The Box Book: The Beauty and the Beast of Hong Kong Culture

The box is a theatrical music ensemble founded by Kung Chi Shing and Peter Suart in Hong Kong in 1987. The two founders share an interest in experimental music, improvisation, visual and theatrical environments for music, and in literature. It draws on various musical forms - ambient, electronic, rock, folk - and uses sound, words, images, movement, costume and environment in a theatrical fashion. The box has collaborated with numerous musicians, artists, dancers, writers and actors, both on box shows and on the dance and theatre works of other groups. The band occupies an unusual position in Hong Kong culture, one which straddles popular and experimental forms. Book 1 - band history presents an overview of twenty-two years of its work. Book 2 - songwords, prose, poetry contains a selection of songs, stories and poems written for the Hong Kong theatrical music ensemble the box and for other projects in which Kung and Suart have had a part. Most of the texts are by Peter Suart, Valerie Doran and a number of other writers. No band is an island. The box has been shaped by the city of Hong Kong, Book 3 - conversations carries cover 20 dialogues and 15 articles, contributed by a wide range of people, about Hong Kong, its cultural environment and its arts scene between 1987 and 2009.