National Language Class is inspired by Chua Mia Tee’s iconic 1959 painting of a group of Chinese students learning Malay. Interactive and inventive, the performance begins by recreating the scene shown in the painting. Gradually, it turns its focus to the bigger political picture the painting was a part of, and to the gap between the future it envisaged, and the one that took its place. In Malay, Mandarin and English, the audience participates in an event that shifts from the humorous to the menacing, the tender to the explosive. Together, they join with the performers to ask: What is the relationship between who you are and the language you speak? And what does it mean to take a new language as your own - or to give yours away?
Since 2005, the performance has taken on various forms: as an installation, roving performance and stage and site specific performances. The evolution of the performance is documented on the National Language Class website, which includes videos of the 2016 and 2008 performances, interviews and essays.
