Critics urged the Taipei City government yesterday to restore Taiwan's oldest modern dance studio, gutted by fire last October, as a museum celebrating founder Tsai Jui-yueh's (
Scholars and cultural representatives gathered at the ruined building that once housed Tsai's China Dance Club studio, to discuss the restoration of the building that went up in flames on Oct. 30 -- only four days after the city government decided to grant the site heritage status.
Tai Pao-tsun (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Tai also said it was a pity that he, as a historian, never heard of Tsai's story until the 1990s.
"Although I read stories about modern dancers in the West such as Martha Graham, Tsai Jui-yueh's story was absolutely unknown to me until the 1990s," he said.
"As a historian who focuses on Taiwan's history, I find this unimaginable," Tsai added.
He said the fact that Tsai was politically persecuted for a long time and emigrated to Australia in 1983 were contributory factors to the public's ignorance of her contribution.
This oversight should be redressed once the site is restored, Tsai said, so that future generations would learn of the "neglected" history of a woman, who is now reckoned to be the forerunner of modern dance in Taiwan.
Citing the difficulty of saving Taiwan-made old films as an example, Edmond Wong (黃建業), director of the Chinese Taipei Film Archive, urged the government to take timely measures to establish an overall database for conserving the history of dance in Taiwan.
Wong said he envisioned the site, once restored, serving as an archive center to restore Taiwan's dance history.
"Both the city government and the central government should take this task seriously, because the work to collect the data will become more and more onerous the longer it is delayed," Wong said.
City officials said a study of the restoration plan would begin soon, now that the mayor has agreed to reserve funds to finance the research.
Defending the city government, John Liaw (
"The city government outlined its short-term and long-term plans to restore the site soon after the fire broke out."
Not everyone was contented with the official timetable.
"Tsai was dubbed a `national treasure,' by officials, so why did it take so long [for the government] to start restoring the site?" asked Liao Mo-hsi (
Tsai, 78, is currently continuing her work on a government-sponsored program to help reconstruct 20 of her dance works, which involved rewriting the choreography, recreating costumes, and other related work.
Many critics have attacked the municipal police for being unable to arrest those responsible for the fire, which they said was not an accident.
"We have pictures of the suspects. If the police cannot arrest the arsonists, then this is something for which the police should be condemned," said Chuang Wan-shou (
Chuang was referring to the fact the suspects were filmed on security cameras mounted in a nearby alley, just before the fire broke out.
Although police have ordered the arrest of the two men, and also put wanted posters on the walls of the ruined site, no further progress in the investigation has been made to date.
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