YICHENGAO.

WRITING · THEATRE · STORYTELLING

What a story
carries.

A voice, a name, a letter passed from one hand to another. I’m interested in the lives that take shape between what is said and what is heard.

Explore selected work
A mirror and a letter on a dressing table
A dressing table, a mirror, a letter. Concept image for Double Carp.
SELECTED WORK

Stories find their way
through people.

My work moves between the stage, the page and the spaces where an audience encounters a story. Here are a few of those journeys.

A sealed letter beside a mirrorCONCEPT IMAGE

STAGE PLAY · PROSE

Double Carp

A letter opens a world. A borrowed name changes it.

In a Huainan opera troupe, performer Zheng Yousheng writes to Xiang Zhizuo under the name Chen Yu, while fellow performer Chen Yu carries their letters. Across stage and prose, the story follows the desires and silences that gather around the three of them.

“To find a kindred spirit like this would leave me with no regrets in life.”
“If he has found a kindred spirit like this, what am I to do?”

FROM DOUBLE CARP · TRANSLATED FROM CHINESE

Written by Yichen Gao · 2025

STAGE PLAY · SCREEN ADAPTATION

The Perfect
Partner

A paper crane. A recording. Two people on a rooftop.

Xiaoxiao brings a folded crane and a recording to a meeting with Xiaochao. As their conversation unfolds, the space between a public image and a private truth becomes harder to ignore.

“But why was it mine that you remembered wrong? Perhaps I’ve taken the place of one of your Schumanns, and stood in the way of Brahms.”

FROM THE PERFECT PARTNER · TRANSLATED FROM CHINESE

Written by Yichen Gao · 2025

A figure carries a letter down a narrow passageCONCEPT IMAGE

CURATORIAL PROPOSAL · DIGITAL EXPERIENCE

Who Gets to Sign
the Letter?

Follow a letter from the hand that writes it to the voice that describes it.

An exhibition proposal inspired by Double Carp, tracing the letter through writing, performance, delivery and interpretation. Its digital companion invites visitors to move through the story one station at a time.

Visit the digital companion ↗

ANOTHER WAY THROUGH

INTERACTIVE STORY · SHORT FILM

Before You Forward

A digital adaptation of The Perfect Partner unfolds through six moments: a fragment of a recording, a paper crane, the full conversation and an exhibition caption. The same sentence takes on different meanings as more of the conversation comes into view.

Source play and adaptation direction by Yichen Gao · Interface and film produced with a creative team · 2026

MOVING IMAGE

The letter, in motion.

Three short studies made with generative video. Each takes one motif from Double Carp, the sealed letter, the objects left on the dressing table, the messenger in the alley, and gives it a beat of movement.

STUDY 01 · GENERATIVE VIDEO

The Sealed Letter

An envelope on the dressing table, then window light crossing the mirror.

STUDY 02 · GENERATIVE VIDEO

Things Left on the Table

The objects around the mirror, a green glass box, a powder case, a pair of rings.

STUDY 03 · NARRATIVE STUDY

The Messenger

Chen Yu walks the walled lane with a letter in her hand.

MORE STORIES

ENGLISH SHORT STORY

The Name
on the Letter

As Chen Yu carries letters to the Xiang household, the people within them begin to change before her eyes. This English story extends Double Carp, turning towards the messenger’s waiting, desires and choices.

“She counted the stones in the courtyard. Forty-two.”

From The Name on the Letter

STORY DEVELOPMENT

Rumours of a
Wandering Poet

In a town on the outskirts of Shanghai, Moli, Lingzi and Liangzhu grow up between friendship, writing and the wish to leave. An unexpected journey brings them closer to one another and changes how they imagine what lies beyond.

“Wherever you take me, that is Shanghai.”

From Rumours of a Wandering Poet · translated from Chinese

THEATRE & CULTURAL PLANNING

Looking back,
looking forward.

A theatre season proposal that follows the Lu Yi spirit through memory, change, artistic exploration and the voices of a new generation.

Suyang · A season proposal

The proposal brings together four thematic programmes, a season calendar, ticketing and audience engagement. At its heart is Double Carp, imagined as an in-house production with its own stage, costume and makeup concepts.

Glimmer

History and memory

New Birth

Lives in a changing era

Exploration

Art and the market

Spring Shoots

Young theatre-makers

A play within the season

In the stage concept for Double Carp, two rooms share a table and two chairs, arranged differently in each space. A folding screen turns from painted flowers and birds to red as Zheng Yousheng’s inner world changes. Costume concepts explore the three central characters through colour, fabric and silhouette.

Read the Chinese proposal (PDF) ↗Read the English proposal (PDF) ↗
Stage and screen study from the Chinese proposalCostume study from the Chinese proposalCostume study from the Chinese proposalCostume study from the Chinese proposal

SET & SPACE STUDY

Built in three dimensions.

The room of Double Carp was worked out in 3D before it was written into the season proposal, a dressing table and its mirror, a folding screen that turns from painted flowers to red, and the joinery of the window that lets the light in. Modelled and rendered in Blender.

A round mirror on a dressing table lit by window light
The mirror, lit from the window
A staged interior with two chairs, a table and a folding screen
Two chairs, a table, a screen, in the viewport
A folding screen seen from behind, painted red
The screen from behind, red side
A close study of a wooden window frame and its latch
Window joinery, modelled

PHOTOGRAPHY & VISUAL WORK

Moments held
in the frame.

Portraits, performance, screen and design: an unfolding collection of images and visual work.

A person in a red jacket seated against a textured wallA person in red seated by dark wooden shuttersA person in a dark dress among treesA person in white standing in sunlightA person in a red jacket standing by a textured wallA close portrait of a person in redA person in a dark dress standing beneath treesA person in white beneath green leavesA performer beside a red table onstageA smiling performer in red onstageDancers move through a cloud of coloured lightA performer bends down on a lit stageA group in pale costumes onstageA group of dancers in black and whiteTwo performers in traditional costume onstageAn ensemble dressed in black, white and yellowA seated performer by a bookcaseA performer in red onstageA dancer leaps against a dark stageTwo performers embrace onstageTwo people seated in a classroomTwo people writing together at a classroom deskTwo people stand together by a blackboardA person looks upward in a classroomA person stands beside a classroom doorA person reads at a classroom deskA person seated at a classroom deskA portrait of a person in a white shirtA vertical illustrated layout in greenA newspaper-inspired graphic compositionInside pages of a green folding leafletOutside pages of a green folding leafletA flower card design

ABOUT

Yichen Gao
高亦晨

Yichen Gao standing under a ginkgo tree with a yellow leaf in her hand

I write about the distance between a person and the story told about them.

Yichen Gao is a writer working across writing, theatre, visual work and curatorial storytelling. She studies dramatic writing at the Central Academy of Drama and has worked in theatre publicity, where she has written for performances and their audiences.

Her practice returns to letters, objects and gestures: small things that carry a story from one person to another.