© Poster: Yi LI © Photo: YUN Tian

Revisiting “Half of the Sky, the Whole Sky” – How to dance Ding Ling 丁玲 (1904-1986) and why 

A lecture dance performance with artist Yinfu Gao 

Half of the Sky, the Whole Sky is a lecture dance performance . Through interviews, archival photographs, and dance, artist Yinfu Gao tells the story of her family and explores the question: Why should women never give up writing? 

At the centre of this narrative stands Ding Ling（丁玲 1904-1986). She is one of the most influential Chinese writers of the 20th century. Despite 22 years of political persecution, she returned to the stage of history through her literary works. Inspired by Ding Ling’s feminist legacy, Yinfu reflects on her own relationship to writing and uncovers the deep-rooted connection among the writing women in her family. 

The title Half of the Sky, the Whole Sky refers to the Maoist slogan “Women hold up half of the sky,” which encouraged women’s participation in public life in China – yet often under the condition of conforming to male ideals. The so-called “Half of the Sky Generation” includes women like Ding Ling, who have shaped and inspired us. Today, a new generation begins to question this influence: How can these stories be connected across generations and borders? And what impulses do they offer for the future?

About the Trilogy
This work is part of Yinfu Gao’s feminist theatre trilogy. The first part, Mulans, is inspired by the Chinese feminists of the May Fourth Movement over a hundred years ago and uses the story of Mulan to explore gender equality. The second part, Her Face, the Hands, Finally Her Hair, tells the story of Yinfu Gao’s grandmother during the Cultural Revolution. Starting from the image of the revolutionary woman in model play（样板戏）, the piece asks: “What does revolution mean?” The third part, Half of the Sky, the Whole Sky, draws on the life of the revolutionary writer Ding Ling, a relative of Yinfu Gao, to reflect on the relationship between women and writing. 

About the artist: 

© Foto: YUN Tian

Yinfu Gao, born in 1995, from China, currently live in Frankfurt am Main. She is a freelance performing artist, director, dramaturg, member of LaPROF, M. A Angewandte Theaterwissenschaft in Gießen. Her working method incorporates documentary theatre play and site-specific dance performance, which often addresses the social issues in contemporary China. She had movement training in Martial art, pop dance and contemporary dance. 

A cooperation between the research project “Peripheral Futures—Reading History from the Margins” of the Thematic Research Network “Denk(t)räume–(Re)thinking and Building Futures” and the Confucius Institute at Heidelberg University.