Taiwanese Opera (歌仔戲) once dominated Taiwan's cultural landscape. In the 1960s and 1970s - a period considered the medium's golden age - radio stations broadcasted opera by the hour and it was one of a handful of entertainment programs on television. Today, however, people searching for a little entertainment or distraction are more inclined to watch a movie, see a play or just stay at home and chat on line.
But Hsu Ya-fen Fine Arts Opera (許亞芬歌子戲劇坊) and Luan-Tan-Chiao Beiguan Opera Troupe (亂彈嬌北管劇團) continue to draw the crowd by adapting riveting classical Chinese tales to Taiwanese Opera using the best in costuming and special effects to interest a younger generation of theatergoers.
"We use the story and language to attract the older generation," said Chiu Ting (邱婷), producer of The Search for the Orphan (搜孤救孤), which opens to today at Metropolitan Hall.
Born into a family of beiguan musicians (her father Chiu Huo-rang (邱火榮) is one of Taiwan's foremost beiguan maestros), Chiu Ting decided last year she wanted to move into Taiwanese Opera as a means of appealing to a broader crowd, and one not just in Taipei.
Chu feels she could have no better collaborator than Hsu. She said the work should also appeal to "university students and foreigners" because it uses modern stage design and a visual narrative that is easy to follow.
The Search for the Orphan is a tale of political treachery, sacrifice and revenge. Adapted from the literary classic The Orphan of Zhao (趙氏孤兒), it tells the story of an attempted massacre of a family and how one survivor returns to seek revenge.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would