The goddess x Chun Yin Rainbow Chan

On 24 June 2018, the 1934 silent film The goddess, directed by Wu Yonggang, screens at the Art Gallery with a newly commissioned live score by acclaimed musician Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, accompanied by Elizabeth Cheung.

The most famous actress of her generation in the finest film of the Shanghai golden age. Ruan Lingyu stars in The goddess as a single mother desperate to provide a better life for her son. Startlingly progressive for its time in its depiction of sex work, this ‘fallen woman’ drama achieves pathos through the searing performance of its star. Pay attention to the astonishing expressive range of Ruan’s face in close-up. You’ll see the fierce desire and despair of a mother and actress buffeted by a society in flux. Glamorous movie queens rose to prominence in 1930s China and attracted both mass adoration and moral panic. Both on- and off-screen, Ruan was caught between the razzle dazzle of neon Shanghai and the persistence of traditional ideas about feminine virtue.  

Chun Yin Rainbow Chan works across music, performance and installation. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Sydney, She is interested in mistranslations, diaspora and the effects of globalisation on modern Chinese society.   She released her debut record Spacings (Silo Arts & Records) in 2016, which was feature album on FBi Radio, Radio Adelaide and RTRFM, and nominated for SMAC Awards 2016 (Best Live Act, Record of the Year). Under her techno project, Chunyin, she released the Code switch EP on UK label Off Out in 2016. Her most recent release, FABRICA (Healthy Tapes), further utilises pop hooks, fractured samples and incisive lyrics to interrogate love, power and gender relations. Its lead single, ‘Let me’, won Best Song of 2017 in FBi Radio's Sydney Music, Arts & Culture Awards.

張容 Elizabeth Cheung is currently a Bachelor of Music (Composition) student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and a member of the Conservatorium's Chinese Music Ensemble, studying erhu under Dr Nicholas Ng.