This week in PostMag: behind-the-scenes at Cirque du Soleil and HK cinema

South China Morning Post

03-05-2025

Face paint and the stage were never my thing, so when I found myself with a face full of circus make-up (rosy red cheeks and all) on a brisk Seattle afternoon in early March, I was surprised how I felt. I was ready for my moment. I could feel myself morphing into someone different – less guarded, less self-conscious. More free. Maybe I should have been a theatre kid. That's the power of a mask for you.
Cat Nelson, editor of PostMag, with circus make-up at Cirque du Soleil Kooza in Seattle, US. Photo: Cat Nelson
In advance of its Hong Kong tour stop this month, Cirque du Soleil had invited PostMag photographer Jocelyn Tam and me behind the scenes of Kooza, the most classic 'circus' of their productions. I'd seen Cirque as a child in 1990s San Francisco, likely Alegria, and remembered it as an expressive, avant-garde performance – not so with Kooza, which is replete with clowning and high-energy antics.
Advertisement
We spent a few days in Seattle watching what goes into putting on the show. With 121 people on tour and 100 containers of equipment, it's no small feat. We tried our hand at make-up, failed horribly at the low-wire and ate in the kitchen that feeds everyone in the circus' 'village'. We also got to know the cast when the masks come off – or rather, the paint's wiped away – and have told a few of their stories here.
In our cover feature, Chris Dobson meets Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Yung Wai-chuen. Recently restored in 4K by M+, Yung's 1979 police drama The System shows a Hong Kong from a different era – drugs, triads and corrupt cops – and was made possible only because of trust he had forged with the mob. The film came about at the start of Hong Kong cinema's New Wave movement, which I know distressingly little about but now my interest is piqued (as I hope is yours).
When I hit 10 years in China, it was hard to believe that I'd stayed in one place for so long but I'd never considered the opposite and how exhausting that might be. I felt tired just reading about Thor Pedersen's near-decade-long, globe-trotting journey to visit all 203 countries without flying. As he tells Graeme Green, what the Danish native imagined would take a few years ultimately ended up taking more than double that, in part due to an extended stay in Hong Kong thanks to the pandemic.
I imagine Cameron Dueck would be in full agreement with the premise of Pedersen's quest – it's not just if you get there, it's how you get there. How we move through the world colours how we experience it. Dueck puts this to the test in Thailand, where he explores Phang Nga Bay by air, sea and land, finding secluded corners of the gorgeous limestone-punctuated landscape. I'd always found cycling to be my preferred mode of transport but boating's sounding like it might come in a close second.
Advertisement