Introduction. Mapping the Terrain: Hong Kong, Singapore, and the City as Method

The introduction draws upon the notion of ‘Asia as method’ to propose a new framework for the analysis of collaborative performance: ‘City as method’. Noting how Hong Kong and Singapore have shared and yet divergent histories, perspectives derived from area studies, post-colonialism, postmodernism, and interculturalism are deployed to demonstrate how ‘city as method’ facilitates a comparative analytical space that does not automatically connect intercultural collaborative projects with questions of national identity. Rather, a more fluid space emerges that is fundamentally ‘in-between’. As a significant conduit for this ‘in-betweenness’, the globalised city is characterised as a nexus of transnationalism, mobility, and collaborative practice. In such a liminal space, national geopolitics can be dislocated or reinforced according to the collaborative relationships between artists and the projects they pursue. ‘In-betweenness’ also leads a critique of the conception of the intercultural ecology a within theatre studies as horizontal and egalitarian. Instead, it is proposed that interculturalism is reliant upon disjuncture to make cities meaningful as physical sites. Such an interpretation supports the significance of ‘in-betweenness’ for the mapping of different strategies for city-to-city collaboration, which includes the affective landscapes that lie within as well as between cities. The introduction proposes that ‘city as method’ facilitates a greater understanding of the multiplicity of collaborative strategies and experiences that create place.