Mixed opinions emerged yesterday at a public hearing held to address a plan to establish the first government funded Taiwan-ese opera troupe.
According to Wang Chun-chuan (王俊權), a deputy department director at the Ministry of Education, a plan was announced earlier this year to create an opera troupe under the National College of Performing Arts (NCPA).
"As for the funding, the ministry would fund the troupe for the first year and then the funding would decrease every year, until it eventually the troupe would fund itself," he said at the public hearing hosted by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (
No specific timetable has been announced yet, however, on when the ministry would start funding the troupe.
"We are not trying to compete with the private sector," said Cheng Hsing-jung (
Many of those at the hearing were unconvinced by Wang's statement.
Arling Chi (紀慧玲), who works in the performing arts, said "a government-funded troupe means there would be an unequal distribution of resources."
"The government should help the existing troupes with its resources, not create its own," she added.
While students are used to performing in a theater, with a set script, opera producer Liu Nan-fang (劉南芳) said, 90 percent of performances before live audiences are actually impromptu.
"It's not going to help students to practice in their own troupe," Liu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Tuoh (王拓), on the other hand, said he supported establishing an opera troupe funded by the government.
Liao Chiun-chih (
"These kids don't have much chance to practice," she said. "When they come to help out in our performances, we really can't give them much since we have our own actors."
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