A Note from Director

Regarding crime and punishment, my 10-year-old self can shout out a statement without even thinking: “The murderer must pay with their life.” What about underage murderers? Per PRC’s Law of Minor Protection, they cannot be sentenced to death. “Hmm… In this case, they might be too young to understand all of this. So, the law excuses them. They’ll learn a lesson when they grow up.”

Well now, I’m no longer that little boy.

I’m not saying that I've already gone through enough of a journey to see through this mundane world, and I surely haven’t fully understood the nature of crime and punishment. But as a 21-year-old adult graduating from college, I now realize that almost nothing can be treated as a simple black-and-white issue. Last September, Andrew recommended Hollow Cross to me. He then asked me how I felt about it. I was on the N train to home, and I just sat there, speechless. I wanted to blame someone, but I don’t know whom. I wanted to say something about the death sentence, but I felt like I lost my stance. So I just sat there, helplessly, like a child. Then I replied, “I don’t know.”

I suddenly realized I might have just read this line in the novel. I went back to the book and found out it’s said by Michimasa Nakahara. After he goes through everything and needs an answer to a question similar to the one Andrew asked me, he goes silent for a very long and then says that. “I don’t know,” a vulnerable answer that might even be laughed at in an elementary school math class suddenly turns into the final statement of this novel. The difference, however, is that in that math class, I was challenged by equations with a fixed answer, while now it asks me to discuss if an unrelated human should live or die. Crime and punishment, life or death – I’m glad I didn’t blindly give out a simple answer. This is why I think Keigo Higashino’s writing is so valuable. It accepts the fact that the main character of this story is not an omniscient detective, but rather he is an “audience representative.” And he can have an “I don’t know” as his final statement to this story.

Our GALA (the art festival by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association of NYU) adopts the title “Alive,” and it reminds me of this book. All the characters, just like us, are making decisions for their lives. Some want to decide for others, and some base their lives completely on others. They take advantage of their vitality, reminiscing their past, hesitant about their future. So do we have the freedom to decide our lives – or at least, to decide if we want to live? Every character has a different answer, and such answers conflict with and fit into each other, making a unique message for Hollow Cross – and composing our lives.

Zihe, our dramaturg, says that Hollow Cross is a blessing. Working with this group of talented artists before I graduate is a blessing to me for sure. I always told my actors that we were doing some cool stuff. That is, our life paths cross and we go hand in hand for this specific duration of time. We put our focus in this synchronized space, with the same goal. Here, regardless of age, college major, or experiences, we’re all lifted upward by a mysterious kind of force. I would like to thank our two producers, Zihe, my fellow directors, the cast, designers, and all production staff for trusting me. Being able to meet all of you shall be the real blessing, probably entitled by Dionysus, after I went through all the journeys in college.

Then I figured. The force that lifted us is the force of being alive – the vitality. Life is a kind of buoyancy, floating everywhere but always under disguise. And death shows its weight, the weight of life.

Thank you for joining us, feeling this world composed of life and death.

Zijun (Neil) Wang
Director, Adaptor, Lighting Designer