Created by the National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan (NCO, 臺灣國樂團) for its 30th anniversary, Muliyav! Where Are You? (Muliyav在哪裡?) is an unusual musical about a Paiwan Aboriginal village.
Each one of the musical’s five acts is unscripted. Each is also sung in the Paiwan language, without subtitles, by members of the Paiwan Aboriginal tribe.
The narrative will be outlined in program notes and should be clear through inflection and body language, says NCO director Wu Ting-che (吳定哲).
Photo Courtesy of National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan
“It’s been a big undertaking. We’ve been preparing for roughly a year, starting with field research and then moving on to working with the cast in Pingtung,” Wu said.
The cast includes Golden Melody Award-winning Taiwu Children’s Ancient Ballads Troupe, along with tribal elders and other members of the Paiwan Aboriginal tribe of Pingtung County.
Onstage, they tell of a Paiwan village’s search for an itinerant deity called Muliyav.
According to Paiwan elders, a visit from the deity brings good luck and a bountiful harvest to the host village, while a prolonged absence bodes disaster. In the wake of Typhoon Morakot, a devastated village embarks on a search for Moliyav as they rebuild their lives.
“It’s a true story,” Wu said. “Because of that it’s a hopeful story, since no matter what, the people seem to have this optimism about the future. That’s the feeling we want to channel.”
Muliyav! Where Are You? premieres this month at the National Concert Hall with instrumental accompaniment by the NCO. Through trial and error, the orchestra has scored its classical Chinese instruments to match the tone and musical register of Paiwan songs, Wu said.
30 Years of Nco: An Exhibition
Also as part of its anniversary program, the NCO has opened an exhibition of documentary footage, scores, uniforms and other memorabilia to chart the ensemble’s shifting fortunes from 1984 to today.
“It wasn’t easy reaching 30. Times change and society changes,” Wu said.
“In the early days, we were under the Ministry of Education and mainly played a promotional role for classical Chinese instruments. Over time we’ve had to really adapt and move toward a role that’s more diverse,” Wu said.
Since the lifting of martial law, the NCO has been able to expand the concept of “national music” (國樂), previously defined as a classical Chinese repertoire.
Meanwhile, their audience has grayed, bringing budget woes.
Photographs in the exhibition record the NCO’s growing pains and various experiments, including use of the double bass and other western classical instruments to pad the lower register.
“We scrapped that last year because some in the audience kept saying how bizarre it was,” he said.
Over the last 20 years, the NCO has redirected toward commissioning local composers, training young conductors and developing a repertoire based on Hakka folk songs, Aboriginal worship music and other under-performed musical traditions.
“Currently, one of our missions is to be an international-level orchestra,” Wu said. “It’s also to be a Taiwanese ensemble, something based on the cultures that are here.”
Performance Notes:
What: Muliyav! Where Are You?
When: Sept. 27 at 7:30pm
Where: National Concert Hall (國家音樂廳), Taipei City
Tickets: NT$300 to NT$2,000, available through NTCH ticketing and online at www.artsticket.com.tw
Exhibition Notes:
What: The National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan 30th Anniversary Exhibition
When: Until Sept. 27
Where: Cultural Gallery (文化藝廊) in the National Concert Hall (國家音樂廳), Taipei City
Admission: Free
Last week, the the National Immigration Agency (NIA) told the legislature that more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) risked having their citizenship revoked if they failed to provide proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration within the next three months. Renunciation is required under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), as amended in 2004, though it was only a legal requirement after 2000. Prior to that, it had been only an administrative requirement since the Nationality Act (國籍法) was established in
Three big changes have transformed the landscape of Taiwan’s local patronage factions: Increasing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) involvement, rising new factions and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) significantly weakened control. GREEN FACTIONS It is said that “south of the Zhuoshui River (濁水溪), there is no blue-green divide,” meaning that from Yunlin County south there is no difference between KMT and DPP politicians. This is not always true, but there is more than a grain of truth to it. Traditionally, DPP factions are viewed as national entities, with their primary function to secure plum positions in the party and government. This is not unusual
The other day, a friend decided to playfully name our individual roles within the group: planner, emotional support, and so on. I was the fault-finder — or, as she put it, “the grumpy teenager” — who points out problems, but doesn’t suggest alternatives. She was only kidding around, but she struck at an insecurity I have: that I’m unacceptably, intolerably negative. My first instinct is to stress-test ideas for potential flaws. This critical tendency serves me well professionally, and feels true to who I am. If I don’t enjoy a film, for example, I don’t swallow my opinion. But I sometimes worry
US President Donald Trump’s bid to take back control of the Panama Canal has put his counterpart Jose Raul Mulino in a difficult position and revived fears in the Central American country that US military bases will return. After Trump vowed to reclaim the interoceanic waterway from Chinese influence, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an agreement with the Mulino administration last week for the US to deploy troops in areas adjacent to the canal. For more than two decades, after handing over control of the strategically vital waterway to Panama in 1999 and dismantling the bases that protected it, Washington has
RSS