“Children are children, no matter what language they speak”

Last month, we flew out to China to perform our show Moon Song at Shanghai Children’s Art Theatre (SCHAT). Alongside the performances, our team also taught Moon Song to a group of local actors who will be touring the show themselves across China. This is the third Bamboozle production SCHAT will be adding to their programme of work for learning disabled audiences alongside Storm and Down to Earth.

We asked freelance performer, musician and Moon Song alumni Tim Baker to write about his experience travelling internationally and performing in China for the first time.

31st August 2025

Jet lag is weird.

Every morning for 21 days, I have had to pinch myself upon awakening. Each time I have opened the curtains of my hotel room to see the sun beating down on one of the countless 30 storey apartment blocks in this part of the city, I have been astonished to realise that I am in China. This morning though, I wake up in my bed in Derby, and the whole trip feels like a surreal dream.

Long haul air travel, especially when travelling laterally, is one of the most unnatural experiences a human can have, and now my brain feels like goop. Since arriving home late last night, my mind has been spinning uncomfortably with metro train  announcements, songs from the show and obscure facts about the Shanghai tower (did you know it’s home to the largest diesel generator in all of Asia?). Writing this is helping me process it all though, so I’m keeping this notepad and pen with me all day and scribbling down my reflections.

Shanghai is a heck of a place. As a person who is both excited and intimidated every time I visit London, a city four times the size of England’s capital with a population half that of all England, is a pretty overwhelming place to find yourself. The area we stayed and worked in was generally quite serene, a middle class domestic haven akin to a budget Barbican, but the crowds on the metro at rush hour, or by the Bund on a Saturday night could be incredibly anxiety inducing. The scale is absolutely mind boggling, perhaps most evident from the top of the Shanghai tower (home of the world’s highest swimming pool with a view, don’t you know) where the endless carpet of tower blocks below you stretches all the way to the horizon.

The intensity of the city, while we were there, was multiplied by the oppressive heat and humidity. Most days it was 37°, hot enough that being outside for any more than 30 minutes is unbearable during the afternoon. Walking for half a mile results in clothes soaked through with sweat. Luckily, our hotel was less than a ten minutes walk from Shanghai Children’s Arts Theatre, or SHCAT, where I was working with Bamboozle, on the show Moon Song.

SHCAT is a wonderful theatre, with state of the art facilities, dedicated to providing high quality art to children. Having previously only performed Moon Song in school halls and classrooms, it was transformative to be able to present it in a proper theatre space. The lighting there gave the show a whole new dimension, and inviting audiences into such a smart but joyful space was a real privilege.

Performing in Moon Song is hard work. It requires far more than simply being able to spend 45 minutes playing multiple instruments, singing in tune for a four-part harmony, acting in an abstract theatre show, 4 times a day. Thats because the real magic happens in the moments of joy shared with our audience and they can be incredibly challenging moments to facilitate. I was a little worried about how cultural differences and language barriers would affect interacting with our audiences, who were made up of children between the age of 5 and 15, all of which have different diagnoses and behaviours that affect their ability to engage with a traditional theatre environment.

I realised that I had no need to worry once the first few shows had finished. Equipped with the Bamboozle Approach, years of experience, and surrounded by an incredible team, we overcame the barriers, and some absolutely beautiful interactions between audience members and performers emerged through the haze (that’s haze from the smoke machine, another benefit to being in such a great theatre space).

The biggest challenge, as a westerner, was memorising 24 Chinese names a day, but we had the amazing Amy, our stage manager and lead supervisor on the SHCAT team, who helped us learn them at the start of every show.

The main aim of the trip was to teach 10 Chinese performers how to reproduce our show for a tour around China, and it was my responsibility to aid in the learning of 3 who would be taking on my roles in the show. This was Jake, Olive and Orange, all of whom are very skilled and passionate about their work. Jake is a talented and determined musician, Olive is detail oriented but extremely playful and Orange is a brilliant communicator with an adventurous spirit.

The Chinese team had only 3 days to learn Moon Song, before they would be taking part in performances with us in front of an audience. That is a BIG ask, but I think all of us Brits were humbled and astonished at the incredible learning ability of the SHCAT team, who threw themselves at the task and achieved so much in such a short space of time. They are all brilliant humans, and I wish them the absolute best with the show.

One of my personal goals for the trip, outside of the work with Bamboozle, was to investigate Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism, these being foundational belief systems in the culture there and an area of personal interest. Those are big subjects to approach with only a smattering of days off, but I scratched the itch by listening to an audiobook of the Tao te Ching (an ancient Taoist text), visiting a couple of temples and meditating on a semi regular basis.

Taoism resonates the most with my personal way of thinking, and many of its core messages are relevant to anyone trying to understand the Bamboozle Approach. You would as likely hear a Taoist telling you to take a deep breath, relinquish the desire for a result, and focus on being present as you would a member of the Bamboozle team at a training event.

Returning to the UK, and seeing flags on lamp posts and roundabouts, I found my self reflecting on the differences between England and China. Two very different cultures and ways of living, alternate societal values, and different struggles politically and within their communities. Perhaps what is most striking though is how these differences are totally overshadowed by the similarities. Kindness is highly valued, wherever you are in the world. Children are children, no matter what language they speak. All humans, everywhere, are capable of incredible things.

Moon Song will be touring to special schools across the UK from February – March 2026. Dates are now booking.

The Moon Song team in Shanghai was Tim Baker, Naomi Sparrow, Ben Moores, Lara Jade Greenfield, Christopher Davies (Director) and Craig Byrne (Musical Director).

Photos taken by Shanghai Children’s Art Theatre and Ben Moores.

Words by Tim Baker, edited by Kit Fordham.