Taiwanese Opera
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Taipei award to honor cultural luminaries
Dragon boat maker Liu Ching-cheng, Taiwanese opera promoter Sun Rong-hui and the Godot Theatre Company are the winners of the 20th Taipei Culture Award, the Taipei City Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs revealed Oct. 4. “This year’s award is meant to honor and encourage those who are devoted to integrating cultures, sharing their experiences and enhancing Taiwan’s visibility,” a DCA official said. The three were selected from 45 individual and group candidates, and will each be granted NT$500,000 (US$15,900) at an award ceremony set for late November. Boat racing is a popular tradition in Taiwan during Dragon Boat Festival, which takes place on the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar calendar. Liu began learning how to make dragon boats in 1959. Utilizing traditional methods passed down through his family for five generations, the 74-year-old master craftsman has completed some 150 vessels. In 1989, Liu gifted two boats to the German city of Hamburg to celebrate its 800th anniversary. Since then, dragon boat racing has gained in popularity in the country, according to the DCA. Sun Rong-hui, now in his 70s, was once a martial arts director for well-known Taiwanese opera troupes and established his own, the Yi-Shin Taiwanese Opera Troupe, in 1989. Sun’s troupe has been trying to cultivate a broader audience by employing modern theater technology and exploring subjects rarely seen in traditional Taiwanese opera. The Godot Theatre Company was founded by a group of drama majors in 1988. “Since its first production, ‘The Zoo Story,’ the troupe, with its remarkable innovative strength, has been organically merging the classical and the modern, as well as Eastern and Western traditions,” the DCA noted. Taking its name from “Waiting for Godot” by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, the theater is also known for its efforts to cultivate young talent. The Taipei Culture Award has honored 55 individuals and groups since 1997. Recipients of the award come from many different sectors of Taiwan’s cultural community, from traditional arts and literature to architecture. (OC-E)
Fruits of Diversity
By MEG CHANG Publication Date: September 1, 2016 Source: Taiwan Review Three individuals highlight the invaluable contributions new immigrants are making to Taiwan society. Taiwan has experienced significant growth in immigration from Southeast Asia during the past several decades. According to the Ministry of the Interior (MOI), over 150,000 of the nation’s more than half a million new immigrants hail from the region, while Ministry of Education (MOE) statistics show over 123,000 elementary and junior high school students, or 6.2 percent of the total, have a parent from Southeast Asia. In addition to enhancing the country’s ethnic and cultural diversity, these new immigrants are making significant contributions to society by fostering closer links with the nations of their birth. Under the government’s New Southbound Policy, Taiwan is seeking to expand business, cultural and educational ties with South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and the government anticipates first- and second-generation immigrants will play a significant role in the implementation of this initiative. The vast majority of new immigrants from Southeast Asia moved to the country through marriage to Republic of China (Taiwan) citizens. Various ministries have formulated policies to help these residents integrate into society and ensure second-generation immigrants possess knowledge of their parents’ mother tongues and cultures. In particular, the MOI administers a NT$1 billion (US$30.8 million) New Immigrants Development Fund, through which it offers financial support to a range of programs including child care services, job training courses and language classes. The fund contributed a total of about NT$98 million (US$3 million) to such projects in the first half of this year. These efforts to foster social inclusion are already paying dividends, as evidenced by the achievements of many recent immigrants. History-Maker Cambodia-born Lin Li-chan (林麗蟬) made history in February this year when she was sworn in as the country’s first-ever new immigrant lawmaker. A naturalized ROC citizen, she represents the main opposition Kuomintang in the Legislative Yuan, the nation’s highest lawmaking body. Lin is quick to note she does not consider her election as a legislator-at-large to be a personal achievement. Rather, “it marks a positive development for Taiwan,” she said. “I genuinely believe that in Taiwan’s inclusive society, anyone can achieve whatever they set their mind to, regardless of their ethnic background.” Born in Phnom Penh in 1977, Lin came to the country 19 years ago for marriage. Her husband, Xie Shui-jin (謝水金), owns a manufacturing business in the central Taiwan county of Changhua. During her first seven years in Taiwan, Lin gave birth to two children and lent a hand in the family business. While helping a friend prepare for a beautician certification exam in 2004, Lin was inspired to expand her own professional horizons. She became a volunteer at her children’s school before later enrolling in college and ultimately earning a master’s degree in nonprofit organization management from National Chi Nan University (NCNU) in central Taiwan’s Nantou County. Over the past decade, Lin has spearheaded a variety of community projects in Changhua, including setting up a small library and arranging book readings and other activities for immigrants and locals. In 2011, she and more than 30 other foreign-born spouses founded the Association of Development and Communication for New Immigrants. “Volunteer work is at the core of Taiwan society and provides a great opportunity for new residents to learn about the country,” she stressed. Speaking from her own experiences, Lin said the government has done an excellent job of helping new immigrants adjust to life in Taiwan, especially in the first five years after their arrival. “But in the subsequent stages of their lives here, they face different challenges, like participating in their children’s education and finding employment. It’s important that the government places a greater focus on helping them address concerns in these areas.” Given the rapid changes in the economies of Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries, Lin said new immigrant residents “are big assets, especially as the government is keen on expanding economic and cultural ties with member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.” While Lin does not see herself as a role model, she encourages new immigrants to become more active in their communities. “In Taiwan, what truly defines you is not your background, but who you are and what you do,” she said. Star Performer A resident of southern Taiwan’s Chiayi County, 30-year-old Nguyen Ngoc Anh (阮安妮), or simply Annie to her family and friends in Taiwan, is proud of her status as the first Taiwanese opera singer of Vietnamese birth. Annie came to the country in 2005 as a performer in the National Circus of Vietnam. The circus had been invited to spend a one-year residency in Chiayi and during her time in the county she met her future husband Chang Fang-yuan (張芳遠), whose family runs the Xin-Li-Mei Taiwanese Opera Troupe. The couple tied the knot the following year. Unable to speak the local languages of Mandarin and Holo, Annie initially struggled after settling down in Chiayi. “I had no friends here and I could barely communicate with my in-laws,” she said. However, with the help of local support groups, she quickly improved her language skills and integrated into society. “The friendly people of Taiwan really made me feel at home,” she noted. After giving birth to two daughters, Annie was asked to help out in the family business, initially by playing walk-on roles. Despite her prior stage experience, she found it challenging to learn Taiwanese opera, a traditional dramatic art combining acting and singing in Holo, the language of Taiwan’s largest ethnic group. “I knew nothing about this folk art and I couldn’t even read the scripts,” she explained. But with hard work and perseverance, she managed to pick up the necessary skills and eventually became the diva of the troupe. “I understand my ethnic background is a big draw for audiences, but I want to be recognized for the quality of my performances,” she said. In addition to touring with her family’s troupe, Annie is pursuing a career in television and has already earned parts in several productions. Her story has also received extensive media coverage and was the subject of an award-winning documentary, “God’s Play.” While Annie has found success in her career, she has experienced challenges in her personal life, with her youngest daughter requiring dialysis due to a birth defect. Annie said she is grateful for the quality of care provided by the National Health Insurance system and is happy with her life in Taiwan. “I will continue my work with the troupe because it’s an important part of local culture.” Baking Up a Storm Nguyen My Lan (阮美蘭), also from Vietnam, saw her entrepreneurial dream come true when she opened a bakery four years ago in northern Taiwan’s Hsinchu County. The business has become so successful that she sometimes has to work up to 16 hours a day to meet the huge demand for her sponge cakes. She came to Taiwan in 2000 through marriage. After giving birth to the first of her two children, Nguyen found a job at a local bakery to help support her family. She ultimately worked there for about a decade before deciding to use the skills she had acquired to start her own business. “I was committed to making it work so my daughter and son wouldn’t have to go through the same hardships that I did back in Vietnam,” she said. “I also wanted to use the profits to help others and share with people the happiness I get from baking.” Although Nguyen received positive feedback when she launched trial sales of her cakes, her business failed to turn a profit in its first year owing to her lack of management and marketing experience. The financial stress she endured during this period took a toll on her health and impacted her family life. “I was under so much pressure that I almost quit.” Help came when her daughter’s teacher found out about her predicament during a family visit organized through an MOE program offering educational consulting services to new immigrant parents. The teacher referred Nguyen’s case to the MOI’s National Immigration Agency (NIA), which helped promote her new venture. Soon afterward, a local newspaper ran a story about the bakery, which led to further media coverage, and orders started pouring in. “The publicity really helped my business. Many people also called to show their support and their kind words gave me the strength to continue,” Nguyen said, adding that sales have increased fifty-fold since her first year. “I wouldn’t have pulled through without the help of the NIA and the friendly people of Taiwan.” The baker regularly donates cakes to charitable organizations and whenever possible visits a local care facility for people with special needs on weekends. Her good deeds were recognized in 2015 when she was named an Immigrant of the Year by the Hsinchu County Government. “I’ve been blessed with very generous support, so it’s only natural that I give back to society,” she said. New Possibilities for Southeast Asian Migrant Workers Foreign workers can make an equally significant contribution to the government’s New Southbound Policy as immigrant residents if their capabilities are properly utilized, according to Hsu Jui-hsi (徐瑞希), chairperson of the Taipei-based Global Workers’ Organization (GWO). Ministry of the Interior figures show there were about 590,000 migrant workers from Southeast Asian nations in Taiwan at the end of 2015. These immigrants play a vital role in the economy, helping address worker shortages in key sectors such as caregiving and labor-intensive manufacturing. Established in 2013, GWO is among a number of nonprofit organizations that have emerged in recent years to protect the rights of migrant workers, promote their social inclusion and facilitate cross-cultural exchanges and understanding. A former journalist and TV producer, Hsu founded GWO after hiring a Filipino nanny and being inspired by her constant kindness and dedication to helping her family back in the Philippines. The organization operates Taiwan’s first multilanguage online news channel focusing on migrant worker issues. The site is available in Cambodian, English, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Tagalog, Thai and Vietnamese. Hsu said migrant workers already help foster people-to-people contacts between Taiwan and Southeast Asia and, given the opportunity and proper training, could assist local firms in expanding their presence in the region. “Even after returning home at the end of their contracts, they could still prove valuable in improving Taiwan’s business links with their countries,” she said. These individuals can also help boost inbound tourism from Southeast Asian nations, a key facet of the New Southbound Policy, Hsu noted. “With their language skills, they could offer immediate assistance to local businesses in this field,” she said. Hsu praised recent government efforts to bolster the social integration of these workers and expand their rights, noting the Ministry of Labor has taken an important step in the right direction by implementing regulatory revisions that allow qualified migrants who have been employed in Taiwan for more than 12 years to extend their stays. “If the New Southbound Policy is to achieve its desired effects, migrant workers must not be left on the sidelines.”
More Than Just a Theater
By DAVID MEAD Publication Date: July 1, 2016 Source: Taiwan Review Home to Taiwan’s most celebrated dance company, the Cloud Gate Theater is a popular visitor attraction and vibrant cultural center. Overlooking the Tamsui River, the elegant Cloud Gate Theater nestles into the hillside between Huwei Fort, built in 1886, and the almost century-old Taiwan Golf and Country Club. The main building, which officially opened to the public in April 2015, is surrounded by greenery and houses a state-of-the-art 450-seat theater, two studios that can be easily converted into black box theaters, and a third, smaller studio. The site also has a 1,500-capacity outdoor event space. Located in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District, the multifunctional cultural complex is home to Cloud Gate, Taiwan’s leading dance company. It was born out of necessity after a 2008 blaze destroyed the troupe’s old rehearsal studio, archives and offices across the river in Bali District. Cloud Gate Culture and Arts Foundation Executive Director Yeh Wen-wen (葉芠芠) recalled that she and other senior Cloud Gate staff first visited what would become their new home, then an abandoned Central Radio Station facility, three days after the fire. “We’d looked at so many different sites. It was the last visit of that day,” she said. “We didn’t hope for too much, but the setting was beautiful. It was a bit like our old home.” While the two-story building needed a lot of renovation work, the company’s directors were impressed by the structure and surroundings. “It was almost like a miracle; high ceilings, no pillars,” said Cloud Gate Dance Theatre Artistic Director Lin Hwai-min (林懷�000“Wen-wen and I looked at each other in a way that said it all.” Initially, Yeh explained, they simply intended to build a new rehearsal space, but after seeing the site in Tamsui decided to add a theater, an exhibition venue and enough archive, office and rehearsal space for the company’s two touring groups and support staff. “It’s the first time in our 40 years that Cloud Gate, Cloud Gate 2, and the administrative and technical staff have been together as one group,” she said. “The dream became very big.” The next step was gaining permission to use the site. After lengthy discussions, Cloud Gate signed a build-operate-transfer contract with the New Taipei City Government that gives the modern dance company the right to renovate and manage the site for 40 years provided no public funds are involved. At the end of the term, the complex transfers back to the city. Remarkably, there was no fundraising campaign to finance the project, though unsolicited donations soon started arriving, ranging from NT$100 (US$3) contributions from local schoolchildren to a US$5 million gift from the Chicago-based Alphawood Foundation. The names of all the donors are now carved into a wooden wall at the entrance to the theater, a reminder of the debt owed to supporters large and small. Paraphrasing Tennessee Williams, Lin said: “We really live on the mercy of strangers.” Architectural Innovation The Cloud Gate Theater has quickly become a visitor attraction in its own right. The main building was designed by celebrated architect Huang Sheng-yuan (黃聲遠), whose firm, Fieldoffice Architects, is based in northeastern Taiwan’s Yilan County. Yeh praised Huang for his ability to bridge the old and the new, both in design and materials. Theater auditoriums are usually dark places, but Huang was keen to admit lots of natural light. The outcome is an innovative design that sees the stage backed by huge windows. “For rehearsals, we can open the back curtain and you see this beautiful golf course, and for performances you have the curtain down and everything becomes dark,” Yeh said. “With it up, it almost seems like you’re sitting outdoors.” Some outside troupes who have staged shows at the theater have asked to perform with the curtain open so the audience can see their production in natural light. They might also see birds flying and people swinging golf clubs. But with the curtain up, performances have to possess much more power, Yeh noted. “You’re fighting against nature, and the outdoors is always more appealing,” she said. Since the design called for a 450-seat theater, the building had to be tall. This brought with it the danger that the structure would dominate the landscape. To help make the building part of its surroundings, an additional 200 trees were planted around the site. “I wanted to erase the concrete, erase the steel, those hard things,” Lin said, adding that he loves the site best during summer, when the trees are all in leaf and hide the theater completely. “The space puts us in touch with nature and the ocean. It’s fabulous; the layers, the steps, the lawn, the cliff, and then far away there is the ocean.” The oddly shaped roof invariably causes comment among visitors. Made from copper, it is already turning green and blending with the environment. “Some people say it’s a mushroom, some think it’s a UFO, and some say it’s a cloud,” Lin noted. Another notion is that it was designed to reflect the outline of Guanyinshan, or Mt. Guanyin, on the opposite side of the Tamsui River. “The architect never revealed its meaning,” Yeh said. “It’s whatever you want it to be.” Center of Collaboration The new theater is about more than Cloud Gate. The two Cloud Gate companies are on tour for between 150 and 200 days a year, during which time other groups are allowed to use the facilities to rehearse, perform and conduct technical tryouts. “It’s of benefit to both sides,” Yeh said. “We’re learning a lot about how to present different companies and how to collaborate with different artists.” A Cloud Gate Art Makers Project has been launched using money from a prize Lin won last year, offering grants to creative talents younger than 35. Presently, the program is open only to dance presentations, but the plan is to extend it to theatrical works. “Choreographers will use the space for free, and we’re going to pay their dancers for rehearsals,” Lin explained. While there is no formal mentoring, Cloud Gate’s artistic director said he is more than happy to observe and discuss work if asked. The choreographers may give a studio performance at the end of their time, but it is not compulsory. “We are not going to squeeze them or push them,” he emphasized. The kind of spirit that saw Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and now Cloud Gate 2 perform on campuses and in rural areas across Taiwan is being carried on through the site. Art is for everyone, Lin stressed, adding he wants to transform the troupe’s new home into a cultural center for the community. One of the ways the company is achieving this is by hosting a diverse variety of events and performances. Last fall, the Migration Music Festival, an annual gathering of folk musicians from around the world, moved to the site. And the Golden Bough Theatre performed its classic “Troy, Troy…Taiwan,” a modern drama rooted in traditional Taiwanese opera, at the site’s outdoor space. Besides dance, indoor shows have included a six-hour comedy marathon from the Tainaner Ensemble; puppet theater by the Flying Group Theatre of Taiwan; and various concerts. Meanwhile, the ongoing Cloud Gate Forum series presents conversations with well-known figures. Upcoming speakers include documentary filmmaker Yang Li-chou (楊力州) and author Wu Ming-yi (吳�000. Cultural Destination Yeh admitted there was initially a concern that the location of the theater, which is over 20 kilometers from central Taipei, would put people off coming, but the site welcomed more than 80,000 visitors in its first 10 months. For performances, a free shuttle bus that people can sign up for online runs to and from Tamsui Metro Station. “That helps a lot,” she said. There does not need to be a performance for people to visit the center, however. “There is no door. The grounds are always open,” Yeh said. Visitors can simply walk around the site, explore the bookstore or sample some of the delights in the cafe. Dotted around outside are sculptures by noted Taiwan artist Ju Ming (朱銘). Inside, a small gallery houses “In Between the Moments: Cloud Gate in a Photographer’s Memory,” a display of photographs by Liu Chen-hsiang (劉�000. The Cloud Gate Art Gallery hosts temporary exhibitions, with this summer’s being “Cut-outs and Alive” by Jam Wu (吳耿禎), a series of intricate large paper cut-outs. “I want to have things like this that are accessible to everyone,” Lin said. “We’re not going into avant-garde things.” In discussing Yeh, his longtime colleague, Lin recalled that he “first met Wen-wen in 1983 when I started the dance department at what was then the National Institute of the Arts [now Taipei National University of the Arts]. I was looking for an assistant. I was impressed and hired her straight away. Over a cup of tea, I asked her, ‘What’s your dream?’ She said, ‘I’ve always wanted to have a theater.’ So after this place opened, during another meeting over another cup of tea, I said, ‘Wen-wen, you have your theater.’” The Cloud Gate Theater is much more than just a performance venue, however. “The four seasons are very clear here,” Yeh said. “In the springtime you hear the birds and smell the flowers; in the summer it is very hot, of course; and winter is freezing; but it’s always beautiful.” Lin agreed, adding that it is “bigger, better and more beautiful than I ever expected.” But he emphasized what is most important is that it is a place for the future. David Mead is a dance critic, choreographer and teacher with a particular interest in Taiwan. He is the editor of SeeingDance.com and writes extensively for Dancing Times and other international publications.
Knowledge Graph
Examples
1 Taiwanese (folk) opera is the only form of traditional drama known to have originated in Taiwan.
2 The language used in Taiwanese opera is a stylized combination of both literary and colloquial registers of Taiwanese Hokkien.
3 Taiwanese opera is considered as the embodiment of Taiwanese history and tradition because the political identity crisis of Taiwan shaped its development.