The year in review

Migration Music Festival

A fascinating mix of music groups from the four corners of the globe gave Da'an Forest Park an eclectic and festive atmosphere over two weekends in October. After last year, when the festival didn't take place, organizers went all out for a special series of shows complemented by well-attended seminars and workshops by the visiting musicians.

Liang Shan-po and Chu Ying-tai (The Love Eterne)

The craze for huang-mei musicals has not dimmed in the past 40 years, partly because of the classic movie The Love Eterne (梁山伯), a Chinese Romeo and Juliet. Movie star Ling Bo (凌波), now 63, led the original cast of the movie back on stage again in Taiwan in January. The National Chinese Orchestra added extra zest to the superb voices and gestures of the cast, which brought the audience to tears toward the end, when the lovers' spirits unite as butterflies. The cast returned again in October for another four shows and then went on tour in Singapore, Malaysia and Las Vegas.

Wedding Memories

With Wedding Memories (女兒紅), Hugh Lee (李國修) and the Ping Fong Acting Troupe managed to prove themselves wrong about the demise of Taiwanese drama. (Lee had even thought about closing up shop because of poor ticket sales.) To sell-out crowds, he presented his new show, which premiered on Nov. 3 this year and had audiences of all ages in tears and earned standing ovations from emotional crowds that must truly have warmed his heart. Wedding Memories follows in a line of semi-autobiographical works, in this case dealing with his family's relocation to Taiwan and his mother's nervous breakdown, all handled in a fine melodramatic tradition that touched a nerve among many Taiwanese. The work, which spans over two decades and switches between Shantung dialect, Mandarin, Taiwanese and Hakka, and deals with complex political and emotional issues, tries to encompass a uniquely Taiwanese experience and is a worthy successor to Beijing Opera: The Revelation.

Tibetan Freedom Concert

Taiwan hosts some grand outdoor music festivals, but few concerts boast international names as big as the Beastie Boys. While their performance would have faired better in a smaller venue (minus a few thousand drunk and aggressive foreigners), an important cause, great sound quality and a highly charged atmosphere helped the occasion.

Matsu Procession Festival

No event can unveil the genuine colors of Taiwan's religious culture better than the yearly procession of Matsu, a sea-goddess worshipped by fishermen, in central Taiwan. The event, which falls on the third month of the lunar calendar, lasts seven nights and eight days and goes from Dajia, Taichung County, to Hsingang, Chiayi County, covering a distance of more than 280km. To show their belief in the goddess, thousands of followers each year make the trip on foot and sleep in temples along the way to practice the virtue of thrift. Many residents on the procession route offer free drinks and food to the adherents to display their appreciation for the goddess' blessings.

National Symphony Orchestra: Tosca

The best show we saw in 2003 took place in the early hours of the year when Chien Wen-pin (簡文彬) conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in a lyrical rendering of the opera Tosca, semi-staged by Cloud Gate's artistic director Lin Hwai-min (林懷民). Something about it was uniquely moving -- the large cat fondled by the villain Scarpia at the beginning of Act Two, perhaps, or the way that Ilan-born Chen Yen-ling, having just killed him, clacked across the stage in her high heels after the music had ended. An incomparable experience.