Willy Tsao Sing-yuen often looks to the past for inspiration. The choreographer made Xiang Yu - a Qin dynasty (221-206BC) general whose downfall is dramatised in the Beijing opera Farewell My Concubine - the protagonist of The Conqueror in 2005. Two years later, he picked another historical figure, from the Northern Qi dynasty (550-577), for his eponymous Warrior Lanling.
His latest offering, The Legend and the Hero, turns to Chinese history once again, this time focusing on Qu Yuan, the statesman and poet of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) whose death is still commemorated by the annual Tuen Ng Festival.
History is a good source of ideas as the subject leaves much room for the imagination, says the 56-year-old founder and artistic director of the City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC), but it is its connection with the present that interests him most.
'I'm not into retelling or reinterpreting history,' Tsao says. 'Rather, historical figures and their writings offer me material to create ... [it's] through them that I project and express my own feelings about our society today.'
So in The Legend and the Hero, Tsao looks at Qu Yuan not so much as a character from history books as what he represented within the broader cultural context. Like many tragic heroes in history, even though Qu Yuan was a man of influence he ended his own life by throwing himself into a river - a form of protest against the corruption of the time. In a way, says Tsao, Qu Yuan symbolises 'the clash between power/politics and what he stood for as an individual'.
Through his writings, he also shaped the way the Chinese think today, says Tsao, who is jointly choreographing the new piece with Dominic Wong Dick-man and independent dancer Bruce Wong Chun-bong. 'Qu Yuan is the first Chinese poet to have his works attributed directly to him - his poems are still regarded as significant today,' he says.