This piece was written for Unheard-Of Ensemble.

"Why Woman?" was inspired by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's book, "We should all be feminists". Below is a quotation from her book. 

“I was once talking about gender and a man said to me, ‘Why does it have to be you as a woman? Why not you as a human being?’ This type of question is a way of silencing a person’s specific experiences. Of course I am a human being, but there are particular things that happen to me in the world because I am a woman. This same man, by the way, would often talk about his experience as a black man. (To which I should probably have responded, ‘Why not your experiences as a man or as a human being? Why a black man?’)”

Why Woman?

Performed and Recorded by Hub New Music at the 2023 Del Mar International Composers Symposium

The title of the piece comes from a modern poem written in 2022 by Yuanxiang Huang. The poem was a response to the ‘Chained Woman Incident’ that was reported in Xuzhou, China. The victim of the incident, Yang, who gave birth to eight children, was found chained up by her husband in the basement. As investigations went on, it was unfolded that Yang was also a victim of human trafficking, who at the time of the investigation, suffer from severe mental health issues.

The Poem The Funerary (陪葬), was written to address the social issues reflected by the
‘Chained Woman Incident’ in a dark and sarcastic manner. The poem was banned and censored in China very shortly after it was published, along with the silencing of any criticism or anger towards the incident or its corresponding social issues. This piece which uses the same name as the poem is not meant to be a direct musical translation of the poem, but rather a personal interpretation of it, along with my frustrations towards the current social issues and censorship of my home country China.

The poem that inspired this piece:

The Funerary
Someone kept the posture of dancing in their graves
Someone's grave, a guitar, with songs loud and rave
Someone's bones lie sloppily, like matchstick figures in children's picture books
in life with pains unspecific, in death with abstract forms paved
Someone's burial articles, are unconsumed expensive imported medicine
papers rotten, handwriting in ophryon engraved
till I saw, a daughter,
with an iron chain buried with her in graves, died of natural causes,
twenty years, the chain has been nourished by the body, fine and smooth
only to find, the chain has long been tied to my neck and throat
like a pube from a large family, venereal diseases passed down from generations buried deep, effective prevention of hanging yourself, no hindrance of spreading your legs The other end ties to this yellow earth, simple and honest, thriving population

- Original poem by Yuanxiang Huang (黄远翔), English translation by Zhiyi Wang

陪葬(The Funerary) - for flute, clarinet, violin and cello (2023)

Daniel Cui

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