Sculpting China: Critical Puppetry and the Formation of Diasporic Identity in Chang and Eng and Me (and Me)

In my short, filmed puppetry performance Chang and Eng and Me (and Me) (2021), the audience witness the construction, manipulation and destruction of figures representing the Siamese-Chinese conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker. These processes mirror the formations and transformations of identities that Chang and Eng underwent as diasporic individuals in Siam, on tour in Europe and as naturalised U.S. citizens. In this essay, I analyse these examples from my own practice to propose a framework for critical puppetry and to assert its value as an embodied form of inquiry and resistance.