Just Like Snakes

Just Like Snakes is a reinterpretation of the popular Chinese folklore The Legend of the White Snake. In the traditional story, a white snake transforms into a woman and falls in love with a man. When a monk discovers their transgressive romance, he punishes the snake by imprisoning her in a pagoda. This tale has been celebrated across Asia for centuries, evolving to reflect the changing morals of each era. Commissioned by CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile) in Hong Kong, Just Like Snakes responds to the city’s first Chinese musical based on the same legend, created by the iconic Chinese diva Rebecca Pan. Through music and dance, the film questions the limitations of story archetypes. Revisiting the folklore as a metaphor for contemporary society, it proposes: now that the pagoda—representing restrictive societal constructs—has collapsed, how might we observe and adapt to a shift in paradigms that calls for new orders in our world today?

This screening is part of “Veneno pa tu piel”, the sixth chapter of the film program Queer Strategies and Tentacles, curated by Rosa Barotsi and Zairong Xiang, and unfolding in eight chapters between November 25th, 2024 and March 2, 2025, with the films of each chapter streaming for two weeks.

For more information, contact program [​at​] e-flux.com.