Culture

Girl and Dolls is a 1995 painting by Wu Hao, an artist best known for his colorful and nostalgic renditions of the Taiwan countryside.

By mixing traditional and contemporary, Eastern and Western, local and international, Taiwan’s artists in both the visual and performing arts are exploring different approaches and developing their own unique styles. Writers, similarly, are drawing on both global and nativist cultural codes to create new modes of literary expression, and explore issues of national concern.

Indigenous Arts

Eleven rich veins in Taiwan’s web of cultures are those of its 11 indigenous groups: the Amis 阿美, Atayal 泰雅, Bunun 布農, Kavalan 噶瑪蘭, Paiwan 排灣, Puyuma 卑南, Rukai 魯凱, Saisiyat 賽夏, Thao 邵, Tsou 鄒, and Yami 雅美.

Arts such as woodcarving, weaving, wickerwork, and pottery, as well as ceremonial dance and song, have always played central roles in indigenous life, and have strong traditions of individuality, innovation, and creativity.

The Paiwan and Rukai peoples of southern Taiwan, for example, are especially known for their woodcarvings of stylized human figures, geometric patterns, and images of the hundred-pacer snake. The Yami of Orchid Island are best known for their sturdy, hand-built boats made without nails or glue; and Atayal women use simple back-strap looms to create rectilinear patterns of squares, diamonds, and triangles.

Dance and music are among the richest legacies of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. Group-dances that are performed at a wide variety of ceremonies and rituals consist mostly of simple but harmonious walking and foot-stomping movements. They are usually performed in unison and accompanied by melodic choruses. Indigenous musical instruments include drums, simple stringed instruments, woodwind instruments (such as flutes), and other percussion instruments (rattles, wooden mortars and pestles).

In addition to traditional buildings scattered around Taiwan, two of the best places to view indigenous peoples?architecture are at the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village 九族文化村 near Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 in central Taiwan, and the Taiwan Aboriginal Culture Park 臺灣原住民文化園區 in Pingtung County. The Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines 順益臺灣原住民博物館 in Taipei offers detailed information on native cultures and histories.

Taiwan Folk Arts

Traditional handicrafts such as paper cutting, knotting, and dough figurine sculpture continue to be fairly common in Taiwan. Other apprentice-oriented folk arts are struggling to survive. Traditional performing arts such as puppetry, dragon and lion dancing, folk opera and dance, and traditional acrobatics have a tough time competing with TV, movies, and other modern-day activities.

Many folk arts have benefited from a revival of interest in recent years, however. The Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) 文化建設委員會supports numerous folk art festivals covering everything from paper umbrellas and lanterns, to Hakka “mountain songs,” drum dances, and comedy skits. The CCA also sponsors the Folk Art Heritage Awards 民族藝術薪傳獎 and the prestigious title of Folk Arts Master 重要民族藝術師. In 2002, the National Center for Traditional Arts 國立傳統藝術中心 was established in Yilan for the promotion and research of traditional arts.

Woodcarving and other temple crafts have also advanced in recent years; one significant project is the extensive renovation of the 200-year-old Zushih Temple 祖師廟 in Sansia 三峽 by some of Taiwan’s top craftspeople over the past four decades.

Woodblock printing is also experiencing a renewal of interest. Used especially for New Year hangings, woodcut prints are of a simple, rural style and commonly depict folk deities. Other traditional and modern printmaking techniques include lithography, silk-screening, and etching.

Puppetry

Three styles of puppetry are common in Taiwan: glove puppets 布袋戲, shadow puppets 皮影戲, and marionettes 傀儡戲. Glove puppets with finely embroidered costumes, exquisite headdresses, and delicately carved faces perform on elaborate stages covered with intricate gold carvings. Shadow puppets cut out of leather and painted in bright colors are larger; lit from behind and with joints allowing movement, the puppets throw a colorful and lively performance onto the white screen viewed by audiences. Marionette puppets are usually about two feet high and, manipulated by up to 14 strings, are usually presented in front of simple backdrops. Many of the stories used in puppet shows are adapted from classical literature or ancient legends.

Painting

A new generation of Taiwan painters appeared during the period of Japanese rule (1895-1945) whose subject matter, like that of the Impressionists, centered on daily life or local landscapes. Through their Nativist Art 鄉土藝術, characterized by a conscious desire to depict images evoking Taiwan’s unique identity, these oil painters had an important influence on Taiwan’s artistic development.

As Nativist Art was reaching its peak, relocation of the ROC government to Taipei in 1949 brought a sudden influx of traditional ink painters. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, however, many young artists, disillusioned with traditional styles but unable to connect with Japanese-trained Impressionism, were drawn to contemporary Western trends, Abstract Art in particular. The late 1960s and the 1970s saw a new nativist movement emerge, as artists once again painted local scenery and architecture, and explored folk art traditions.

Recent trends since the 1980s and 1990s have seen artists employ a much broader variety of styles and subject matters, and use their Taiwan consciousness as an important starting point for the expression of ideas relating to identity and filled with symbolic or metaphorical images.

Sculpture

Before the 1920s, the only forms of sculpture flourishing in Taiwan were those used in temple and folk arts. It was not until the 1970s, however, that sculpture was widely accepted as a fine-art genre, becoming a regular feature at galleries and museums in the 1980s. As in the West, Taiwan’s sculpture has also evolved into avant-garde forms of installation and performance art.

Ceramics

Taiwan contemporary ceramic art emerged in the late 1940s in Miaoli City 苗栗 and Yingge Township 鶯歌 in Taipei County. In the early 1950s, it broke out of ceramic factories into artistic workshops, experimenting with shapes and glazes, while remaining largely within traditional functional frameworks.

Exhibitions at the National Museum of History 國立歷史博物館 in the late 1960s and at private galleries in the 1970s led to creative ceramists gaining wider recognition, with a major boost coming with the opening of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum 臺北市立美術館 in 1983. The Chinese Ceramics Association 中華民國陶藝協會 was formed in 1992, and held its first festival the following year. The Yingge Ceramics Museum 鶯歌陶瓷博物館, Taiwan’s first, opened in 2000 to present the latest developments in Taiwan’s ceramics and to promote cultural exchanges with overseas artists.

Seal Carving

Carving names or other inscriptions onto chops was once a requisite skill for any well-rounded literati, along with painting and calligraphy. Nowadays, chops used for daily business transactions are generally machine carved; only a small number of artists still specialize in the art of engraving name chops by hand.

Typically made of wood, jade, or soft precious stones, the body of a name chop may be left plain or be sculpted into symbolic images such as lions or dragons. In addition to their use in business transactions, chops are imprinted onto traditional paintings and calligraphy to identify the artist and add aesthetic feeling.

Music

The four main professional Chinese music groups in Taiwan are the Taipei Municipal Chinese Classical Orchestra 臺北市立國樂團, National Chinese Orchestra 國立實驗國樂團, Kaohsiung Chinese Orchestra 高雄市國樂團, and Chinese Orchestra of the Broadcasting Corporation of China 中國廣播公司國樂團. At least another ten smaller ensembles perform regularly around the island. These musicians play mostly traditional Chinese instruments, but sometimes perform Western compositions or Chinese works that incorporate Western-style rhythms or harmonies.

There has also been renewed interest in preserving various types of traditional music including bei guan 北管 (a fast-tempo music that commonly accompanies operas and traditional puppet shows) and, especially, nan guan 南管 (a more delicate and soothing sound). The Changhua County Cultural Center 彰化縣立文化中心 houses the Nan Guan and Bei Guan Center 南北管音樂劇曲館.

Despite the important position of traditional Chinese music in Taiwan, Western classical music predominates. Many young classical musicians, having succeeded in international circles, have now returned to Taiwan as either visiting musicians or regular members of orchestras and chamber groups. The main Western-style orchestras are the National Symphony Orchestra 國家音樂廳交響樂團, Taipei Symphony Orchestra 臺北市立交響樂團, and National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra 國立臺灣交響樂團. Private orchestras and ensembles include the Taipei Sinfonietta and Philharmonic Orchestra 臺北愛樂室內及管弦樂團 and Ju Percussion Group 朱宗慶打擊樂團.

Drama

Taiwanese opera 歌仔戲 features colorful makeup and costumes, stage props, and stylized gestures. It was initially performed on outdoor stages; often in front of temples. Best-known is the Ming Hwa Yuan Theater Troupe 明華園歌劇團and the most celebrated actress is Yang Li-hua 楊麗花. Television performances of Taiwanese opera have also been important to its development since the 1960s.

Taiwan’s theater scene exploded in the 1960s with the so-called Little Theater Movement 小劇場運動. Private mini-theaters proliferated in the 1970s and directors experimented freely with stage techniques and imaginative interpretations of both local and Western plays. Pioneers included the Lan-ling Drama Workshop 蘭陵劇坊 and New Aspect Art Center 新象藝術中心. Several leading theater companies date from the mid-1980s; these include the Performance Workshop 表演工作坊 (which introduces collective improvisational theater) and Ping Fong Acting Troupe 屏風表演班 (which presents slapstick comedies satirizing Taiwan society). The Godot Theater Company 果陀劇場 combines theater, music, and dance in its performances, while the U Theater 優劇場 is dedicated to creating a form of contemporary theater expressing Taiwan’s unique identity.

Dance

Dance in Taiwan has become increasingly diverse since the late 1960s. Early pioneers of modern dance including Cai Ruei-yue 蔡瑞月 and Li Cai-e 李彩娥 began performing in the 1940s after studying European-influenced modern dance in Japan.

Other key figures who introduced modern dance to Taiwan include Liu Feng-shueh 劉鳳學 who formed the Neo-Classic Dance Company 新古典舞團, and Lin Hwai-min 林懷民 who founded the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre 雲門舞集 to express local identity, and which has gained a devoted local audience and deserved international reputation.

A number of smaller dance companies, many founded by former Cloud Gate members, have started up since the 1980s. These include Lin Siou-wei’s 林秀偉 Taigu Tales Dance Theater 太古踏舞團 (known for its meditative dances based on Asian philosophy), Liou Shao-lu 劉紹爐 and his Taipei Dance Circle 光環舞集 (using innovative choreography to create poetic displays of motion), Dance Forum Taipei 舞蹈空間 founded by Ping Heng 平珩 (mixing postmodernism with an Asian frame of reference), and the Legend Lin Dance Theater 無垢舞蹈劇場, founded and directed by Lin Li-jhen 林麗珍 (taking inspiration from Taiwanese folk traditions).

Cinema

Taiwan’s film industry was one of the healthiest in Asia in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though syrupy romances, grade-B kung fu movies, and moralistic or propaganda-oriented dramas predominated. The real breakthrough for Taiwan cinema came in 1982 with In Our Time 光陰的故事, featuring four talented young directors, Edward Yang 楊德昌, Tao De-chen 陶德辰, Ke I-jheng 柯一正, and Jhang Yi 張毅. By replacing earlier melodrama and escapism with a realistic take on Taiwanese life, the film won over audiences and paved the way for New Wave Cinema. Inspired initially by nativist literature of the 1960s and 1970s, New Wave directors, such as Hou Hsiao-hsien 侯孝賢, Edward Yang, and Wang Tong 王童, created a cinema with a unique Taiwanese flavor focusing on realistic and sympathetic portrayals of both rural and urban life, and examining the effects of the political, social, and economic developments in Taiwan.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a Second New Wave emerged with even greater variety of content and style, although the strong commitment to portraying Taiwan’s unique perspective continued. Important figures include Tsai Ming-liang 蔡明亮, Stan Lai 賴聲川, Lee Ang 李安, Wu Nien-chen 吳念真, Lin Cheng-sheng 林正盛.

Indigenous Literature

Indigenous intellectuals have been trying to recreate their cultural histories since the 1980s by re-expressing oral traditions. Stories of creation myths and tribal heroes have been transcribed by romanizing indigenous languages, and are published with Chinese translations. Such texts constitute a belated effort in the struggle for cultural survival and the preservation of languages and traditions, as even indigenous children resist using their native tongues.

Literature in Taiwan

In the 1950s, Taiwanese intellectuals emulated Western cultural and liberal-humanist traditions, favoring rationalism, scientism, and philosophical contemplation in their exploration of new spheres of human experience. In the 1960s and 1970s, young modernist writers broke new ground with bold analyses of nontraditional interpersonal relationships, and presented challenges to the conservative middle-class mentality that had been the backbone of Taiwan’s dominant culture until that time. Their conscious explorations of language and voice brought fundamental changes in rhetorical conventions of modern narrative. The early 1970s witnessed a reaction to modernism’s dominance of the literary scene. In the Modern Poetry Debate 現代詩論戰 of 1972, for example, critics advocated a nativist, socially-responsible literature. Using the Taiwanese language to depict the plight of rural or small town dwellers caught in economic difficulties, nativists attacked the government’s economic dependence on Western countries, expressed indignation on behalf of the farmers and workers who paid a high economic price for urban expansion, and attempted to draw public attention to the adverse effects of economic development. Such regionalist sentiment touched on the “provincial heritage problem” 省籍問題, that is, tensions between native Taiwanese and mainlanders. Excessive ideological concerns are considered to have detracted from their literary achievement. In any case, the trend declined suddenly in 1979 when several key Nativists exited the literary scene to become directly involved in political protests. Annual fiction contests sponsored by major newspapers from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s gave creative writing a solid boost, indeed, most baby-boom generation writers rose to prominence by winning such contests.

The cultural environment became largely consumer-oriented in the 1980s, with the literary scene dominated by baby-boomers concerned predominantly with their own popularity, their unique cultural identities, and various problems affecting Taiwan's middle-class urbanites. They displayed an abundance of local color but little ideological content. However, literature of the 1980s was increasingly pluralist.

From the mid-1980s onwards, as indigenous began to replace foreign as the primary source of exotic imagination, and as cultural identity began to occupy a more prominent place in the public consciousness, postmodernism became fashionable again. Issues about Western influence on contemporary Taiwanese literature were also discussed.

Like Taiwan, which had undergone great changes in national identity and multicultural diversification, Taiwan’s literature of the 1990s tended to mix genres and multilingual devices, drawing on a wide range of global and local cultural codes, idioms, and traditions, to express a fluid, albeit disoriented, structure of feelings. Many writers used reportage, science fiction, and biography to explore everyday political subjects and issues associated with Taiwan’s independence movement, minority discourse, political feminism, and environmental protection. It was in the Little Theater movement 小劇場 that serious political satire truly intermingled with comic relief. The stages used for mini plays could be in real theaters, or on the street, at city hall, or even in front of the Legislature.

Another important trend in the 1990s was the revival of the local vernacular tradition. Taiwanese, Hakka and even indigenous languages became alternative linguistic mediums for literary expression. This diversity of languages and customs is still enriching the literary expression of the people of Taiwan.