WHERE IS THE RABBIT GOD?

PRESENTED BY HAONAN WANG AND HARRY DAISLEY

Drawing on the Rabbit God, a Chinese queer deity, this piece asks where protection lies amid queer oppression when gods fall silent.

Tu’er Shen, the Rabbit God, comes from Chinese folk belief and is believed to protect men who love men. For generations, he was worshipped in secret, held within communities that could not exist openly.  

In the present day, queer lives continue to face hostility and violence across the world. A figure once associated with protection begins to recede, slipping out of reach. If the Rabbit God exists, where is he now? When gods fall silent, where does protection lie?  

Inspired by this myth, and drawing on fictionalised interviews with queer individuals, this piece brings together three men from China, Pakistan and the UK. They find themselves drawn to a mysterious pond. Beneath the water rests a fading statue, a figure with a rabbit’s head and a human body, its outstretched hand reaching upward, as if toward the clouds.  

As they share fragments of their lives, stories of displacement, longing, and lived oppression begin to surface. Suspended between dream and reality, their meeting shifts, gradually taking the shape of a ritual. The audience is invited into this collective act, taking part in the making of protection, asking how care and resistance might be practiced when inherited structures no longer hold.  

The work responds to contemporary realities facing queer communities around the world, tracing moments where it feels fragile or withdrawn. It asks what it means to inherit a myth of safety in a world where safety cannot be assumed.