Edwin Charoensinkha Alex Tee

Edwin, born in New Zealand comes from a Thai family, and Alex, born in Malaysia of Chinese heritage came to NZ in 2010.

Studying for exams in your final year of school is hard for most students but Edwin and Alex, senior students at Pakuranga College added to their load by collaborating to develop a visual presentation which they hope will lead to bigger things in their future.

Edwin (self-taught) has danced since year 7 and loves to perform to entertain people. He mainly does free style dancing like shuffle and liquid dancing. He states: “I took inspiration for the visuals in this performance from a French artist named Madeon from his concert Good Faith Forever.”

Edwin started out by projecting the visuals on a screen behind him but found it hard to concentrate on so many things at once so their teacher suggested Edwin and Alex collaborate so they could both explore their passions and create a product that would showcase their abilities.

Edwin’s dance starts off with black and white background images gradually changing into a kaleidoscope of colours while the music and words of Madeon’s song, “Love you Back” engineered by Alex, assault your senses (visual and auditory) and make you want to dance along.

The duo wants to expand their talents into a longer show and invite their friends and family to come and watch.

Alex has had most of his schooling in New Zealand like Edwin and they are typical Kiwi guys, interested in music and technology.

Asked about their experiences of Moon Festivals, Edwin said, “Some of my relatives are Chinese and some of us are Thai. I don’t regularly celebrate but I am fascinated by the culture. My grandma celebrates moon festival by going to a nearby temple and she buys moon cakes. I celebrate by going to temples and praying and afterwards we go eat at a yum cha. It’s important to me and my family because it maintains the culture throughout our family tree.”

Both Alex and Edwin represent a new generation of migrant families where traditional meets contemporary and we look forward to watching how these young people develop and embrace their impressions of culture combining it with family traditions.