OzAsia 2025: A Global Journey Through Art and Culture
Prepare to be amazed! OzAsia 2025 didn't just showcase art; it transported audiences across continents, offering a vibrant tapestry of Asian and Asian-Australian creativity. Despite being hosted in South Australia, a region with a relatively small Asian population, this festival has blossomed into a major platform for music, literature, dance, comedy, and visual arts.
With an expanded schedule this year, the organizers promised a program that was "bigger than ever," aiming to connect Asian and Asian-Australian artists with South Australia's art-loving public. But what exactly made this year's festival so special?
Hiromi's Electrifying Performance
One of the headline acts was the incredibly talented Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi (Hiromi Uehara in Japan), who performed The Piano Quintet with PUBLIQuartet at the Adelaide Town Hall. Her technical skills were so impressive, it felt like two pianists were playing simultaneously. Her right and left hands seemed to have minds of their own, each creating its own rhythm, melody, and sound. Her joyful expression perfectly captured the essence of music, which is reflected in the East Asian etymology of music: 音楽 in Japanese and 音樂 in traditional Chinese, where the first character means sound, and the second character means joy.
Along with two violinists, a violist, and a cellist, she presented Silver Lining Suite, a piece composed during the isolation of COVID-19, exploring feelings of uncertainty, solitude, and dignity. Hiromi herself described the work as now "completed" with the audience. But here's where it gets controversial: while her concert was undoubtedly captivating, it didn't necessarily feel unique to Adelaide or distinctly Asian. Does this raise questions about the true essence of cultural exchange?
Personal Stories Take Center Stage
Sydney-based Ryuichi Fujimura presented a moving autobiographical piece that explored the physical and emotional struggles of a dancer. Through the deeply personal trilogy, HERE NOW, he narrated his body: sliding, swinging, twisting, following, rolling, crawling, linking, curving, rotating, skipping, tossing and bouncing. The work demonstrated resilience against criticism and aging. His message was clear: we should persist, believe, and keep working – even as the body ages.
Autobiographical storytelling was also featured in Kultar Ahluwalia’s The Mixed-Race Tape. Drawing on his Punjabi and Irish Catholic heritage, Ahluwalia combined hip-hop and spoken word with visual projections, exploring identity, family, and belonging in suburban Adelaide. Recorded interviews with his mother resonated deeply, and his depiction of navigating Adelaide's postcodes and juggling multiple roles – artist, occupational therapist, and father – perfectly captured the complex experience of multicultural life.
In Omar Musa’s The Offering, poetry and music intertwined to reflect on ancestry and colonization. Collaborating with his wife, cellist Mariel Roberts Musa, Musa connected the experiences of his ancestors in colonial Borneo and Australia, which helped to shape the man he became. The result was a lyrical realization on history, identity, and survival.
The Art of Translation: A Crucial Element
LauZone, a multilingual musical project by Hong Kong–Australian musician Rich Lau and Hong Kong-based composer Anna Lo, reflected on Hong Kong’s migrant histories and linguistic diversity. Their songs, performed in four Chinese languages and English, explored the tension between heritage and modern identity. But this is where the conversation becomes critical: The artists admitted that their initial English translations, even after revisions, were often too explanatory. This reveals a bigger problem: despite its growing size, OzAsia continues to struggle with translation funding.
Finding the Right Audience
Opera for the Dead, created by Mindy Meng Wang and Monica Lim, was one of the festival’s most visually and sonically arresting works. Drawing from Chinese funeral traditions, the show merged live instrumentation, operatic singing, and ritual costuming, expressing how the end of a life can be celebrated with music and the arts. But this raises another question: Were the absence of subtitles a barrier for some? Or did it create a unique experience?
For sheer technical virtuosity, my personal accolade goes to Murthovic and Thiruda’s Elsewhere in India. Their seamless fusion of electronic music and visual projections created an exploration of India’s future. However, programming this work at The Lab at ILA misfired. The underground nightclub venue with no seating drew an audience largely of seniors unprepared for this environment. This highlights a critical point: effective programming depends on aligning the right work with the right audience and venue.
A Call for the Future
OzAsia serves two intertwined purposes: bringing leading Asian artists to Adelaide and supporting local creative talent. The curatorial challenge for next year lies in balancing the global and the local: selecting international guests who understand the festival’s ethos and ensuring that their participation resonates with Adelaide’s creative communities.
What are your thoughts on this year's OzAsia? Did the performances resonate with you? Share your opinions in the comments below!
