Daniel Wang

Daniel is a 14-year-old Chinese boy who lives and studies in São Teotónio. He participated in BOWING over the course of two years and took part in both performances, during which he taught Mandarin to the audience, danced, and narrated the story of the Chinese goddess Nu Wa. He spent that time between his world and ours, and Matilde was his great companion in creation, teaching, and friendship. Daniel doesn't speak English and understands very little Portuguese. In classes and rehearsals, we communicated with the help of the Google translator. Until the age of 9, Daniel lived in China with his grandparents, when he came to Portugal he met his parents for the first time. In this conversation with him, we were assisted by Aolan, a woman from Mongolia living in Marmelete, who speaks Mandarin with Daniel, translating for us in English.

“I came to Portugal in March 2019, by now it’s almost 4 years. I spent most of my life with my grandparents so I have a lot of feelings for them. I speak to them often. At that time, they were living in an old house but now this house is being destroyed and they will move to a new one. I want to visit the house before they move out so I am going to China this Summer for the first time since I moved here. You asked me about my grandparents’ names… but in China it is not polite to ask for their names because they are older. We don’t ask that, it is not polite. My grandparents use to have a piece of land to grow vegetables and insects, I used to go with them into the fields and cultivate too. My grandfather had two fruit trees, a berry tree and an orange tree. I remember seeing the berry tree being green at first and then turning into red and then into dark red. I remember it very well.”

Daniel doesn't have siblings. He likes Peking Opera and traditional Chinese makeup. He tells us that he has developed an interest in the field of law, specifically in Women's Rights. In a session we asked Daniel about his fears:

“If you have a pair of shoes, not normal shoes, but the pointed Chinese beautiful shoes, if the head of those shoes is pointed towards your bed, you get back luck. I am scared of that.”

In rehearsals for the performances, Daniel used to stay away from the rest of the group, dancing alone and uttering soft murmurs. He liked to stay in his own world. He gained confidence and taught the audience a phrase in Mandarin for everyone to repeat: "China is a big secret.”

“The biggest difference I found when I started Bowing was that in China students are only interested in studying and learning the school subjects but here, I realized that teachers can also play and do different activities with the students. That was interesting for me. I never thought I would be involved in a project like this, it was a big surprise. Being in BOWING helped my life to be more colorful. Instead of walking around alone I could spend time with my friends and with people.”

In the BOWING BACK performance, Daniel had his own room within the SEF where, with his friend Arshpreet explaining what would happen, he danced with a red fan, making subtle and mysterious movements that told the story of the goddess Nu Wa, who was born from mud and created the Chinese nation.

“When I was performing I felt calm. However, the end of the shows were a bit frustrating as I wanted to communicate with people, with the public, but I couldn’t. Sometimes I really want to express myself and I can’t. BOWING helped me to do that in a different way.”