Gallery – Scent of Thunderbolts

Scent of Thunderbolts

Toronto Biennial of Art

Chapters

<span style="font-weight: 400;">View of </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Scent of Thunderbolts</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from directly in front of the stage. Wooden benches are arranged for the audience, fabric strips resembling bamboo hang on both sides, and a painted tiger cutout appears at stage right with chairs and drapes in the background.</span>

Scent of Thunderbolts by Karen Tam

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Close-up of a box filled with cassette tapes. Several tapes are stacked on top, revealing illustrated covers; the top cover shows two main characters smiling at a child, with smaller headshots of other performers arranged around them.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Two costumed members of the opera troupe are framed inside a heart-shaped border, photographed from above the stage.</span>

[Two costumed Cantonese opera performers]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Close-up of a blue dress with detailed embroidery of a colourful phoenix and floral motifs.</span>

Costumes props and stage

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Black-and-white close-up of two performers in very ornate costumes. </span>

[Chinese opera (Vancouver, 1944)]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Performers in embroidered robes and ornate headdresses pose on an elevated wooden stage, resembling a historical courtroom drama. Some depict figures with long white beards and formal court costumes, while colourful painted backdrops and hanging banners add to the scene. Audience members in Western suits closely observe from the foreground.</span>

[Montréal, Chinatown]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Audience view of musicians playing at the corner of the stage with two actresses mid-scene next to them.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Close-up of blue-and-white hand-drawn architectural plans, depicting a Chinese-style wrought iron lamp above a wooden door with iron grille and stone trim.</span>

[Detail Chinese United Dramatic Society Building Permit Application]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Black-and-white photograph of a stagehand backstage, pulling ropes and looking upward as painted backdrops rise. Each rope is labeled in Chinese.</span>

Stagehand at work with backdrops

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A black-and-white photograph of a full house at the Sing Kew Theatre. The audience is predominantly men dressed in western-style suits, looking engaged.</span>

Chinese opera at the Sing Kew Theatre

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A performer in an elaborate costume and headdress sits on a chair that resembles a prop throne, giving a regal appearance.</span>

[Performer seated on a throne]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">An orange sign with black text in both Chinese and English for the Jin Wah Sing Dramatic & Musical Association.</span>

[Sign for Jin Wah Sing Dramatic Society]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Black-and-white photograph of five female Chinese opera performers standing in a row on stage, facing the audience in richly embroidered traditional costumes.</span>

Chinese opera [8 of 8]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Portrait of Master Toa Wong in his later years, looking proud and holding an erhu.</span>

Master Toa Wong

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Standing centre stage is Tse Gar Yin on the left, along with her fellow Cantonese opera actor on the right.
</span>

[Chinese New Year, 1946]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Ho-Sing Wah and friends are dressed in suits and smiling for the camera as they hold their instruments.</span>

[Ho Sing-Wah and Friends]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Raymond Jai plays the violin while Beatrice Jai sits beside him, looking directly at the camera.</span>

Raymond and Beatrice Jai performing at an event in Toronto

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Alice Chan performs as a high-ranking warrior, wearing back-mounted flags with long feathers rising from her headdress, poised to strike with a spear.</span>

[Starlight Chinese Opera – 2006 performance of White Dragon Pass]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Workshop participants trot in a circle with decorated sticks that they wave in the air.</span>

Cantonese opera horse-riding workshop

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Two young students stand in front of a PowerPoint presentation, posing with their spears.</span>

Acrobatics demonstration

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The two female characters, standing on either side of another performer, are each raising an arm to display their long flowing water-sleeves.</span>

[Performers in a Yet Hoy stage production, Montréal]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A lower-ranking warrior in a simple blue-and-white battle costume holds a spear in a martial arts stance following a strike.</span>

[Starlight Chinese Opera – 2006 performance of White Dragon Pass – Warrior]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Close-up of two opera performers in elaborate costumes during a performance, with festive Lunar New Year symbols decorating the backdrop.</span>

[Starlight Chinese New Year Performance]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Princess Cheung Ping and Prince Consort Zhou in traditional Cantonese opera costumes sit closely together on a bench outdoors, holding each other with somber expressions.</span>

The Flower Princess

[Applying makeup]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A female Cantonese opera performer stands on stage, gazing toward the audience with a slight smile. She wears an ornate headdress with long tassels and pheasant plumes and a light-coloured costume decorated with a lion’s head on the torso.</span>

[Actress Portraying Daomadan Role]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Alice Chan dressing a workshop participant in a Chinese Opera costume.</span>

Costume Demonstration

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Three performers are on stage: one in a male role with a simple hat and costume, another in a female role with an ornate costume and a woman, also in a plain costume.</span>

[Yet Hoy Cantonese Music Club Performers]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A parade float featuring performers from </span><i>Mulan Joins the Army</i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Six costumed warrior women stand holding weapons, while a male warrior sits atop a prop horse.</span>

[Mulan Joins the Army 《木蘭從軍》]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Six female performers stand in a row in front of a backdrop of a landscape. They wear matching headdresses and aprons, and are each holding a basket. Their costumes are colourful and have long water-sleeves.</span>

[Starlight Performing Qingyi]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A performer portraying an elderly man gazes upward, wearing pointed eyebrows and extremely long white hair that reaches the ground. His white robe is decorated with purple and dark blue dragon motifs.</span>

[Yet Hoy Cantonese Music Club: Laosheng Role]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A performer in a pale-yellow costume with understated detailing stands in a calm and thoughtful pose.</span>

[Starlight Chinese Opera: Scholar role]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A performer wears an elaborate pink-and-blue costume adorned with dragon motifs and mounted back flags. The ornate headdress features red pom-poms and two long pheasant feathers extending upward.</span>

[Alice Chan Performing Wusheng role]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Karen Tam and Mr. Yu stand side by side, smiling at the camera at the Yuet Sing Cantonese Music Club.</span>

Interview with Kin Tsang Yu

Interview with Julie Jai

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Karen Tam and Rosa Cheng stand outdoors with their arms around each other. Karen is grinning with her eyes closed.</span>

Interview with Rosa Cheng

Interview with Alice Chan

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Group photograph of the Ching Won Music Society seated with their instruments in front of a banner.</span>

Ching Won Music Society – 1939

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A candid rehearsal scene shows three musicians and two singers gathered closely, mid-practice with their instruments in their laps and hands.</span>

[Ching Won Music Association, Cantonese opera rehearsal]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Black-and-white photograph taken from side stage of the Jan Wah Sing Cantonese opera troupe in performance. Musicians stand behind music stands to the left, while four performers occupy centre stage.</span>

A performance by the Jan Wah Sing troupe

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Detailed pencil drawings of instruments: a hammered zither, a round-bodied lute, a two-stringed bowed fiddle, a pear-shaped plucked lute, a violin, a saxophone, flutes and a double reed wind instrument, gong, cymbals, drums and wood blocks.</span>

Instruments of a Cantonese Opera Orchestra

<span style="font-weight: 400;">An illustration of a yangqin, a trapezoidal hammered dulcimer played with thin bamboo mallets.</span>

[Excerpt of Beatrice Jai playing the yangquin]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">An illustration of a pipa, a pear-shaped, four-stringed lute.</span>

[Excerpt of Jai’s duet on violin and peipa]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">An illustration of a traditional erhu, a two-stringed bowed instrument with a small, hexagonal sound box.</span>

[Raymond Jai instrumental]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Black-and-white photograph of Beatrice Jai seated in front of a mural, playing the yangqin with bamboo mallets.</span>

Beatrice Jai performing on the yangqin

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A musician with a bow tie plays drums; Chinese instruments hang on the wall behind him.</span>

[Drummer in bow tie]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Black-and-white portrait of Master Toa Wong dressed in a suit and tie, with instruments hanging behind him. He is seated and playing an erhu.</span>

Portrait of Master Toa Wong

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Sepia-toned photograph of musicians arranged in a semicircle around two female singers and Raymond Jai playing violin next to them.</span>

[Ching Won Music Society performance]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A young man in a suit sings beside a violinist and small orchestra.</span>

[Yet Hoy Cantonese Music Club in Toronto at their clubhouse in Chinatown]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Portrait of Raymond and Beatrice Jai: Raymond stands on the left in a red suit jacket and black-rimmed glasses, while Beatrice stands on the right wearing stage makeup, a decorative headdress, earrings, and an ornate top.</span>

[Excerpt of Jai’s singing the Cantonese opera, Luk Yee Shut 《六月雪》]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Three youth in ornate costumes perform energetic movements on stage before a painted mountain backdrop.</span>

Starlight Students

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Black-and-white photograph of several men seated in a circle in a rehearsal space, playing instruments while a central figure stands singing with his hands casually clasped behind his back.</span>

[Raymond Jai at Ching Won Musical Society rehearsal]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Black vinyl record with a plain red label and black Chinese characters.</span>

Excerpt from ‘Filial Piety That Moved the Heaven’《孝感動天》

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Three members are playing musical instruments including the guzheng and the yueqin.</span>

Members of Yuet Sing Performing at PHI

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Group portrait with Alice Chan standing at the centre alongside members and parents posed in front of Karen Tam’s installation </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Scent of Thunderbolts</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span>

Family Portrait Sessions

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Two Cantonese opera performers, one portraying a male role and the other a female role, appear in ornate, regal costumes with elaborate headdresses while performing on the stage of </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Scent of Thunderbolts</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span>

Starlight Chinese Opera mini-performance

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Cover of a yellow postbill. Decorative drawings and borders surround the Chinese text.</span>

[Postbill of Cantonese opera]

Excerpt from a recording of Golden Leaf Chrysanthemum《金葉菊》

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Mudan Su, dressed as a scholar, wears a tall, elaborate headdress while standing before a backdrop depicting a traditional town with historic Chinese buildings.</span>

Excerpt from a recording of 《名士風流》, sung by Mudan Su

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Sheet music written in numbered musical notation (jianpu), printed in clean, evenly spaced columns of characters and numbers indicating musical phrasing.</span>

《禪院鐘聲》(Monkery Bell Rings) [Music notation and English title]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A sheet of handwritten Chinese lyrics with phonetic spellings added beside the characters to guide pronunciation.</span>

《禪院鐘聲》 [Handwritten lyrics, with phonetics added]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Score for </span><i>Monkery Bell Rings</i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in Western staff transcription.</span>

Karen’s recording of 《禪院鐘聲》(Monkery Bell Rings)

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A hand-drawn map of North America in white pen on a cobalt blue background, featuring small windows highlighting Honolulu, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong.</span>

Mapping Cantonese Opera

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Soft-focus black-and-white image of a woman in a 1930s Western-style dress with permed hair, standing at a music stand while musicians play around her.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Blue-and-white hand-drawn architectural drawing showing front and side elevation and basement plan.</span>

[Chinese United Dramatic Society Building Permit Application]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A full stage with singers standing in the centre and musicians positioned on either side. A red horizontal banner with Chinese text hangs above the ensemble.</span>

[An Afternoon with Yuet Sing]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Newspaper clipping featuring five performers standing in a row, reading from a book.</span>

Une répétition avant la cérémonie officielle

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Front page of a handwritten performance contract, written in Chinese with brush and ink. The paper shows creases, discolouration, and water damage.</span>

[Performance contract (1914)]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A full house of men, women, and children watches a Cantonese orchestra on a simply adorned stage with floral arrangements and small banners.</span>

[Yeit Hoy – performance and audience]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Sepia-toned portrait of a woman holding star- and vase-shaped banners made from folded paper money, with handwritten Chinese text along both sides of the image.</span>

[Ching Won member holding ‘money flowers’]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Architectural blueprint for the Hong Duck Tong Co. theatre, showing a floor plan of seating and the stage. White handwritten notes and measurements appear on blue paper, with a City of Vancouver stamp labeled B-117 in the lower right corner.</span>

[Sing Kew Theatre]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Two performers in coordinated pink and blue costumes pose with fans and flowing water sleeves. Behind them, the stage features large illustrated cutouts of anime-style figures, fireworks, and Chinese characters.</span>

Starlight: Mon Sheong Foundation Performance

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Two costumed performers rehearse with a music stand and microphone while several people watch.</span>

Chinese Vietnamese Association Cantonese Opera music group

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A black-and-white clipping of an advertisement featuring text that reads: “Chinese Theatre, Cormorant Street, Dan San Fung—Proprietor—Immense Entertainment. The FULL Strength of the Company—Many Novelties—Wonderful Developments From Scenes Made By Paper. The Curtain Rings up at half-past 8 o’clock, Punctuality. Admission ------- 25cts.”</span>

[Ad for Chinese Theatre, Victoria]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Yellowed newspaper clipping with the headline “A Chinese Opera,” announcing a Chinese opera performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre and noting that it “is altogether one of the novelties of the season.”</span>

A Chinese Opera

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Black-and-white pencil drawing of Chinese storefronts with boarded-up and broken windows. The street scene is empty of people.</span>

After the 1907 Chinatown Riots in Vancouver

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Nineteen costumed performers stand lined up on stage for a group photograph. Two long horizontal banners with Chinese text hang above them, praising the beauty and elegance of their performance.</span>

Cantonese opera, Vancouver, B.C.

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A newspaper clipping laid out as a collage, featuring photographs of a Chinese opera company, leading actresses, an orchestra, and an illustration of martial movement. The article is arranged with many images and six columns of text across the page.</span>

[Take your imagination with you to see Chinese opera]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A large crowd gathers around an outdoor stage in Chinatown. Two performers on stage face each other, engaged in a spear-fighting scene.</span>

[Chinatown celebrates VJ day]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Audience view of a live opera performance featuring two female performers in makeup and costumes on stage, with Tse Gar Yin on the right.</span>

[Tse Gar Yin, Vancouver c. 1939]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A full house of men, women and children sitting on metal folding chairs. It is so full that 2-3 rows of men are standing in the back.</span>

[Audience in Detroit]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A framed, hand-painted sign with vibrant Chinese characters is mounted outdoors on a red brick wall, with visible ink drips along the lower portion</span>

[Film Screening Sign]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A group of 10 musicians wearing 1970s-style suits perform in a Montréal restaurant with a variety of traditional and contemporary instruments. Behind them is a landscape painting and a red banner with Chinese characters.</span>

Han Yuen Music Association

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A graphic book cover with bold diagonal bands of colour alternating with beige. Illustrated portraits of four main characters appear on the right, alongside Chinese text.</span>

Yuet Sing Anniversary Book 1988 Cover

<span style="font-weight: 400;">In the left foreground, musicians rehearse while two singers practice with them farther back in the room. There is an ornate phoenix mural. The photograph is timestamped May 26, 1996.</span>

Chinese Vietnamese Association Cantonese Opera Music Group

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A performer in an elaborate white-and-gold costume stands centre stage against a vivid red backdrop, with two large Chinese characters projected behind them.</span>

[Yuet Sing, Salle Gésu, Montréal]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The full cast of “Little Starlets Shine with Starlight,” featuring youth and adult members in costume on an ornately decorated stage.</span>

Little Starlets Shine with Starlight

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Two performers fight with red-and-white spears. Projected behind them is an indoor setting with tables and props.</span>

[Prop Master’s Dream Act 3]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Karen sits on stage, looking at the camera while dressed in a colourful short-sleeved dress and glasses. Behind her is a large hand-painted cutout of a tiger, adding a vibrant backdrop to the scene.</span>

Portrait of Karen Tam

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Two smiling students pose with long staves crossed above their heads, standing in front of Karen Tam’s </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Scent of Thunderbolts</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> installation.</span>

[Students of Starlight Chinese Opera]

<span style="font-weight: 400;">View of </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Scent of Thunderbolts</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from directly in front of the stage. Wooden benches are arranged for the audience, fabric strips resembling bamboo hang on both sides, and a painted tiger cutout appears at stage right with chairs and drapes in the background.</span>

Scent of Thunderbolts by Karen Tam