Milestone

Milestone is a hundred minute audience with William Yang, Chinese, but robbed of his heritage growing up in Australia in a period when expressing one’s ethnicity was suppressed.

Yang, a photographer, has documented his life from his humble beginnings in regional Queensland (Dimbulah) to living during the emerging queer scene in Sydney, to his family life and adjusting to a quieter life in his later years.

Milestone is set against a brilliantly conceived score composed and performed by Elena Kats-Chernin with Ensemble Lumen. The music is exquisite and perfectly reflects and compliments Yang’s narrative and slideshow. I was particularly impressed with her music accompanying Yang’s outback slides. With echoes of the work of the legendary Peter Sculthorpe, it is sparse, arid and totally atmospheric!

With Tessa Leong’s Co-Direction, Yang is perfectly at home on stage with his photography taking us through his amazing life, his loves and of course sexuality. He seems to have boundless energy and is able to connect with every member of the audience.

We share his early years, (his father was a saxophonist), their tobacco farm, the murder of his uncle, school (the worst time of his life), his adolescence and coming out (or as Yang says ‘swept out).

After leaving home, Yang became part of the artistic set in Sydney and mixed with the likes of Brett Whitely and Jenny Kee. He used his photographic talents to ‘fit in’ and make connections, both social and sexual.

His first photographic exhibition in 1977 was a revelation as the sexual content had not been exhibited in Australia previously and he was part of many ‘firsts’ including the first Mardi Gras. He settled in Bondi in 1983.

Discovering Taoism was a revelation to Yang and led to him claim his Chinese heritage, or as he says “Coming out as Chinese”. This led to him visiting China, his ‘second home’.

The only time Yang pauses in his narrative is to allow us to share his life through his photographs accompanied by Kats-Chernin’s music sensitively played by Ensemble Lumen. It is as if Yang is allowing us to ‘catch up’ and soak in his words and images before moving on.

His retelling of the AIDS period is especially heartbreaking, particularly the chronicling of his friend’s decline and eventual death from this insidious disease accompanied with graphic photographs. The silence in the Town all was ominous as those of us who lived through this period remember only too well. The image of a wall of names of AIDS victims is a tribute to those who died too young.

We learn more about Yang’s family, his mother, his brother, sister, and their passing. We also meet Scott, thirty years younger than Yang, who is his long distance partner and part of his family.

Yang’s stories are fascinating, but what holds his story together is his love for life and passion for photography. He has a unique way of presenting his works with their story written on the photographs themselves.

He is a gay ambassador linking heritage and tradition with modern day sensibilities. One hundred minutes in stage would exhaust many younger performers, (the performance was translated by two Auslan interpreters at the side of the stage who took it in turns to translate) but not Yang, who seemed to have boundless energy.

William Yang is a master story-teller and has the audience all in the palm of his hand, laughing, sympathizing with his plight and shedding a tear or two with stories of his incredible life, loves and quest for identity. Milestone is an audience with a very special person that will live in the memory of all who share his life with him!

Barry Hill OAM

Photographer: Victor Frankowski