ABOUT US
Home and Beyond is an integrated communication tool for the PETA members, staff and partners of the PETA Mekong Partnership Project. It consists of a weblog and occasional e-newsletter containing project news updates, reflections, journals, messages written for internal reading/sharing of members and alumni of PETA and its Project partners.
Members can share their thoughts and reflections on our practice of theater and cultural work within and beyond the boundaries of our “homes”.
Home and Beyond provides avenues for a more informal exchange and open dialogs among performing artists, theater/drama practitioners, and cultural workers from the Southeast Asia Region to encourage critical reflections and sharing of insights on theater and cultural work.
This also aims to maintain closer communication links and relationships between and among PETA members and Project partners through the sharing of personal experiences, opinions, feedbacks, and reflections on our respective roles as artists.
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Members, staff, and partners are encouraged to post short articles, their encounters or thoughts on theater praxis and cultural work, and share photos on the weblog.
We request that members, staff, and partners who own Gmail accounts to email us at
peta.sea.group@gmail.com, so that we may add you to the list of Contributors. If you are not familiar with posting on a blog, you may also send them via email to
peta.sea.group@gmail.com and we shall be the ones to post it for you.
Timely entries will be featured in the occasional Home and Beyond e-newsletter and sent to members and partners of PETA via email.
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Monday 12 November 2007
“A Journey Back Home”: A celebration of a life well lived
As the world spins and society slips into a fast-paced evolvement, life and death is sometimes inevitably trivialised. We tend to relapse into ignorance, believing there is always tomorrow, and we often do not realise that when it comes to living, we procrastinate. The irony emerges when we avoid the topic of death altogether. Instead of a period for mourning, death could be a celebration for a life well lived.
This story is about a young aspiring female artist from Vietnam whose 26 years was filled with love, affection and an incessant passion for theatre artistry. Her ideas and dreams touched the lives of many individuals and for a few others; her quirks and muses became an inspiration.
With an aunt involved in the arts, Hanh discovered and developed her love for stage performing since young. Her aunt, Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc, spent her days writing plays and being a teacher and mentor towards Hanh. While some people were skeptical about Hanh’s dreams of being a stage performer, Minh Ngoc stood by her side as Hanh explored various strange and unique performance styles.
In 2006, Hanh was one of the 27 artists from the Greater Mekong Sub-region to participate in the 2nd Mekong Performing Arts Laboratory held from August to September in Hanoi , Vietnam . Hanh was one of the representatives from Ho Chi Minh City , Vietnam , alongside her aunt and a few other artists. There, Hanh learnt new skills and built memories.
Many people were arrested in shock when they learnt about her sudden passing in Thailand , exactly a year ago. We grieved for her death and now, a year later, we shall rejoice for the life she had led.
Today, we shall commemorate the life Hanh had and the lives she had touched as she went about her journey of learning and expressing herself through the arts.
On the last day of the Laboratory, as everyone bids their farewell to one another, Nguyen Si Hong Hanh (June 23, 1980 – November 12, 2006) sang,
“I don’t want to say goodbye”.
Indeed, the memories of her live on.
Labels: Journey Back Home, Nguyen Si Hong Hanh
PETA SEA Group
