During this time A-kiang learned first hand about the intricacies of the local operatic art form.
"Traditional Taiwanese opera is built around individual songs. Performers sang one song and there was a break before the next tune," A-kiang said. "I set out to bridge the gap between songs. Modern Taiwanese opera is more expressive, it moves at a less staggered pace and because of this I think it is accepted better by younger audiences, without whom the art form would have no future."
Although no longer politically active A-kiang's latest project sees him paying homage to one of his boyhood heroes. On July 31 a special one-off performance will take place in Ilan to commemorate the death 20 years ago of the pioneer of the tangwai and democracy movement, Kuo Yu-hsin (郭雨新).
The special performance might be musically different from his more operatic roots, with church music forming the basis for the concert, but the artistic director hasn't let his creativity slide. The church music will be amalgamated into various classical and orchestrated works and folk crooner Chen Ming-chang (陳明章) will also be adding his voice to A-kiang's latest hybrid musical concoction.
While A-kiang has been responsible for staging countless traditional Taiwanese operas and an equally impressive number of crossover operas over the past 15 years he has never released an album. All this is set to change later this year, however, when he enters the recording studio for the first time.
With backing from the National Center for Traditional Arts (國立傳統藝術中心) in Ilan and with help from the Taichung based National Taiwan Orchestra and several eminent members of Taiwanese opera troupes, he plans to create an operatic fusion of modern, classical and contemporary sounds. Recording and production dates have yet to be set, but according to A-kiang, Matthew Lien has shown interest in producing the work and is expected to take the helm later in the year.
"This is going to be a new line of thinking for me, as it is the first ever time I've recorded a CD. It will be different, but if it succeeds I think it will offer people the chance to hear something very different and original," he said.
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