Hong Kong theater company Metro-HoliK is not so queer after all

We are in the rehearsal studio of Hong Kong theater company Metro-HoliK and we're discussing gay stereotypes with a couple of gay guys and their straight friend.

“Very often, gay guys are stereotyped as the sissy ones," says playwright Pak Li.

"The most upsetting thing is when people think of gay guys as girls. Or that the reasons they are not into women are: a, they have low self-esteem; b, they were dumped by women repeatedly.”

“That’s intolerable!” concurs actor Sam Choy Chak-man.

Li, Choy and director Octavian Chan Cheuk-wai -- the straight guy -- are the founding members of theater company Metro-HoliK Studio.

Their first production -- "Rope of Love", a play written by Li and starring Choy as the lost-in-love twenty-something homosexual lead -- was staged last August.

There are 100 types of transsexuals just as there are 100 types of straight guys. — Sam Choy, male lead in "Lady Samantha"

It was a self-consciously anti-stereotype production that sought to strike a chord with homo- and heterosexual audiences. The script focused on the sentiments shared universally by anyone struggling with their love life.

"The very first scene in 'Rope of Love' is a gay sex scene," says the 27-year-old Choy.

"We didn't explain to you why we are gay and how gay people are suffering in society, but rather: 'yeah, welcome to the gay world!' I’m showing you what I am like, not how I confront you. I personally think this is the only proper angle to take in queer theater.”

Metro-HoliK Studio are not a "queer theater company" by definition, but they just happen to have been producing two shows in a row on gender and sexuality.

Their upcoming play "Lady Samantha" is about Sam, a man in his twenties who is about to undergo sex-reassignment surgery.

Seriously gay

In local Hong Kong theater, original works about minorities like "Rope of Love" and "Lady Samantha" are rare.

Most shows about gender transgression involve cross-dressing slapstick and melodramatic confessionals. Taking gays seriously is just not popular.

Chan thinks it's OK to make harmless fun of gay people on stage, if that is an easier way for heterosexual audiences to encounter homosexuality.

But he is concerned that narrow-minded critics have a preconceived notion that queer theater is always about advocacy. “This perspective is already a kind of discrimination,” says the director.

Beyond the theater, the trio thinks the public is more forward-thinking than we realize.

Apart from being an actor, Choy is also a co-host on RTHK’s LGBT-friendly program “We are Family” where he converses with people about gender questions. He has many triumphant stories to share, such as a secondary school boy standing up in class to admit that he is gay. His schoolmates and teachers applauded him.

He also recalls middle-aged men in a chaa chan teng condemning the government’s response on the transgender person Miss W’s fight for the right to marriage.

“They said 'It’s none of the government’s business. It’s not the government who gets married,'" recalls Choy. 

“What the government said, that the public is not ready for transgender marriage, is funny. What do you mean by ‘not ready’?  We are not ready for more railways and land reclamations either. Why wouldn’t you wait for us to be ready for that?”

Acting real

Sam Choy alias 'Lady Samantha'.

“The very lady type -- sorry, those are drag queens!" says Choy. "Usually, transsexuals are very low profile. They don’t really want to be recognised. There are 100 types of transsexuals just as there are 100 types of straight guys.”

To prepare for the transsexual role, Choy would wear a dress at home to get the feeling of how a woman stands, sits and walks.

“I realised I am more masculine than I thought after rehearsing for this play,” says Choy.

As a stage actor, he has always been cast in a straight male role “because the majority of plays are straight plays." It makes him question why it is considered such a breakthrough in society for a straight man to play a gay man.

“Isn’t the actor’s body merely a tool? Aren’t you supposed to keep facing challenges to your real identity?” the actor asks rhetorically.

He feels that non-heterosexuals have a self-awareness that possibly makes them better actors.

"As homosexuals or transsexuals, we have one more layer of life experience than straight people -- the struggle with our own sexuality."

It's this kind of cocky, borderline-obnoxious attitude that breaks those "gay sissy" stereotypes, and gives the guy the balls to play a transsexual on stage.

Lady Samantha, April 14-17, Black Box, Kwai Tsing Theatre. www.urbtix.hk. Metro-HoliK Studio's Facebook group.