Taiwan's traditional arts find a new home

With no immediate end in sight to the political wrangling over the cost effectiveness and operational strategies of Taiwan's 20 national museums, the nation's newest such national institution has luckily managed to avoid being dragged into the fray.

Which is probably just as well. With costs totaling NT$2.2 billion to date, chances are that the National Center of Traditional Arts (NCTA, 國立傳統藝術中心), located in Ilan County's Wujie Township (五結鄉), would not be opening for business tomorrow had the idea for the center not been put forward almost a decade ago.

"With the present hullabaloo surrounding the nation's museums, we were lucky that the planning stage was completed six years ago when the government was more than happy to promote the arts and gave generously to such institutes," said Ko Chi-liang (柯基良), director of the NCTA. "Otherwise I'm sure we would not be moving into our new premises."

The organizational side of the NCTA was set up by the Council for Cultural Affairs, under the Executive Yuan in 1996 so that it might take over responsibility for the promotion and coordination of the nation's many traditional arts groups.

Since its founding, the NCTA has played a major role in the organizing of performances by some of Taiwan's oldest and most prestigious opera groups, such as the Lanyang Opera Troupe (蘭陽戲劇團).

Along with organizing performances nationwide, the center is responsible for publishing traditional arts-related magazines, including the popular Traditional Arts Bimonthly (傳統藝術雙月刊). The NCTA has also been heavily involved with the production of audio recordings of music of the Hakka and Aborigines.

"The work that the center has pursued over the years has been very important," explained Chen Wen-han (陳文漢), head of the Lanyang Opera Troupe. "Through publications, recordings and performances, it has managed to breathe new life into and generate new interest in our traditional art forms." Popularity of traditional performance art, such as peikuan and nankuan opera (北南管戲), glove puppet theater (布袋戲) and shadow opera (皮影戲) to name but a few, were, according to Chen, on the brink of becoming little more than footnotes in the pages of history books when the center took control in 1996.

"I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that, without the intervention of the NCTA, we could have seen some traditional arts disappear completely," Chen said. "Because of the many performances they have organized, we have seen an increase in interest in traditional arts. And when the center in Ilan opens, Taiwan's traditional arts will reach an even larger audience." While several of the nation's larger cities were considered as locations for the NCTA, the final decision to locate outside of a major west-coast metropolis was two-fold.

"First, as all the cities have their own arts centers, we figured that moving outside of the major cities was the only way to go," explained the center's director. "And second, we needed to ensure that both the land on which it was constructed and the surrounding area afforded an environment which would attract tourism."

After much deliberation and a bit of incentive from the Ilan County government, who offered to foot a large percentage of the final bill, an empty 24 hectare-plot of land in the heart of the Ilan County's fish-farming district was chosen.