Evans Yiu Shing Chan
Born in China and raised in Macao and Hong Kong, Evans Yiu Shing Chan is a New York-based cultural critic, playwright, and filmmaker, whose filmography includes four narrative features: To Liv(e) (1992), Crossings (1995), The Map of Sex and Love (2001, released on DVD in North America by Water Bearer Films), and Bauhinia (2002); as well as two documentaries about China’s decolonization: Journey to Beijing (1998) and Adeus Macau (2000). Chan has published five books-among them The Last of the Chinese, From the New Wave to the Postmodern and To Liv(e): Screenplay and Essays (1996, University of Hong Kong Press)-and has edited and translated two books by Susan Sontag in Chinese editions. His recent writings in English on film, media and society appear in the journals Film International, Postmodern Culture and Asian Cinema.
Chan has written two plays that were produced Off-Off Broadway in New York: The Naked Earth, based on an Eileen Chang novel, was presented at the Bank Street Theatre in 2000. Chan adapted, with Mok Chiu Yu, The Life and Times of Wu Zhong Xian into English for a staging at New York’s Theatre for the New City in 1998, and later turned it into a hybrid documentary film in 2003. In 1991, Chan founded his Riverdrive Productions Co, with the backing of Willy Tsao, artistic director of the Beijing Modern Dance Company. In addition to producing Chan’s own independent films, Riverdrive line-produced Peter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book in 1997.
Chan’s award-winning films have been invited to many international film festivals, including Berlin, London, Moscow, Rotterdam, Montreal, Vancouver, AFI-LA, Chicago, Hawaii, Seattle, Hong Kong, India, Singapore and the Taiwan Golden Horse.
Reviews:
George Crumb
Makrokosmos Books 1 and 2
Mode 142 (DVD)
I want to express my appreciation to Mr. Evans Chan for his marvelous DVD version of my Makrokosmos I & II which was recently released by Mode Records. Mr. Chan totally captured the intensity and drama of Margaret Leng Tan’s beautiful performance of my most challenging piano music. He employed unusual visual angles and imaginative special film effects to create an incredibly potent blending of the sonic and the visual. The record industry is poised at the very first beginning of a totally new concept for delivering new music to the public and I feel that Mr. Chan’s pioneering efforts in the field of DVD recordings will prove immensely influential in its further development. I want to also congratulate him on his film “Sorceress of the New Piano,” which is a thoughtful and sensitive documentation of the multifaceted career of pianist Leng Tan. Here again the visual elements support so eloquently the musical excerpts (including music by John Cage and other composers.) I extend my very best wishes for Mr. Chan’s further essays in this exciting arena and wish him continued success.
— George Crumb, June 2, 2005, Media, Pennsylvania