A NEW show at the Edinburgh Fringe is sparking a conversation around relationships and disability.
Aaron Pang was influenced by his own experience of navigating dating as a disabled person to create Falling: A Disabled Love Story.
Speaking to The National, Pang – who is based in the US – reflected on the preconceived notions that able-bodied people have around disability and sex.
His show explores the complicated world of online dating, drawn from Pang's own experience of using a cane following a spinal cord injury at the age of 18 – and being unsure whether to show the cane in his profile.
"The few times I haven't [shown the cane], and I meet someone, they always lean in and ask what happened – the show is trying to answer that question," he told The National.
"I'm tired of answering the question to each individual person, so I'm trying to pack every single Uber driver and curious auntie and random stranger on the street into a room and get it done in one go."
Falling: A Disabled Love Story challenges the narrative around disability, offering an unflinching insight into online dating, paying for sex and navigating intimacy.
"The goal is to change people's minds," Pang said.
"This is a thing that not a lot of people think about, in terms of how disabled people date and how they have sex and how they find love."
Pang added that people often avoid talking about disability and sex, or they might pretend or assume that disabled people don't have sex.
He told The National: "People don't think about disabled people as sexual beings, they think about, 'you need to learn how to walk, you need to heal first'.
"But I've healed as much as I can, it's time to move on with life – there's all sorts of life to be lived.
Pang said that assumptions around sex and disability often depend on cultural standards.
He told The National: "A lot of western cultures are very hush, hush about it, because they don't want to make you feel bad, because they think that they have some preconceived notion that it might get in the way.
"In reality, I do want to talk about it, I'm comfortable talking about it. It's them who are uncomfortable."
Reflecting on his Chinese background, he said: "In eastern cultures they can be a lot more blunt, which is sometimes a benefit as opposed to people tiptoeing around it, and it can be very uncomfortable."
'Disabled stories are our stories'
It is Pang's first time at the Edinburgh Fringe – and the first large piece of work he is performing as a solo artist.
While he feels excitement, there is also a level of apprehension, particularly when it comes to considerations around accessibility that able-bodied people are less likely to need to take into account: Access to venues, Edinburgh's cobblestones, or the need to preserve energy for the day.
Pang said that Pleasance – which runs the venue he is performing in – has been "on top of accessibility".
He stressed the importance of the Edinburgh Fringe being a festival which is not only accessible to everyone, but also platforms disabled artists and their stories.
The team behind Falling: A Disabled Love Story is Pang, who stars in the show, and his partner Connie Chen, who is the show's director and is also disabled.
Pang stressed the importance of having the show created and led by disabled people, as he told The National: "This is disabled art at its core, and it's really important that it is disabled people forming it."
He added: "We are the future. Everybody becomes disabled. You either die early or you become disabled.
"Disabled stories are our stories."
Falling: A Disabled Love Story is at Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker 2), July 30 to August 25 at 3pm.
