It's a question choreographer-dancer Daniel Yeung Chun-kong is often asked when performing overseas: is his work influenced by traditional operatic aesthetics or tai chi and other martial arts?
'That is despite the fact that I haven't had any formal training in any traditional Chinese body art such as Chinese opera or folk dance,' says the self-taught dancer.
'Yet my performance comes across as very Chinese. This led me to wonder whether being Chinese is the result of physical training or is it something more inherent, something I am born with. I think this is a very interesting question.'
It's also one that has inspired his latest work Medi.C, a choreographic exploration of the body using theories and principles of traditional Chinese medicine.
'I want to go to the root, to ask what a Chinese body is and how to define a Chinese body,' says Yeung, describing the piece as a 'hyper-visual body art dance performance'.
To be staged at the Hong Kong City Hall this weekend, the multimedia and contemporary work is about Chinese medicine today and its relationship with the body, especially in Chinese culture. Since it is a broad topic, Yeung, 41, says he has focused on the concept of body as defined by the discipline, interpreting principles such as yin yang, the five elements and chi (energy through different visual effects, stage props and body movements.