Youths ready to tour US, Canada

Members of the Jyou Tian Folk Drum and Arts Group and other groups perform during a press conference yesterday to promote their upcoming tours abroad. The tours are funded by the Overseas Compatriots Affairs Commission and other organizations. The groups are departing for the US and Canada on Wednesday. PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

Taiwan is reforming some of its juvenile delinquents into "cultural ambassadors" and will send them to the US and Canada next week to dance and tout local culture despite fears of an ethnic backlash against Asians following Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech, officials said yesterday.

Three traditional dance and percussion troupes wowed an audience of Cabinet officials yesterday at a press conference to launch the troupes' North American tour.

Scheduled to perform in more than 30 cities across the US and Canada, the troupes will represent Taiwan during the US' "Asia Pacific American Heritage Month," a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders and their cultures, said Chang Fu-mei (張富美), chairwoman of the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC).

Former US president George H. W. Bush designated May as Asia Pacific American Month in 1990, while former US president Bill Clinton designated the second week in May as the Taiwanese American Heritage Week in 1999. Clinton did so at the urging of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, a Washington-based group advocating Taiwan independence.

"Some of the youth in the troupes come from troubled backgrounds and even stayed in juvenile detention centers. But [OCAC] has worked with them closely and they're all in night school while rehearsing dancing and drumming by day," Chang said. "They've transformed themselves."

Indeed, the youths are worthy of the title "cultural ambassador," said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yang Tzu-pao (楊子葆) amid a backdrop of acrobatic dragon and lion dances and a traditional drumming performance.

"Theirs is the work of cultural diplomacy -- a focus that my ministry shares in promoting Taiwan, which is why these troupes are so important and deserve our support," Yang said. "They're getting Taiwan's name out there."

The US is the ideal place to conduct such cultural diplomacy, he added, as the US government has designated the second week in May as an official celebration of Taiwan, giving Taiwan a unique "space" in which to further cultural ties with the West.

"It's a great diplomatic opportunity," he said.

Chang said her commission was preparing the performers for ethnic tension following Monday's tragedy.

The performers are being coached to stress their image as one of peace-loving, Taiwanese youth, while groups of Taiwanese across the US have expressed condolences to the victims' families.

"We've emphasized that the performers are Taiwanese, and that we're not South Korean," she said.

A South Korean gunman who was a resident of the US killed 33 people, including himself, at Virginia Tech University on Monday in the worst shooting spree in US history. US media have warned of an ethnic backlash against Asians.

"I'm worried about how US audiences will receive us," said a performer, who declined to give his name.

"I think it could affect turn-out," he added.

Sponsored by the OCAC, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies, the three troupes -- the Jyou Tian Folk Drumming and Arts Group, Hong-sheng Lion Dance Troupe and Honwa Folk Dance Troupe -- will begin their month-long North American tour on Wednesday, giving 35 performances in major cities across the US and Canada.