Keep every work close to its moment
Dates, places, participants and related events help a photograph, text or video return to the situation in which it was made.
LIVE WORK · MEMORY · RETURN
A live encounter can keep changing.
P4’s archive grew from situations in which people watched, performed, argued, photographed, filmed and remembered together. It keeps those encounters open through projects, images, voices and return visits.
HOW THE ARCHIVE STAYS ALIVE
Four ways of staying close
Every route is designed to bring a work, a person and a moment back into relation.
Connect relations, not just files
Projects, rehearsals, calls, performances, writing, people and later responses remain connected rather than being flattened into one chronology.
Let different voices remain different
Project statements, personal memories, interviews and later responses can sit beside one another without being flattened into a single voice.
Leave room for return
Participants can add context, identify people, correct dates, offer another memory or ask us to change how something appears.
ONE PRACTICE · THREE PUBLIC ENTRANCES
Global site, China access and main archive
p4theater.top introduces P4 to global readers, p4theater.cn offers a Mainland China entrance, and a.p4theater.top opens the ten-year archive you are reading now.
The main site’s P4 Theater profile introduces the practice, while its Chinese experimental theater field guide offers a wider history of the field. The archive lets you continue from those introductions into projects, dates, photographs, moving images and participant memory.
01 / P4 NETWORK
p4theater.top
Works · concepts · writing
Meet P4 Theater through its key works, methods, Chinese writing and English introductions.
Open 02 / P4 NETWORKp4theater.cn
Mainland China access
A direct route to P4 works, writing, schedules and contact information from Mainland China.
Open 03 / P4 NETWORKa.p4theater.top
Projects · events · images · memory
Search ten years of project pages, events, articles, photographs, moving images and participant memory.
OpenCHINESE MATERIALS · ENGLISH PATHS
Enter in English, stay close to the original
English pages make the archive easier to enter while Chinese titles, posters, quotations and voices remain visible.
English navigation keeps Chinese titles visible
The interface can be English while a title, quotation, poster or testimony remains in Chinese, preserving the voice and texture of the original material.
Complete English texts live on the global site
When an English article is available, the archive links directly to its reading page on p4theater.top.
Some materials remain in Chinese
When no full translation exists, an English introduction still helps readers find the project, date, images and related pages.
CONTEXT · RIGHTS · CARE
An open archive that still protects people
Context
Original links, creators, dates and project connections stay close to the material whenever they are available.
Public access respects authorship
Showing a photograph, text or video does not erase the rights of its creator, performer, photographer, publisher or other participant.
Not everything needs to be public
Privacy, consent and the wishes of participants shape what can be shown, described or kept offline.
Memory can be amended
A date, name or description can change when someone brings new context to the archive.
ONE PRACTICE · CONNECTED PUBLIC SURFACES
The P4 digital network
Begin with the question that brought you here: meet P4, search the archive, watch the film, read the books, or enter through He Fa’s wider artistic practice.
MAIN SITEP4 TheaterThe global home of P4’s practice, works, concepts and Chinese–English writing.MAIN ARCHIVEP4 Theater Main ArchiveThe site you are reading: projects, events, articles, photographs and moving images across ten years.MAINLAND CHINAP4 Theater China accessA clearer, more stable route to P4 works, writing, schedules and contact information from Mainland China.FILM MEMORYHuman Surrender search memoryDialogue, roles, timecodes, stills and scene-level search for the film and performance lineage.CANON READERHuman Surrender canonA public reader for twelve books, their chapters, conceptual threads and relationship map.BOOKRecursive Reference MachineA connected research publication that extends P4’s questions through recursive reading and reference.ARTISTHe FaHe Fa’s films, theatre practice, photography, writing, teaching and ongoing work with P4 Theater.
The people who made P4 can keep adding to its memory.
Add a missing photograph, correct a date, identify a participant, share another memory or ask us to change how something appears.