Next week's Christmas Concert is something out of the ordinary for the German Cultural Center in Taipei. It's a solo event for a Bavarian zither-player, Willie Huber. The zither is a popular instrument in south Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and Christmas tunes are often played on it. Nonetheless, this particular venue's focus is usually on things rather more experimental.
Jurgen Gerbig, the center's director, believes Taiwan is remar-kable because it has preserved Chinese cultural traditions that have been lost in China. It's not a view that the DPP would be happy seen embracing. But then nor is it one that accords automatically with the director's enthusiasm for the progressive and the avant-garde either. I asked him to explain the apparent contradiction.
"We're here to promote the up-coming rather than the established," he said "But in order for the new to emerge, the traditional it grows from has also to be understood. China is trying to jump from the 19th to the 21st centuries, but in between there's a yawning gap. Taiwan, by contrast, has continuity, and the effect of that on its cultural life is obvious for all to see."
A perfect example was Lin Hwai-min (
Was the promotion of the modern a characteristic of all the German centers (elsewhere called Goethe Institutes)? "Generally, yes," Gerbig replied. In fact, he felt like a veritable traditionalist compared with some of his fellow directors elsewhere, he said.
Nevertheless, many Taiwanese musicians go to the German-speaking world to study, and when they come back they're frequently enthused by progressive ideas.
The Taipei center gives these musicians a platform to perform from, and an audience willing to listen to their not necessarily always tuneful renditions.
The center also liaises with Taiwanese organizations and individuals wanting to enter into joint artistic ventures with German counterparts. This has been particularly successful in the field of film, most notably with Monika Treut's Tigerwomen Grow Wings and Helma Sanders Brahms' The Black Butterfly, both produced in cooperation with PTS (Taiwan's public television service).
The Cultural Center's premises occupy a modest two floors in a modern building on Heping West Road, close to the Guting MRT Station. It has galleries, the biggest doubling as a performance venue, offices and class-rooms. It's all bright and clean in the best German fashion, something the Taiwanese clearly appreciate. But in reality the center has been in Taiwan since 1963, though in different premises, and until 2000 was even responsible for issuing visas. Currently there are moves to set up a German Information Center in Kaohsiung.
The Taiwanese are fascinated by string instruments, Gerbig believes, and next week they'll easily perceive the similarities between the zither and its Indian and Far Eastern counterparts.
Willi Huber will introduce the instrument in English, and then play a variety of music on it. It should prove a popular show.
That all the German Cultural Center's events, including this Christmas Concert, are presented free of charge is remarkable, I said.
Gerbig laughed. "Well," he replied, "there are some people who think things are worthless unless they have to pay for them. But I like a big crowd, and I have to admit many of our events are filled to capacity. We only have 100 seats, and I like seeing them all filled."
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