An interview establishes a person and a starting point for action
The Personal Chronicle programme published on 22 March 2023 specifies a practical beginning: a one-to-one interview lasting two to five hours, with a camera placed between the participants’ sightlines and directed towards the narrator. Listening, framing and an extended duration establish the conditions for an account. The programme proposes retaining the original recording and making a concentrated version of less than thirty minutes.
A life narrative consequently exists at several scales: a person’s account in the moment, an exchange with a listener, and an image available for later viewing. The camera participates from the beginning. The longer record and the shorter edit offer different temporal routes into the same encounter.
Related sources: Personal Chronicle: Theatre, fear and a programme for action
Two accounts retain the event of speaking
The transcripts bearing Yun Jianhui’s and Zhang Lei’s names were published on 1 and 9 March 2023. They retain openings, hesitations, repetitions, interruptions and responses. Yun’s opening includes exchanges about framing, light, beginning and whether to follow prepared material. Zhang’s account also starts with the practical question of speaking while seated before a camera.
Read as material for oral history and autobiographical performance, these details draw attention to how memory takes form in a present conversation. One recollection prompts another; a listener’s response shifts the direction; a pause leaves duration within the text. Each narrator occupies a particular position. The interest lies in the event of telling as well as in the experiences being told.
Related sources: Personal Chronicle: Yun Jianhui, full transcript · Personal Chronicle: Zhang Lei, full transcript
Six entry points connect personal history to a future project
The PHA programme names six entry points: declaration, programme, hero, history, ambition and atmosphere. After the interview and initial record, a protagonist may propose a project and invite others. The examples range from rehearsals and play readings to seminars, screenings, exhibitions and performance actions.
The move from life narrative to collective work involves organisation. An account becomes a wish or question, then an invitation through which other people can respond. The programme specifies one project at a time for a protagonist and a public presentation to mark its completion. These provisions give an open-ended personal process recognisable points of transition.
Related sources: Personal Chronicle: Theatre, fear and a programme for action
Support is organised around the initiator and shared records
The programme lists P4’s possible support as space, documentation, publicity, organisation, planning and connections to resources, while placing respect for the protagonist’s expression within that framework. It also assigns responsibility to initiators for their projects and asks them to consider collaborators’ wishes and safety. Collective creation involves these practical relationships as well as a shared subject.
A useful reading route begins with the protocol, continues with one spoken account, and then follows the relevant invitations and later records. It connects a programme for action to the voices actually preserved. A past life becomes material for further questions, while the arrival of other participants gives the next action a different horizon.
Related sources: Personal Chronicle: Theatre, fear and a programme for action · Personal Chronicle: Yun Jianhui, full transcript · Personal Chronicle: Zhang Lei, full transcript
Questions about these records
How can an interview develop into a project?
The programme proposes an initial interview, a protagonist’s project invitation and a public presentation marking a round of work.
Are Yun Jianhui’s and Zhang Lei’s records one shared testimony?
They are separate spoken accounts, each with its own narrator, exchanges and sequence of memories.
Sources and original records
Personal Chronicle: Theatre, fear and a programme for action
Chinese original · English edition
The PHA programme sets out interviewing, project initiation, documentation and support.
Personal Chronicle: Yun Jianhui, full transcript
Chinese original · English edition
Yun Jianhui’s extended spoken account and exchanges during the recording.
Personal Chronicle: Zhang Lei, full transcript
Chinese original · English edition
Zhang Lei’s separate account preserves spoken narration and responses.