The Kyoto Tachibana Senior High School band, nicknamed the “Orange Devils” because of their school’s name (the Japanese word tachibana means orange or tangerine) and the color of their uniforms, performed at the Double Ten National Day ceremony in Taipei on Oct. 10. The enthusiastic response to their performance should be food for thought for anyone who cares about education.
The Taipei First Girls’ High School marching band and honor guard, who performed earlier at the same event, practiced just as hard as the Orange Devils, but did not receive such an emotional response.
Poet and playwright Yen Hung-ya (閻鴻亞) said the tunes the Orange Devils played expressed a sense of freedom in their discipline. This is the true spirit of jazz, and is far removed from the solemn mood that Taiwan has inherited from its past as a one-party state, he said.
In 1987, I played in the finale of the Double Ten National Day ceremony — the last time that then-president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) appeared at a national celebration. I was a member of the Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School band, the first marching band to perform in front of the Presidential Office Building.
Taiwan’s school marching bands are modeled after the armed services’ joint military band, whose authoritarian characteristics have given rise to certain glorious but solemn traditions.
In those days, Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School reorganized its wind instrument club as a school band. The school faced political pressure from the state, just like Taipei First Girls’ High School, forcing students with good grades to join the band.
Thankfully, Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls’ High School and Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School separated their honor guard from their band, because their principals did not think students needed to participate in such militaristic exercises.
A school band’s music and the training of the color guard, or flag corps, are important skills for students to develop. Even if some perform due to some kind of compulsion or sense of responsibility, they can still learn something valuable. In this respect, the members of these bands and color guards are relatively well off.
Perhaps Taipei First Girls’ High School should look into this simple educational concept.
Four days before Double Ten National Day, the Orange Devils visited Taipei First Girls’ High School, where they were welcomed at the gate by two rows of honor guard members holding parade rifles. That such a welcome was arranged by one of Taiwan’s foremost schools might have given the guests a glimpse of the authoritarian face of Taiwan’s mainstream education philosophy after half a century of Japanese colonial rule, followed by decades-long martial law under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
The bands and honor guards of nonmilitary schools should be separated, so that the honor guard can go back to being an ordinary club, with the band only supporting the honor guard’s performances when needed. This way, band and color guard members can get back to focusing on music and dance, which they can learn and perform free of the authoritarian framework of military ceremonies.
Perhaps, one day, the conductor of Taipei First Girls’ High School marching band can be relieved of the burden of maintaining solemnity, so that they can smile as naturally and confidently as the Orange Devils’ conductor did at their performances in Taiwan. That is the basic spirit to which education should return.
Chen Wei-ning works for an educational foundation and is a former member of the Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School band.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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