Hugh Lee (李國修), founder of one of the nation’s leading theater groups — the Ping-Fong Acting Troupe (屏風表演班) — died yesterday at the age of 58 after battling cancer for three years.
The troupe announced Lee’s death yesterday morning and said that his wife, actress Moon Wang (王月), and their two children were with him when he passed away at 3:34am in Greater Taichung.
Lee, born in Taipei in 1955, first rose to stardom because of his comedic performances in TV shows in the 1980s and won a Golden Bell Award for “most promising actor” in 1982.
Photo: CNA
The actor also began working in local theater around that time and was one of the two actors featured in the 1985 play That Night We Performed Crosstalk (那一夜，我們說相聲), the first production of the now renowned Performance Workshop (表演工作坊) cofounded by Stan Lai (賴聲川).
Lee set up Ping-Fong in 1986 and was the group’s main actor, director and writer, before announcing in December 2011 that he was taking a break from the stage because of colon cancer diagnosed the previous year.
Lee’s works, such as Can Three Make It (三人行不行), were known for satirizing contemporary political and social events, and for using a few actors to play tens of characters.
One of Lee’s most notable productions was the Fong Ping Trilogy. The three plays tell the story of a fictional “Fong Ping” theater group’s disastrous attempts at staging its productions, reflecting the challenging environment local performance groups face.
Lee was the first recipient of the National Award for the Arts in the drama category when the award was established in 1997. He was honored for his works that combine traditional and modern art formats, and his efforts to build a professional theater group.
In a recording played during a press conference held by his family yesterday, Lee said he hoped that people would appreciate his life in the theater through the 27 scripts he left behind.
TV presenter and actor Sam Tseng (曾國城) has been asked to host the funeral. Tseng’s job is to make people laugh because Lee wanted people to feel they are going to see a performance, Lee’s son said.
Ping-Fong said its performances will go on as scheduled, and fans planning to attend his funeral are invited to register through the troupe’s Web site and encouraged to bring a ticket stub from a past performance.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday expressed his condolences to Lee’s family, describing Lee as a master of the performing arts who cultivated great talent in the field.
Lee’s death is a great loss to the arts and culture industry, Ma said.
“Mr Lee was an actor and director with rich talent and amazing creativity. He gave new life to Taiwan’s drama and left rich cultural assets for the nation,” Ma said on his Facebook page.
The president said he called Wang yesterday morning to express his condolences.
Ma said he had performed a show with Lee while serving as Taipei mayor in 2001 to promote traffic awareness regulations and was impressed with his patience.
“He patiently taught me how to perform and I realized that the reason he has been an influential figure in the performing arts is that he is willing to pass on his experience to others and to cultivate talent,” Ma said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture said it would propose awarding a presidential citation posthumously to Lee, in recognition of his life-long contribution to the performing arts in Taiwan. The Cabinet will review the proposal tomorrow, it said.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS