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Dance Show: What Makes Us Great Again?
What Makes Us Great Again? The Hajj of Syed Muhammad Shamsuddin Al-Bukhari (Admiral Cheng Ho)
Have you ever been told, as an Asian-American, a good Muslim, or as an American visiting overseas that you have to behave a certain way? That only if you conform to the imperial culture, or you must cast yourself solely in the anticolonial resistance can you honor your histories?
In the US, China, and across the world, we are seeing movements that answer that question with a firm “Yes.” There are stories that the only way to make America great again, to achieve our national rejuvenation, is to look back to our past, and force everyone to conform to what that past looked like.
But what did it look like? In our story, we tell the story of the last great Han dynasty’s Treasure Fleets: 40,000 soldier expeditions, sent by the new Ming court to secure tribute in southeast from Vietnam to Tanzania. This fleet was led by Sayyid Muhammad Shamsuddin (Zheng He), a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, and spread Imperial power and Islamic evangelization hand in hand, in the Malay World, Sri Lanka, and beyond.
Here was a man, and a fleet, whose diversity advanced imperial greatness. People on all sides of this encounter, in the treasure fleets, in the nations it visited, and the people left at Home, they recognized the complexity of what they were doing, whether it's interfering in a Sri Lankan civil war, or following in his grandfather’s footsteps to Mecca and Medina.
About Bay Area Independent Chinese Dancers:
Bay Area Independent Chinese Dancers is a collective of Chinese dancers, choreographers and allies who use traditional arts to tell our original stories firmly rooted in our own experiences in the Bay Area and throughout the world. Our conservative art forms introduce traditional audiences to new ideas about belonging in the larger community, while our engagement with local history and current issues bring new audiences to Chinese dance. We are the Bay Area’s premier home for Chinese dancers to pursue independent, boundary pushing, solo and small group work that doesn't fit in conventional studio environments.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3523044-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3523044-2
