The Esplanade’s annual Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts returns from 27 February to 8 March 2026 with an expansive, story-rich programme inspired by Chinese dialects, dynasties and regional folklore. This 24th edition promises audiences a vibrant mix of theatre, dance, music and family-friendly works featuring celebrated artists from Singapore, the region and beyond.

As the festival team notes, audiences can expect “legends told through different art forms,” with works that explore heritage, identity and the many ways stories evolve across cultures.

Deling and Cixi

Huayi 2026 opens with a sweeping historical drama: Deling and Cixi. Written by renowned playwright He Jiping, this acclaimed production brings the late Qing dynasty to vivid life, featuring Empress Dowager Cixi, Emperor Guangxu, and the western-educated Princess Deling navigating political turmoil and cultural change. In the twilight years of the Qing Dynasty, the young Western-educated aristocrat Deling is summoned to the Imperial Palace where she comes face-to-face with the authoritative Empress Dowager Cixi and her constrained son Emperor Guangxu. It marks the first time Huayi spotlights an imperial Chinese court on such a grand scale, and certainly starts the festival on a high note.

Le Père (The Father)

Quick-witted and sharp-tongued, André is a self-assured man who dominates any room he enters and steers every conversation. But lately, things are not adding up for the octogenarian. His watch is never where he thinks it is. The furniture goes missing. His daughter’s stories stop making sense. And strangers join him for dinner. Slowly, surely, the world around him starts to go askew.

Award-winning Taiwanese actor King Shih-Chieh returns to the Esplanade stage in a deeply affecting adaptation of Florian Zeller’s Le Père. Created by the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, the production explores the emotional world of dementia and caregiving. Festival organisers call it “ingenious yet deeply affecting,” and expect “no one in the audience will be left unmoved.”

Tall Tales: Bananas and Ang Ku Kuehs

A bold new co-commission with the Taipei Performing Arts Centre, this absurdist theatrical ride draws on Southeast Asian folk tales. Co-produced by The Finger Players (Singapore) and Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group (Taiwan), the piece promises an “absurd and gratifying” spin on regional legends. Following Blood and Rose Ensemble (2018), Oliver Chong of Singapore’s The Finger Players and Wang Chia-Ming of Taiwan’s Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group reunite for this cross-cultural creation inspired by The Decameron, where folk legends from two islands intertwine into a layered tapestry of live performance and puppetry. Eligible for SG Culture Pass credits.

The Sun

In a post-apocalyptic Earth in the late 21st century, the world’s population has been diminished. Those that remain are divided into two factions: the Nox, the new superior mutant species who rule the planet despite their intolerance of sunlight, and the Curio, the original human species who now live under subjugation. With clashing beliefs and divided stances, the two share only one thing in common—the will to survive. The Sun presents a dystopian future damaged by bioterrorist attacks, a fractured reality where people are not only segregated by intelligence and physical ability, but also by their beliefs in how they should coexist. Originally written by Japanese playwright Tomohiro Maekawa and reinterpreted by Taiwanese director Tora Hsu, The Sun imagines a post-apocalyptic world fractured by bioterrorist attacks—“prescient for the times we live in.”

A Little Goes A Long Way

Taiwan’s Sun Son Theatre offers a family-friendly tale inspired by Asian folk stories of resilience and grit. Designed for children and families, the work blends puppetry, storytelling and gentle humour to encourage young audiences to build courage and empathy, as the team breathes new life into familiar folktales of perseverance, resilience and grit, connecting them with the challenges and dreams of today. 

Diary VII ・ The Story Of…….

Veteran Hong Kong choreographer and dancer Mui Cheuk Yin makes her Huayi debut with this intimate and moving solo. Mui draws from her long relationship with stray cats to invoke ingenious choreography that draws you into a deeply personal exploration of universal issues such as home, country, displacement and migration. Mui leads audiences to find parallels between feline traits and her philosophy in life, and her heartfelt emotions are powerfully expressed through exquisite movements and gestures, accentuated and reinforced by light and shadow, and words and sound. This presentation of Diary VII・The Story Of…… marks Mui’s long-awaited return to Esplanade since she mesmerised audiences in the Esplanade Concert Hall in The Flight of the Jade Bird, presented as part of the Singapore Arts Festival in 2012.

Wukong’s 72 Transformations

Step into the world of Wukong’s 72 Transformations, where the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, led by conductor Quek Ling Kiong, explores the many facets of the global icon in an immersive concert experience. Written and directed by veteran theatre artist and puppeteer Benjamin Ho, featuring original music composed and arranged by Singaporean composer Benjamin Lim Yi, this captivating concert unleashes Wukong’s spirit in bold new ways.  Expect a rich blend of traditional Chinese music, multimedia projections, puppetry and dynamic storytelling—a feast for fans of myth and music alike. Eligible for SG Culture Pass credits.

LauZone – A Multilingual HK-Style Cabaret

Hong Kong performers Anna Lo and Rick Lau return after their sold-out Tri Ka Tsai – A uniquely trilingual Hong Kong cabaret at Huayi in 2023. Anna and Rick perform in LauZone, an endlessly entertaining musical tribute to the myriad dialects in multicultural Hong Kong that are still spoken fluently mostly by the older immigrant generations, putting the spotlight on the bittersweet relationship younger Hong Kongers have with their ancestral roots.

“BEING” The Freshman Concert 2026

Singapore’s beloved Mandopop duo The Freshman take the stage in a special full-length concert marking 15 years of music and friendship. Chen Diya and Carrie Yeo of The Freshman invite you to “BEING” to join them in reliving the moments that shaped their journey, featuring a variety of their hits from heartfelt fan-favourites like Holding On, It’s Love, Harry and Throw to an exhilarating debut of brand-new tracks from their latest album BEING. Expect a night of soaring harmonies, authentic storytelling through poignant lyrics that speak right to your heart, and the infectious chemistry between the two that has made The Freshman one of Singapore’s most endearing Mandopop duos. Eligible for SG Culture Pass credits.

WANGWEN, YELLOW & Crispy

Huayi 2026 also features fresh sounds from across the region, including:

WANGWEN, China’s acclaimed post-rock band. Known for their cathartic live shows featuring their massive polyphonic yet delicately arranged music, Chinese post-rock giants WANGWEN make a return to Singapore after almost a decade for a glorious night of instrumental splendour. 

Taiwanese indie musician, YELLOW, said to be a new-generation musical prodigy. Since 2018, YELLOW’s signature brand of soulful and uninhibited artistic freedom has captured the attention of the Mandarin music scene in the region. Bursting onto the scene, he swept major awards at the Golden Melody Awards, Golden Indie Awards and Freshmusic Awards, and won countless fans with his outstanding performances on Chinese singing competition show Singer in 2024.

And Crispy, bringing alternative flair to the music programme and their “I Love You × 100” tour to the festival. From the fresh, folk-inspired sound of their early days to later works that blend rock, electronic, and more, one thing has never changed: their fearless honesty in facing life’s ups and downs through music. Winning Best Vocal Group at the 34th Golden Melody Awards, come experience them as this one-night-only Singapore stop.

As we gallop into the Year of the Horse, get ready to experiences this spectrum of stories stretching from imperial China to post-apocalyptic futures, from dialect cabarets to classical folklore, as Huayi 2026 invites audiences to rediscover history and legend through fresh, contemporary perspectives.

Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts 2026 runs from 27th February to 8th March 2026 at the Esplanade. Full programme and tickets available here