Michelle Wang

There is one road in Sydney where you can run all your errands in Shanghainese, the spoken dialect specific to the cosmopolitan seaside city of Shanghai. Need groceries? The doctor? A hairdresser? Ashfield's Liverpool Road has got you covered.  But what you’re really here for is the eateries. If you stand outside Ashfield Mall, you'll see a veritable smorgasboard: Shanghai Night, New Shanghai, Taste of Shanghai, New Shanghai Night, Taste of Shanghai. This is Little Shanghai.  Here, you'll find steamed soup dumplings, known in Mandarin as xiaolongbao or xio-long-bo in Shanghainese. These are a staple, as are shallot pancakes, pan-fried pork buns (also known as potstickers), fried dough sticks, Shanghai-style pulled noodles (la-mi) and spring rolls. If you recognise any of these plates, after a trip to Little Shanghai, you'll see that they're only a gateway drug to Shanghainese cuisine.  Recommended: The best new restaurants in Sydney.  Note: All pronunciations are the author's own transliteration of Shanghainese, which is a spoken dialect only.

Whisperings, heated opinions, controversy and some confusion: sounds like the Archibald is here. Have you been yet? What’s this bunch of pompous portraits? Who is Archibald anyway? Before you throw in your two cents on Australia’s most famous art prize, start with our comprehensive guide on how to Archie like a pro.

Theatre’s hottest duo is back at Belvoir. Written by Michelle Law and directed by Courtney Stewart – whose previous collaborations include Top Coat (STC) and Single Asian Female (Belvoir) – Miss Peony dives into the modern experience of Australia’s Chinese diaspora with tremendous and heartfelt passion. Miss Peony overflows with big personalities, laughter and a yearning for family and community.  Stephanie Jack plays Lily, granddaughter to Gabrielle Chan’s spirited Adeline (‘poh poh’ in their native Cantonese) a many-time beauty pageant queen. Poh poh’s dying wish (which she continues to advocate for as a tortured ghost for most of the play) is for Lily to carry on her legacy by entering and winning the prestigious Chinese community beauty pageant, Miss Peony. Miss Peony might be Law’s...most joyful portrait of why Asian representation matters. Lily initially rejects the pageant, which stands for everything Chinese that she spurns as an independent Australian Chinese woman: modesty, devotion to family and a husband, a traditional career, and being part of a supportive (yet often gossipy and boisterous) community. Lily expresses a relatable second and third generation immigrant experience of feeling displaced, and even ashamed of associating with the broader Chinese community, whose values and expectations feel unrealistic and irrelevant in a western context. However, at times Lily’s character feels overwrought – with numerous whiny outbursts about almost every single issue

When it comes down to it, fashion is totally about being seen. Combine this with the historical theatrics of queer performance and identity, and you have a spellbinding array of flamboyant, inventive and fabulous outfits made to be seen in. This is exactly what you can expect from the Powerhouse Ultimo’s Absolutely Queer exhibition, which features costumes, design, fashion and multimedia installations from Sydney’s queer creatives.  Highlights of this exhibition include its intimate focus on Sydney’s queer community, and its age-diverse cross-section of contributors. Costumes and footage from one of Sydney’s first and most prominent drag kings, the iconic Sexy Galexy, provide a glimpse into the evolution of the local queer community.  A generous platform for figures like Sexy Galexy promotes visibility for under-represented queer figures like drag kings, as opposed to drag queens, which are largely more accepted in the mainstream. There are also costumes from pioneers of the Sydney Mardi Gras such as Peter Tully, Brian Ross and Renè Rivas, and a spotlight on transgender activist and cartoonist Norrie May-Welby, who fought to be the first person in Australia to be legally recognised as neither a man or a woman.  Photograph: Powerhouse/Zan Wimberley | Sexy Galexy performance costumes in Absolutely Queer Each artist’s work is accompanied by an anecdotal personal statement, that both pays respect to the historical alienation they experienced as a queer person, and the beauty of f

If you missed the rave Sydney season of Choir Boy, here's your shot. Australia's own choir boys are hitting the road and taking the critically acclaimed production to Wollongong Town Hall (a two-hour train ride or 1.5-hour drive from Sydney) from March 22 to 25 for a strictly limited run. You can snap up tickets over here and read our five-star review below: It is no exaggeration to say that Choir Boy delivers in every single way. It comes with a Broadway pedigree and a visionary creative team including co-directors Dino Dimitriadis (Angels in America Parts I & II and Mary Zimmerman’s Metampohoses) and Zindzi Okenyo (Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner). Add to this a spellbinding score and script from the writer of the Oscar-winning film Moonlight, and a perfectly harmonised cast comprising professional debuts and seasoned thespians – the Australian premiere of Choir Boy at Riverside Theatres for Sydney WorldPride is an unmissable delight. Set at the fictional Charles R Drew Prep School for Boys in New Jersey, the show follows the trials and tribulations of the school choir, led in a spirited and effortlessly charming performance by Darron Hayes (an American performer fresh from a US run of Choir Boy) as Pharus. Individually and collectively, the choir shines – starting with the the thoughtful casting, which amplifies each performer’s radiant and distinctive talent while also being reflective of Choir Boy’s themes of queerness, self-identity and underrepresented voices. Ab

The latest from award-winning playwright Vanessa Bates (previously of Sydney Theatre Company’s Darling Oscar, and Barking Gecko Theatre’s A Ghost in My Suitcase) and directed by Darren Yap (Griffin Theatre’s Diving for Pearls) is the amusing, chaotic story of two Malaysian-Australian siblings, Mel and Eric, grappling with the impending visit of their dominating mother Helene (Gabrielle Chan), and what it means to be Eurasian. Billed as a new and eccentric family comedy, The One makes its world premiere at Ensemble Theatre.  The actors’ high-energy performances give this story much gusto, especially combined with the dynamic choreography of Angie Diaz, who also plays big sister Mel. The compelling and creative use of the theatre space and audience participation adds another dimension, almost like an extra character. From the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers inspired ballroom dancing sequences, to a thrilling surprise performance starring little brother Eric (Shan-Ree Tan) later on, it truly amplifies the joy and entertainment of watching The One. However, the elephant in the room is this play’s trite and harsh handling of identity politics and race relations. The overt nature of this is embodied by the stage setting, which as Eric describes is decked out “like a regional mid ’90s Chinese restaurant”. It looks like a predictable tale as old as the last fifty odd years of race relations and racism in Australia is about to be told. This includes a large sign in Chinese characters w

Warning: this review contains spoilers. Ever wondered what it would be like to live inside someone else’s body? See things differently? In Michelle Law’s latest play, Top Coat, directed by her long-time collaborator Courtney Stewart for Sydney Theatre Company, a young Chinese-Australian woman swaps bodies with a white Australian television executive, and the pair take a literal walk in each other’s shoes.  It’s a warm, vibrant tribute to the iconic body swap comedies of the ‘90s and early 2000s – think Freaky Friday or Suddenly 30 – and it also confronts the ugly face of everyday systemic racism and sexism. The swap takes place unexpectedly between Winnie (Kime Tsukakoshi), a nail technician who is saving up for her own salon and is increasingly frustrated by her mainly white, privileged clientele, and one such customer –  Kate (Amber McMahon), a tough, even brutish female TV executive at MBC with a dated sense of feminism (see: frequent references to her favourite suffragette Mary Maloney). The play is at its best in excavating the layers of inequality, symbolised by the experiences and particular traits of each character. Winnie and her co-worker Asami (Arisa Yura) must deal with subconscious and overt racism from customers, who barely expect them to be able to speak English, or expect inappropriate ‘extras’. In response to this stressful environment, Winnie has developed an overly aggressive temperament. In contrast, Kate speaks in a commanding and articulate manner, “univ

New Shanghai dishes up a crowd-pleasing menu of classics catering more comfortably to the Australian palette. Consider it the polished and slightly pricier version of its OG homie, Shanghai Night. Time to introduce a local breakfast and snack icon which you can find at New Shanghai: sung-ji-bo, or pan-fried pork bun. Visually, it’s the one that twists up in the middle, rather than in the dumpling shape. The secret to these bodacious buns lies in the special pan-frying technique that firms up the bottom and leaves the rest of the bun soft and springy. It’s hard to stop once you’ve bitten into the alternately crisp and doughy casing filled with famously savoury pork (famously savoury meaning the typical mouthwatering Shang marinade of ginger, light soy sauce, rice wine, spring onion, szechuan pepper.) When you're done, pop next door to the New Shanghai Workshop, the Chinese deli that is a unique feature of the Ashfield New Shanghai, to pick up some yu-bing, or Shanghainese-style mooncakes. Mooncakes are especially popular during the Mid-autumn Festival in October, and the Shanghai region is known for its pork paste version. At the Workshop, you'll find them wrapped in layers of flaky pastry, with a red seal on top. Why not try a sauerkraut mooncake for a bit of bite? Relish the equilibrium of soft, tangy fibrous cabbage enfolded by crumbly, greasy pastry.