At a small theater on Taipei's west side, Taiwan's foremost puppeteer Chen Xi-huang (陳錫煌) adds a few finishing touches to his glove puppets while the Turkish shadow puppet master Cengiz Ozek discusses how to present the show with stagehands and Robin Ruizendaal, art director of Taiyuan Puppet Theater Company (台原偶戲團).
Fittingly, the international collaboration is about an adventure on the silk road, the ancient cultural highway linking Asia and Europe, as artists and musicians from Taiwan, Turkey and the US contribute their inspiration to the interdisciplinary production combining Taiwan's glove puppet and Turkish shadow puppet theaters, live performances and large shadow screen performances directed by Larry Reed, founder of the Shadowlights Company of San Francisco. (see story below.)
Silk Road (絲戀) tells of the story of two sisters traveling through the silk road from China to Istanbul to find a magical harp that charms silkworms to produce the most beautiful colored silk in the world. From mountain, desert to oasis and spice fair, the girls encounter all kinds of exotic animals, magicians, human traffickers, belly dancers, poets, sages and hobgoblins on their journey.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TAIYUAN PUPPET THEATER COMPANY
To Ruizendaal and Ozek, the show is a theatrical celebration and exploration of the ancient cultural exchanges that have left an indelible imprint on today's world. "One of my key interests for the play is to see the shared affinity of puppetry traditions in China, Turkey, Egypt and Taiwan," said Ozek, art director of Istanbul International Puppet Festival.
A unique and innovative experiment, the production is presented on three stages, one designed for actors, the other two for glove and shadow puppetry. Reed builds on this with his light show, that creates a world of amazing shadows, overlapping images and the illusion of depth.
As for the music, Taiwan's award-winning composer Li Che-i (李哲藝) will team up with Turkish musicians Binnaz Celik and Gunay Celik to stage live performances of the original score mixing Turkish folk songs and traditional Chinese music.
"Our biggest challenge is to integrate all the diverse elements into one coherent play," said Ruizendaal, adding that the production is a first-time attempt to every one involved.
Also new is the ensemble's attempt to offer a lively introduction to the ancient theatrical tradition in Turkey, its exquisite marionettes made out of camel skin and the beloved puppet figure Karagoz, a playful jester who undergoes different transformations in different stories that come from the grassroots culture as a manifestation of the people's voices, ideas and lives.
Having studied shadow puppet theater since age 11 and played Karagoz for the past 30 years, Ozek is excited to bring life to his favorite character not only through his accomplished puppetry art but as a real human performance on the stage. "I always feel myself as Karagoz. In the shadow puppet theater, I am connected with Karagoz with two sticks, but now for the first time, I am Karagoz," said Ozek, who will bring this creative production to Istanbul International Puppet Festival in May.
Recently the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its Mini-Me partner in the legislature, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), have been arguing that construction of chip fabs in the US by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is little more than stripping Taiwan of its assets. For example, KMT Legislative Caucus First Deputy Secretary-General Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) in January said that “This is not ‘reciprocal cooperation’ ... but a substantial hollowing out of our country.” Similarly, former TPP Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) contended it constitutes “selling Taiwan out to the United States.” The two pro-China parties are proposing a bill that
Institutions signalling a fresh beginning and new spirit often adopt new slogans, symbols and marketing materials, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is no exception. Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), soon after taking office as KMT chair, released a new slogan that plays on the party’s acronym: “Kind Mindfulness Team.” The party recently released a graphic prominently featuring the red, white and blue of the flag with a Chinese slogan “establishing peace, blessings and fortune marching forth” (締造和平,幸福前行). One part of the graphic also features two hands in blue and white grasping olive branches in a stylized shape of Taiwan. Bonus points for
March 9 to March 15 “This land produced no horses,” Qing Dynasty envoy Yu Yung-ho (郁永河) observed when he visited Taiwan in 1697. He didn’t mean that there were no horses at all; it was just difficult to transport them across the sea and raise them in the hot and humid climate. “Although 10,000 soldiers were stationed here, the camps had fewer than 1,000 horses,” Yu added. Starting from the Dutch in the 1600s, each foreign regime brought horses to Taiwan. But they remained rare animals, typically only owned by the government or
“M yeolgong jajangmyeon (anti-communism zhajiangmian, 滅共炸醬麵), let’s all shout together — myeolgong!” a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Dongtan, located about 35km south of Seoul, South Korea, calls out before serving a bowl of Korean-style zhajiangmian —black bean noodles. Diners repeat the phrase before tucking in. This political-themed restaurant, named Myeolgong Banjeom (滅共飯館, “anti-communism restaurant”), is operated by a single person and does not take reservations; therefore long queues form regularly outside, and most customers appear sympathetic to its political theme. Photos of conservative public figures hang on the walls, alongside political slogans and poems written in Chinese characters; South
RSS