Based on the real-life experiences of the Toronto Chinese community, Spring Moon tells the story of a resilient immigrant peoples through the eyes of three Chinese grandmothers who survived hardships and crossed oceans to give their granddaughters a better life. They are brought together during Ching Ming “Brightness” festival when families gather at the cemetery to honour their ancestors. Although separated by differences of language, culture, and distance, the unconditional love that exists between grandmothers and their granddaughters is a connection that cannot be broken. Spring Moon reveals to us that to find out who we are, we will have to understand where we come from.
Spring Moon was created with the input of Chinese youth and seniors from Eastview Community Centre, Scadding Court Community Centre, Broadview Manor, The Phoenix Arts Academy, and Toronto Community Housing. Spring Moon is the second production produced under Mixed Company Theatre's The InterGEN Project, a three-year initiative generously funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation to connect seniors and youth in culturally diverse communities across Toronto. Community participants were invited to share their stories, family and cultural traditions in a series of workshops held throughout the last three years. These tales of family, migration, and cultural displacement were then collected and developed into two full-scale theatrical productions by renowned Toronto artists; one of which was Spring Moon.
The show is told in Chinese, English, and French with Chinese and English surtitles.
Keywords: women, grandmothers, granddaughters, intergenerational, generation gaps, family, cultural traditions, history, heritage, ritual, death, loss, hope, love