Dim Sum Warrior the Musical: Telling a comic-book story with Chinese snacks

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On Thursday, two creative minds were together, improvising for the upcoming Dim Sum Warriors the Musical, on the stage of the Theater Above. Playwright and theater director Lai Shengchuan, or Stan Li, known for "Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land", was improvising with Du Yun, recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Poster of Dim Sum Warriors the Musical. /Photo from dimsumwarriors.com/musical/

The musical originated from Dim Sum Warriors, a critically-acclaimed sci-fi graphic novel created by New York-based Singaporean married couple Colin Goh and Joyceln Woo Yen Yen. The novel was released alongside the birth of their daughter, representing the international with Chinese elements.

The characters were inspired by their favorite food, dim sum. "We love chatting with our family and friends while eating dim sum. If the dim sum could be turned into heroes, it would be very interesting," said the couple.

Colin was responsible for illustration and Joyceln for writing. They give dim sum food items personalities, to tell the story of a market dominated by instant noodles, where dim sum (specifically the type favored in Guangdong Province) started to fight back after being neglected. Some inspiration came from the stories of Marvel comic books.

Du Yun, a rising star after winning the Pulitzer for music, is the composer of Dim Sum Warriors the Musical. Lai, the presenter and producer of the musical, was impressed by the range of Du's music. Despite a 20-year age difference between the two, Du knows the music of the elder Lai.

"Chinese musicals sometime just copy the singing and acting of American musicals, but we wanted to do our own thing," Du said. She took each actor's characteristics into consideration when recruiting actors. "I know an actor who knows how to play kuaiban (a traditional musical instrument), so I composed music for him to sing at the beginning of the show," said Du.

Traditional Chinese dim sum: spring rolls, phoenix claws and shumai. /VCG Photo

Yellow custard buns, shrimp dumplings, phoenix claws, shumai and spring rolls – familiar Chinese snacks will be presented in the show. Director Zhang Gongyan said: "Dim sum is different because it's made through energy, time and heart, showing the cook's sincerity. This is something that instant noodles with their mass production and over-processing cannot replace."

"The battle between instant noodles and dim sum reflects the challenge to the traditional handmade spirit brought by mass production."

Dim Sum Warriors the Musical will debut in the Theater Above in Shanghai on August 11 and run till the 20th.

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