ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to work with the notion of critical syncretism taken from Chen Kuan-Hsing’s, ‘Asia as method’, in order to examine my own practices as a teacher educator who has responsibilities for teaching drama within the hybridised cultural context in Hong Kong. Taking examples of data that are drawn from a four-year action research, I illustrate my own efforts to resist either valorising or negating Western drama practices. Following Chen, I use the notion of critical syncretism where ideas about learning drawn from a Taoist story are used as an Asian anchoring point as well as a source for developing Drama-in-Education practices. The chapter goes on to illustrate how the concept of critical syncretism allows for a creative reinvention of drama practices that both nurture Asian cultural sensibilities and recognise that such sensibilities have in themselves brushed up against and been influenced by (post)colonialism.
