Adelaide Festival Centre's OzAsia Festival 2013 Runs Now thru 29 Sept

Proudly supported by the Government of South Australia and Major Festival partner Santos, the culturally diverse and rich OzAsia Festival will run from today, 13 - 29 September and play host to 28 performances and 47 events featuring 195 artists and presenters from across the globe.

This year's program boasts 6 world premieres, 9 Australian premieres, 22 South Australian premieres, 24 Australian exclusives and 2 Adelaide exclusives. The spotlight for 2013 is on Malaysia and the Malay Tiger is the national animal of the country and the hero image for this year's Festival; like the tiger, the Festival holds virtues of bravery, strength and regality.

Additional countries represented in the program include Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, India, Korea, Japan, Turkey, Philippines, Iraq, the Himalayas and Australia.

This year's OzAsia Festival encapsulates this vibrancy and diversity through an array of performances, events and exhibitions. From acclaimed contemporary singer songwriters Yuna and Guba, to political and social theatre that questions race and identity, literature events that give voice to contemporary Malaysian writers and food and community events that explore the gastronomic paradise that is Malaysia and so much more, there will be something for everyone.

Program highlights include multiple Australian Premieres and Exclusives:

Experience Malaysian pop music as two emerging artists make their Exclusive Australian premiere performances, Gabriel Robert Rawantas, fondly and more commonly known as Guba, is an alternative folk singer song writer from Malaysia who verges into pop. Whilst internationally praised Malaysian-born LA songstressYuna will inspire audiences with her folk-pop tunes that saw her work with well-known music producer Pharrell Williams.

U-Theatre is Taiwan's most revered theatre troupe and Meeting with Bodhisattva features 16 drummers in an enlightening whirlwind of athletic drumming, martial arts, Buddhist chanting, and sacred dance.

Super Everything features UK's leading audio-visual artists The Light Surgeons. Juxtaposing the tradition and modernity of Malaysia, the show layers together stunning documentary footage and motion graphics with an original live electronic musical score featuring music from Malaysia's Ng Chor Guan, Hands Percussionand Rhythm in Bronze.

Ontosorah is a new cross-cultural collaboration from the latest generation of theatre makers featuring Adelaide's Ade Suharto and Indonesia's Peni Candra Rini. This original new dance performance explores themes of feminine strength and rebellion through dance and live contemporary Javanese music.

Heart to Heart is a cross cultural intersection of poetry and music: Adelaide composer David Kotlowy has composed two sensual song-cycles that celebrate love, loss and passion in verses from Ancient Japan to Modern Indonesia, performed by Duo Trystero, Kate MacFarlane and Gamelan In Situ.

Not According to Plan is Leigh Warren Dance's latest work and features an inspiring creative team including Choreographer Leigh Warren, Set Concept and Construction Khai Liew, costumes Alistair Trung and Musician and Poet Jerome Kugan. It will be an extraordinary meeting of dance, music, design and writing that charts the life of famous dancer, photographer, choreographer and calligrapher Xiao Xiong Zhang.

Singapore's T'ang Quartet make their premiere at OzAsia Festival, an artful blend of East and West, seamlessly reinterpreting classical work for contemporary fans while appealing to traditional audiences.

Malaysia's The Instant Café Theatre Company presents Parah: engaging and instructive theatre that looks at four friends who could be the poster children of Malaysia, but after discovering a page of their assigned reading, Interlok, has been ripped out, they start questioning their history and identity. The show will be performed in Bahasa Malaysia with English surtitles.

Spend an evening with velvet voiced national icon Kamahl, with over 50 years as an entertainer, more than 20 albums released and 10 million copies sold world-wide. The Malaysian born singer will tell his life story and reflect on his culturally diverse upbringing having moved to Adelaide as a young school boy in 1953.

Not to be missed, Fight the Landlord is an international collaboration between Ireland's Pan Pan Theatre and Beijing's Square Moon Culture, Contemporary Theatre that examines life in China in a time of constant change. Performed in the round on Her Majesty's Theatre stage and set around a card table, three girls dressed as pandas start a game of 'Fight the Landlord'. After the OzAsia Festival the work can be seen as part of the Brisbane Festival, 24- 28 September at the Judith Wright Centre and Carriageworks in Sydney 2 - 5 October.

Stories Then and Now is a powerful new theatre work that traces five personal journeys of contemporary Asian Australians. Directed by acclaimed photographer and storyteller William Yang and respected media figure and writer Annette Shun Wah.

It wouldn't be a festival without a feast! Join Adelaide's Chung Jae Lee, former owner of multi-award winning restaurant Mapo, and award winning Malaysian chefCheong Liew as they cook up a Malay/Korean storm A Mouth-Watering Journey from Penang to Seoul.

Chung Jae Lee will also demonstrate the fine art of making the famous Korean dish Kimchi, in two Kimchi Fun Days, one for the family and one for schools.

Another food inspired family friendly event is Pasar Malam, a Penang night market featuring live music, roving entertainment alongside an array of cultural goods.

The Moon Lantern Festival is a pivotal night on the State's cultural calander, this year falling on Thursday 19 September, 3pm - 8.30pm. Featuring 12 Schools and 42 Community Groups, Elder Park will be alight with an abundance of magical wonder under the full moon. Media Partner ABC 891 will broadcast live from the event.

A new component of the OzAsia Festival this year is the literature series OzAsia on Page in association with the University of South Australia. The series will present contemporary Asian and Australian voices covering topics as diverse as 'Women, Identity and Universal Themes' to 'The Role of Asian Australians in the debate about Australia's place in the Asian Century'. The seven programmed sessions are FREE.

Once again OzAsia Festival collaborates with The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre at UniSA to present the popular FREE Keynote Lecture. Highly experienced international journalist Jane Hutcheon will present an insightful and thought provoking keynote Eyes on Asia: The Australian Media's Blind Spot.

For the first time, the Festival collaborates with the Migration Museum and Malaysia Club of SA. Three Weddings and a Cook explores the ceremonies, food and customs of Malay, Chinese and Indian weddings. See dance demonstrations, enjoy festival food, join in craft and dance workshops, learn about saris and sarongs and watch cooking demonstrations by Poh Ling Yeow from ABC TV's Poh's Kitchen. This family friendly event is FREE.

OzAsia on Screen, in association with the Media Resource Centre, returns with a wide variety of feature films and documentaries encompassing films from Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, China, India and Indonesia. In a first the Festival will showcase the Asia Pacific's highest accolade in film, the Asia Pacific Screen Awards with a selection of the 2012 films in competition.

Returning to complement the onscreen program is the Adelaide Festival Centre's GreenRoom program's Urban-utan Short Film Competition. The competition proudly supported by ANZ showcases young and emerging filmmakers www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/greenroom Registrations close 2 September.

Another film first and unique partnership with Adelaide Cinémathèque, one of India's greatest auteurs Satyajit Ray's (1921 - 1992) recently restored films will be shown to coincide with the anniversary of 100 years of Indian Cinema.

In what can only be described as a visual arts feast, visual arts enthusiasts will not be disappointed as once again this year the Festival partners with Adelaide's leading galleries.

As the festival focuses on Malaysia in 2013, The Visionary Lights is an exhibition that turns the spotlight on the unique connection with Adelaide with a short film as a centrepiece. The exhibition explores historical and contemporary connections between Adelaide and Penang, our Sister City in Malaysia. The exhibition will be presented in association with the Migration Museum and Adelaide City Council.

Dash88 is an Australian artist of Chinese Malay ancestry, Slumbering Tiger Awakens is a mural on the Adelaide Festival Centre car park wall that pays respect to his cultural ancestry.

Adelaide Festival Centre and Nexus Multicultural Arts Centre present SOUTH (south) EAST a visual art project which brings the hybridity of Malaysia onto the city streets.

In collaboration with Salamanca Arts Centre, the Artspace Gallery will feature Made in China, Australia an exhibition and multi-generational exploration of the Chinese Australian Diaspora through the works of 16 artists. My Beautiful Cha Chaan Teng features photographs of Hong Kong cafes by Rick Martin in the Festival Theatre foyer.

The Art Gallery of South Australia will again partner with the OzAsia Festival, for the third time through four unique exhibitions. The art and culture of Malaysia will be explored in The Art of Asia in Focus Spring Lecture Series. Paradise on Earth curated by James Bennett presents Asian art whose themes of flowers express notions of felicity and wellbeing inspired by the Islamic vision of Paradise as a beautiful garden. Whilst Noble Shadows: Ancestral Art of Indonesia and Australiaexplores the close parallels existing between the Indigenous art of Indonesia and Australia.

For the first time the Festival partners with the Adelaide College of the Arts to showcase cross cultural pollination at its finest as Adelaide Festival Centre, John Foubister and Melanie Fulton present Rimbun Dahan: Cultivating the Garden which features the work of Australian artists who have been beneficiaries of residency programs in Malaysia.

A series of lectures include The Confucius Institute and University of Adelaide presenting Does China Have Better Ethnic Policies than the USA and India? Whilst History SA and the Adelaide Festival Centre come together to present Talking History: Forgotten Connections: India and South Australian 1880s - 1940s.

The Festival will finish on a high as the hit of the 2010 Festival returns. Popular Korean company YEGAM Theatre Company will present Extreme Jump! Its cast of gymnasts, acrobats and Tae Kwon Do masters with spot on comic timing is perfect fun for families and the ideal way to finish the Festival.

Adelaide Festival Centre CEO and Artistic Director Douglas Gautier says, "Over the last seven years, the Adelaide Festival Centre has steadily built a reputation for its successful focus on Asian-Australian cultural engagement. The Festival through performing arts, literature, film and visual arts strives to improve Australians' understanding of Asian culture, traditions and language. The showcasing of Asian culture aids in connecting local Australian Asian communities and is helping to promote respect and harmony in the South Australian community. The nature of the varied artistic collaborations with Asia and Festival Centre's training and exchange programs for Asian arts administrators is helping to develop deep and broad relations with the Asian region. "

In April this year, Adelaide Festival Centre Trust and the Shandong Government's Department of Culture signed a cultural Memorandum of Agreement. The Agreement was witnessed by South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill and The Governor, Shandong Provincial Government Mr Guo Shuqing. The agreement confirms a commitment to continue supporting the cultural exchange between South Australia and Shandong and establishes a long-term, cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship between the parties and OzAsia Festival as well as establishing cultural training links between the Adelaide Festival Centre and similar institutions in Shandong. The focus of the 2014 OzAsia Festival will be Shandong Province.

In May Adelaide Festival Centre's OzAsia Festival was honoured with a national award from the Hong Kong Australia Business Association, for Business Development. The 2ndHKABA National / Cathay Pacific Business Awards aims to recognize companies that excel in all aspects of international trade between Australia and Hong Kong SAR, China.

Full program details are available in the OzAsia Festival program www.ozasiafestival.com.au or order a brochure by calling (08) 8216 8707. Book at BASS 131 24 orwww.bass.net.au Tickets are on sale from 7pm Thursday 27 June.

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