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
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
RSS