In Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries, crossdressing and homosexuality are still illegal or taboo. When Raymond Liew Jin Pin was eleven years old, his mother dressed him in a golden sequined dress, a wig, and makeup, and took him to a children’s talent competition. More than 20 years later, he revisits that moment as a dancer and performer. Maria Cencaru is a queer reminiscence, a desire to relive that performance, and at the same time, Raymond Liew Jin Pin’s drag name. Together with dancers and friends from the queer Southeast Asian diaspora, he searches for shared memories. Combining their diverse dance backgrounds, they explore their experiences of oppression and liberation, migration, longing, and desire. Maria Cencaru is the intersection of their different identities, a collective movement, and the long-overdue cis-sis family reunion.
