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The archive of emptiness

By Vico Lee
STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
Sunday, Nov 16, 2003, Page 18

The shelves at the newly opened Ethnic Music Archive have yet to be filled up. PHOTO: VICO LEE, TAIPEI TIMES

Before the expectant eyes of music academics, the Research Institute of Musical Heritage (民族音樂研究所) opened its Ethnic Music Archive (民族音樂資料館) in downtown Taipei at the end of last month, but it proved to be a rather disappointing showing.

The country's first archive devoted to ethnomusicology, a relatively new field of musical study in Taiwan and worldwide, appeared to be in a half-finished state despite having taken 13 years to build. There has been criticism that the archive is lacking in research articles and ethnic music publications and was opened ahead of time for political reasons.

The Ethnic Music Archive includes folk music, operas, dance music, religious and contemporary music from around the world, with a focus on ethnic music from Taiwan. Its two-story, 200-ping space is divided into a reading room, audio-visual room, research room and a open-shelf library. It also holds performances and seminars on weekends. Lifetime membership costs NT$100 and allows anyone access to its digital and open-shelf collections.

The former office of the Council of Agriculture now houses the Ethnic Music Archive, the country's first library devoted to ethnomusicology. PHOTO: VICO LEE, TAIPEI TIMES

The setting up of the archive was a long tortuous process. In its original plan, broached by late musicologist Hsu Chang-huei (許常惠), the archive was part of a planned independent research institute called the Ethnic Music Center. A preparation team was set up in 1990 under the Council for Cultural Affairs (文建會). In 1993, Taipei County's Chungho City Office agreed to provide a 3.75 hectare site in its No. 4 Park for its construction. Four years later, the Executive Yuan deemed the construction incompatible with that of the National Taiwan Library, which was to be built at the same park. The CCA found another park in Chungho for its construction in 1999, but local pressure and land regulations delayed its construction.

Around the same time, the government's financial situation made such a large project unfeasible. In 2000, the new administration adjusted the country's cultural policies toward strengthening "cultural software" instead of hardware, so that the CCA combined the institute with the existing National Traditional Arts Center (國立傳統藝術中心).

The archive has also been condensed into the less than 200-ping space of a former office building, on loan from the Council of Agriculture, to save construction cost. Its original functions of gathering, researching, and displaying ethnic music materials, remain unchanged.

Despite the long delay, the archive's opening is still a positive development in ethnic music research, said Lin Huei-kuan (林慧寬), general director of China Found Music Workshop (采風樂坊), a traditional Chinese music education institute. In the past, Lin said, she had to visit several separate places, such as Taipei University Arts library and the CCA's shop, for traditional music materials. "There was a serious lack of one comprehensive collection," Lin said.

Although many in the music field are happy to see the archive finally materialized, it's not without its critics. On Nov. 3, five days after its opening, a Chinese-language daily reported that the archive's digital collection could not be accessed and its printed collection consists only of second-hand materials, all of which are available on the market. The archive, it reported, may have been opened prematurely, for political reasons.

Since the news came out, Hu Wei-chiao (胡偉姣), director of the archive, has been unavailable for an interview, despite repeated requests from the Taipei Times.

Huang Yu-cheng (黃于真), one of the nine specialists at the archive, said staff are currently processing raw materials into digital forms, so the digital collection is not yet available. It will be open at the end of this month at the earliest. The available part, Huang said, is the open-shelf collection of 28,000 publications, of which roughly 10 percent are in English and Japanese. As of Wednesday, it had issued 30 membership cards, including some 10 honorary memberships to scholars, or officials involved in its preparation.

Ke Chi-lang (柯基良), chairman of the National Center for Traditional Arts, admitted the newspaper report had some truth in it. "Many of the periodicals can be found on the market, but there are also very professional and rare materials, such as research into Aboriginal music in the 1940s by Taiwan's Lu Bin-chuan (呂炳川) and Japan's Takatomo Kurosawa. We will also be adding a series of original religious, Aboriginal and Hakka music research articles by the CCA to our collection at the end of this year. There are also collection indices of similar archives in foreign countries," Ke said.

The open-shelf area contains many fine-arts publications unrelated to ethnic music, the Taipei Times found, meaning the actual collection of ethnic music publications is fewer than the 28,000 items claimed. Ke admitted that these books were purchased over a decade ago for a cultural library in the archive's large-scale original form but somehow got transferred here. Ke promised to look into the matter.

Hsu Ruei-kun (許瑞坤), dean of Graduate Institute of Ethnomusicology at National Normal University, conceded that the archive is not comprehensive enough, but still helpful to academics.

"Professor Hsu [Chang-huei]'s original plan for the archive has been condensed to a very large extent, but it's still better than nothing. I think we should give people at the institute their due credit for making the effort. It's not only helpful to academia but also to the general public," Hsu said.

Ethnic music materials are few and hard to find in Taiwan, said Wang Yin-feng (王櫻芬), associate professor at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of Musicology, and that is why the archive has its merits in making such materials accessible to everyone. "As we lack music libraries in Taiwan the archive is helpful in having gathered the materials under one roof," Wang said.

"One of the most urgent issues in music academic circles is that each scholar does his or her own research, unaware of what other scholars have done. The archive serves as a gathering ground for their works, and it eases the circulation of information."

However, the volume of the archive's collection, both Wang and Hsu agreed, needs to expand.

"A real archive needs its own first-hand materials, gathered through field work by its own researchers, and that is what the archive lacks at present, because its research team is understaffed," Wang said.

Hsu admitted the opening had been rushed. "It was opened a bit early, but not too early. If we waited until everything was ready to start operation, that day would never have come. You can never say an archive is complete," Hsu said.

"It's true that we don't have everything. But we already have over 20,000 items so why not let people use them as soon as possible? Some people said our shelves were not full, but even if they are, they won't satisfy every reader. It's hard to say when the library will be complete, but we're making efforts step by step," Ke said.

Wang believed that opening the archive will speed the expansion of its collection.

"The opening was a bit rushed but if we waited for the collection to be complete, we don't know how long we would have to wait. Academics have been anxious to see it established for a long time. Its collection is not enough, but at least now that it's opened, it's subject to public scrutiny, and that will probably help beef up the collection more efficiently.

"What it needs now is people's faith in it. If those who have done their field work and research are willing to share their collection with the archive, its collection will grow," Wang said. "Its goal to internationalize its collection and plan for exchanges with ethnic music institutes abroad are in the right direction," Wang said.

The Research Institute of Musical Heritage and its Ethnic Music Archive are located at 26 Hangzhou N Rd, Taipei (台北市杭州北路二十六號).
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