More sweaty, bandana-swathed percussionists banging on animal-skin drums. Additional acrobats and dancers wearing oddly designed costumes. Yet another composer whose oeuvre sounds like the soundtrack for the next Steven Spielberg movie.
Taipei's seen it all before.
So why the official city welcome at Zhongshan Hall (中山堂) for this latest group of cultural ambassadors? They're the best talent Beijing has to offer — at least for the capital city of the democracy its rulers covet — and they're here this month for Beijing Week, the second leg of the Cross-Strait Cities Art Festival (兩岸城市藝術節—城市文化互訪系列—北京週).
PHOTO: CHENG HSUEH-YUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Last month, a delegation covering the full range of Taiwanese art forms visited Beijing for Taipei Week, which was billed as the first such cultural exchange hosted by China. Groups representing Taipei included the Taipei Symphony Orchestra (台北市立交響樂團), its Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館) and the Creative Society's Micotheatre (創作社劇團).
On Monday, Beijing Week started at Zhongshan Hall with a performance of Chinese composer Tang Jianping's (唐健平) latest symphony, The Sacred Fire 2008 (聖火2008), which he dedicated to the upcoming Beijing Olympics. The festival continues through Oct. 29 with Peking opera, modern dance and a gallery exhibition.
The Beijing delegation was welcomed Monday afternoon in a media event at Zhongshan Hall, with speeches by Mayor Ying-jeou (馬英九) and city cultural officials, one of whom called the festival “a dream come true.”
Publicity events for visiting performers usually fall into one of two categories: those where artists preview the best elements of their acts to give journalists a good idea of what audiences can expect, and those where the performers serve as a backdrop for a corporate sponsor or politicians.
This was definitely one of the latter. The Chinese artists performed for roughly 15 minutes, while officials from Taipei and Beijing spoke for half an hour. Which was just as well, because if Monday's press conference was any indication, the performances had little to offer in the way of something new.
Kicking off the press conference was a group of drummers and a pair of red dragons from the state-run China National Acrobatic Troupe (中國雜技團), which was founded in 1950 by former Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來) and has often served as a cultural envoy to countries where plate-twirlers and dancing dragons are rarely seen.
Following the drummers came a large acrobat and his tiny companion, who performed a short but rather incongruous ballet before launching into a series of balancing tricks. Though it was impressive to watch the female acrobat stand upside-down on her companion's head, this feat was overshadowed by the pair's costumes — white leather and mesh outfits that looked like the product of contact between extraterrestrials and a Stone Age culture.
More interesting were two actors from the respected Peking Opera Troupe of Beijing (北京京劇院), who performed a scene from the Beijing opera classic Si Lang Seeks His Mother (四郎探母).
Their troupe performs Pouring Water Before the Horse (馬前潑水) and Three Sinners (閻惜姣) at 7:30pm tonight and tomorrow at the Taipei County Arts Center (台北縣藝文中心演藝聽), 62 Jhuangjing Rd, Banqiao City, Taipei County (台北縣板橋市莊敬路62號).
Then, at 7:30pm on Monday and Tuesday, the Beijing Modern Dance Company (北京現代舞團) performs Beijing Concept (北京意象) at the Taipei Zhongshan Hall (台北市中山堂), 98 Yenping S Rd, Taipei (台北市延平南路98號).
For tickets for the above events, visit www.artsticket.com.tw.
On display at Taipei's Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) through Oct. 29 is an exhibition of oil paintings painted after 1978 from China's National Museum of Fine Arts (中國美術館). TFAM is located at 181 Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei (台北市中山北路三段181號).
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not