Teresa Time, 2026
Lecture Performance, low-power FM installation
Teresa Time is a lecture-performance and low-power FM installation that explores pirate radio as a method of resistance, focusing on the illegal shortwave broadcasts transmitted from Taiwan into mainland China during the 80s. At the center of this conflict was the beloved Taiwanese pop singer, Teresa Teng, whose voice became the symbol of the Broadcast Wars, enticing Chinese listeners to defect to Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attempted to maintain strict control of the incoming media by banning, jamming, and disrupting the radio stations. Listeners in China resisted by adjusting the frequencies and recording live broadcasts onto cassette tapes.
Performing as a fictional radio host broadcasting from the Voice of Free China, the national radio station of the Republic of China, the lecture-performance explored Chinese pop music in the 20th century ranging from banned Shanghai jazz to Mao’s revolutionary model opera to cantopop and the youth revolt.
At Wave Farm’s grounds, micro-FM transmitters were embedded through the park to simulate the broadcasts of the Voice of Free China by transmitting banned “yellow” music. Evoking James C. Scott’s concept of “peasant resistance,” listeners follow a set of instructions to hack and locate the frequencies of the broadcast.
This project was made at Wave Farm Art Park. Special thanks to Bianca Felix Biberaj, Meredith Kooi, Jimmy Garver, and Galen Jospeh-Hunter. Photos by Lucy Bohnsack.