Legendary Taiwanese puppet master Huang Hai-tai (
Relatives said Huang died at his home in Yunlin County weeks after coming down with pneumonia.
Hand puppetry was introduced to Taiwan by immigrants from China in the 19th century. Most puppet shows recount historical stories or feature Chinese swordsmanship.
PHOTO: CHEN CHIEN-CHUNG, AFP
The creativeness and innovation of Huang, his sons and grandchildren has contributed to the continuous prosperity of the art.
In the 1990s, Huang's grandchildren founded Pili International Multimedia Corporation (霹靂國際多媒體集團, PIMC), a multimillion-dollar firm that produces hand puppetry movies and TV series.
As a boy, Huang learned hand puppetry from his father, who was leader of a local puppet troupe.
PIMC's Web site said that in addition to performance skills, Huang had a vast knowledge of Chinese classical literature and used his ability to play several different musical instruments to embellish his performances.
Huang would also choreograph, sing and narrate during shows and established his own puppet troupe at the age of 25.
He skirted a ban on traditional Taiwanese art performances by giving puppet shows in Japanese.
"Although he never learned Japanese, he memorized lines in Japanese so that the Japanese couldn't ban his performances," Huang Chun-hsiung (
Huang was forced to move his performances indoors after the post-World War II Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government temporarily banned traditional outdoor performances after the 228 Incident.
In the 1950s, Huang Chun-hsiung used TV to increase the popularity of puppetry.
"When I was in high school the only thing we cared about after school was Huang's puppet shows on TV," said Chien Ling-yuan (簡玲媛), a woman now in her fifties. "We'd skip class for that."
However, in the 1970s, Huang Chun-hsiung's puppet shows were banned from TV because they were produced with Taiwanese dialogue. This conflicted with the KMT's policy calling for the use of Mandarin.
Huang's two sons later took over their aging father's puppetry troupe. In recent years, Huang's grandchildren have further augmented the show by adding such innovations as orchestra music and special effects.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS