The Tangshan Shadow Play Theater (唐山市皮影劇團) is once again back in Taiwan this weekend to revive its highly successful performances of Panda Mimi (熊貓咪咪), the Stork and the Turtle (鶴與龜) and the Legend of Kuanyin (觀世音傳奇). Little has changed in their repertoire, but they remain very popular with young audiences, who having been denied "Tuan Tuan" (團團) and "Yuan Yuan" (圓圓) at Taipei Zoo, can now be treated to panda Mimi at Taipei's Zhongshan Hall and various cultural centers around the country.
The implications of this are not something that we need to consider too much here, and what is more disturbing is that the Tangshan troupe can meet with such success, even as Taiwan's own shadow puppet tradition, which is focused in southern Taiwan, is at the point of extinction. This is not a slur on the artists of the Tangshan troupe, who put on a more than creditable performance, as the wrapped attention of packed houses of children testify, but rather a bemusement over why Taiwan seems unable to compete. Shadow puppetry, after all, is hardly one of the most sophisticated of arts, and Tangshan's repertoire is drawn from simple allegorical tales, and its presentation is closer to primitive animation. Whatever its qualities, panda Mimi is a very long way from the complex mythological tales presented in the more abstract wayang kulit of Indonesia.
Tanshang traces its roots to China's Luozhou (濼州) tradition of shadow puppetry, which historically used donkey rather than cow hide in the manufacture of its puppets. The softer donkey hide allowed for greater detail, and also had greater translucency, which has allowed the troupe to create shadow puppets with plenty of color, and even the occasional special effect, as with the halo of the Goddess of Mercy, Kuanyin.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TANGSHAN SHADOW PLAY THEATER
Troupe leader Zhai Yongheng (
But ultimately, Tangshan's show belongs to the important movement in modern society that seeks to invigorate performance and storytelling traditions, delighting in the seeming simplicity of its stories and its media.
The Tangshan Shadow Play Theater will be performing at the National Center for Traditional Arts (國立傳統藝術中心) tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm. On Thursday it will be at Taipei's Zhongshan Hall, starting 7:30pm, followed by shows around the country. Tour details can be found at www.arsformosa.com.tw or by calling (02) 2771 5676. Tickets for the Taipei performance are NT$300 to NT$1,000 and can be obtained through ERA ticketing.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and