Red Room Four-Year Anniversary

Photos from the November 2013 Stage Time and Wine

“In order to listen, we have to be quiet inside first” –Ping Chu, co-founder of Red Room

“If thousands of us do small things with big heart, perhaps, just perhaps, then we [could] shift the pendulum back to the direction of kindness [and] love.” This is why the big pot of communal soup is always boiling in the Red Room. Ping Chu revealed in his speech that when he started Red Room four years ago with Ayesha Mehta, his goal was to enrich people’s experience with a community overflowing with love and compassion.

Ping Chu stands on stage four years later today and he is proud to say that he is witnessing his and Ayesha’s vision come true at Stage Time and Wine. Strangers come from all parts of the world to the Red Room and immediately become friends not because the venue is a tiny place, it is because they have contributed a part of themselves and others have received their warmth.

By all means, wine and soup are not the only things we share in the Red Room community; the most important reason why Red Roomers gather here is because we all share a strong passion for art—some want to simply listen and observe, and some want to have an outlet for their creativity. In the Red Room, there is no boundary between the performer and the audience; this is why there is no stage in the venue.

Everything has a meaning in the Red Room. “The meaning of life is to find your gift, and the purpose of life is to give away that gift.” At the forty-third event of Stage Time and Wine, it is as if Ping Chu had set an example of finding that gift and passing it on, because the speeches and performances that followed are almost as inspirational and powerful as his own.

Jean-Loup Fayolle, a personal communication coach for women in leadership position, begins his speech with an amusing account of how he and his friends would display a lot of greed when they used to play Monopoly. But then Jean-Loup continues on to say that when he grew up, he was playing Monopoly in real life. “And it is not fun,” Jean-Loup says of capitalism after he has seen enough of it. Even though he is making money and becoming successful, he is conscious of the other players being manipulated or left out in the capitalist system. There are thousands among thousands starving while the rich are becoming richer every day—a lot like the game “Monopoly.”

“So we have to stop playing ‘Monopoly’ [for real],” Jean-Loup addresses everyone looking up at him from the oriental rugs in the Red Room, “and that each of us has to play who we are equally and share what we have.”

Andrew Chau, mentor to our young Red Roomers at Drew’s Drama Session, also resonates Jean-Loup’s message. “Kids,” he says of the children at his workshop, “have this zeal for life; they want to be there—wherever it is they are!”

Andrew then turns around and shows us the three paintings in the background that are the background pieces for the night. They are done by his kids at Drew’s Drama Session and their titles are “Floating,” “Pressing, and “Gliding.” Two kids worked together on one painting—each pair was given one word and they were to portray that word to the best of their ability—and the finished products were fantastic.

The paintings have an abstract feel and an alluring appeal to them; and they become more attractive as Andrew reveals the background and the innocent thought process that went into each painting. “These kids are amazing,” Andrew speaks with enthusiasm and with love, “the first painting is called ‘Floating’…and the kids just started tracing and they just came up with this!”

As Andrew shares the innocent moments during the creation process of each painting, the audience is slowly reminded of who they once were as a child. “Kids are where come from, and we shouldn’t forget that energy, that purity.” And with the three paintings done by his kids to underscore his message, Andrew concludes his speech by encouraging the audience to remember our inner child and “cheer others up if we saw someone that was unhappy.”

After these inspirational speeches to start off the celebration of Red Room’s fourth year anniversary, the usual stage time performances finally begin.

“Childhood and innocence” seem to be the theme for the night because our first performance that followed immediately was a reading of a short story of a little girl who was pondering about the confusing wonders of braces. And then there is another short story about two young boys who made one of their schoolmates drink their pee.

“T-Ma” Tina—a bilingual who embraces her Chinese heritage very much—takes us her back into her childhood through the songs that her grandmother used to sing to her. The songs are in Chinese, and they are sung in a very Chinese theatrical form; but all of them are frivolous and their purpose is to make a child laugh. The laughter that resonates once in a while in the Red Room is certainly a sign that the Chinese Red Roomers have had their innocent spirit rekindled.

Chung Chong Cheng performed a spectacular verse poem about his name—it is a great shame that summarizing it would not be the same (hopefully this encourages readers to come to every ST&W). But basically it’s about his name sounding a lot like “Ching-Chung-Chong.”

The November Stage Time and Wine is a night of music, comedy, and poetry–a bit like any other Stage Time and Wine. But there is a special twist to it. First, there is Ping Chu’s godlike presence, welcoming us with open arms to share our creativity on stage; and then there is the butterfly effect of inspirational moments and speeches. There is no doubt that Stage Time and Wine is a powerful event–and it is not just because of the wine (well, maybe), it is also the passion and compassion inside all of us that has evolved into a community full of love and warmth.

There is a jingle from a commercial more than ten years ago that goes—“sharing is caring, it can be fun.” I did not know that “sharing” can actually be fun until I experienced my first Red Room event.

The next Stage Time and Wine is on December 21^st . Hope to see many new faces!

Wendy Wan Yi Chen
Class of 2014
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Taiwan University
wendocheno@gmail.com