived entirely from her real-life experiences. Personal stories and dance movements are interwoven throughout to form an intimate portrait of family and identity.
Chen’s grandparents, originally from China, fled to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. They settled there for some time to raise Chen’s mother and aunt, before eventually immigrating to Toronto, where Chen was born. When her grandmother—who primarily spoke Mandarin—passed away in 2012, it prompted Chen to reflect on the importance of language and its ability to foster connection.
“In the days and weeks after her passing, I found myself recalling these short fragments of children’s songs that she had taught me when I was a kid,” Chen shares over a Zoom call with Stir. “These were songs that my mom and my auntie had grown up singing in Taiwan. My grandmother was an elementary-school teacher—she taught lots of little kids. So she had taught the songs to them, and then she had taught them to me. And I could only remember these little fragments, which brought up a lot of loss for me in terms of realizing that I never really got a chance to know her because of the language barrier.”
Produced by rice & beans theatre in association with Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, Jade Circle documents Chen’s transformative journey to reconnect with her late grandmother’s past through interviews with her mom. The work is performed in both Mandarin and English, with English surtitles projected above the stage for audiences.
Chen primarily speaks English, and has been relearning Mandarin over the past several years. Her first iteration of Jade Circle was written almost entirely in English. But with the help of her cultural consultant and language coach Johnny Wu, the performance has gradually become bilingual.
“My grandmother towards the end of her life had dementia,” Chen says. “And so many people have experienced what that’s like to care for someone with dementia or Alzheimer’s. Luckily, my mom and my grandmother spoke the same language; but my primary language is English, whereas my mom is bilingual. And they say that oftentimes with dementia and Alzheimer’s, additional languages are the ones to kind of fall away, and often the person will revert to their mother tongue.
“So I’ve seen this, and my friends have also told me this as well, that their parents will speak their first language or their mother tongue,” Chen continues. “And if their child is able to communicate with them in that language, that’s great, but sometimes they’re not. So through this process, I realized it’s not just, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could relearn my mother tongue?’ It’s ‘Oh, no, I have to,’ because I might be in that situation where that’s absolutely essential to being able to care for my mom and advocate for her.”
Though language is integral to Jade Circle, movement also plays a key role in the piece. Chen majored in dance at Toronto’s Claude Watson School for the Arts in her youth, before diving full-force into theatre, film, and voiceover work. Her background allows her to seamlessly meld dance and theatre.
“I found that, especially when exploring these themes of legacy and lineage—not only trauma, but also joy that is inherited intergenerationally, there are some things that just can’t be translated or expressed through words,” Chen says.
On the day Stir spoke with Chen, she was preparing to head to the studio to record original music for Jade Circle with Sapphire Haze (a Vancouver-based composer-performer duo featuring electronic musician Aysha Dulong and violinist Cindy Kao). Along with instrumentals, the soundtrack features re-learned children’s songs from Chen’s youth, plus new folk songs reminiscent of old tunes.
A community dinner takes place on March 10 after the matinee showing of Jade Circle, during which guests can come together for a family-style meal to share stories, memories, and delicious food. Anyone who purchases a ticket to the performance of Jade Circle earlier in the day will have the option to add on a pay-what-you-will pass to the dinner.
“We’re really hoping that people will bring their families and chosen families,” Chen says. “Family is not always biological. Yes, that’s what I’m talking about in my piece, but we know that families come in so many different configurations. So we just really hope that this piece will create a sense of community, and that people will be able to find the universality inside of it.” 
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