More than a dozen folk art groups from different countries are to congregate in Greater Tainan next month to attend the Nanying International Folklore Festival, a biennial event that celebrates its eighth edition this year.
The festival is set to open with an afternoon parade on Oct. 6, with performers and troupes from home and abroad performing on the streets of Sinying District (新營).
According to Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government, the event organizer, the origin of the word nanying (南瀛) can be traced back to the Warring States Period in ancient China. The term yingzhou (瀛洲) first appeared during this period to indicate a mythical island in the Bohai Sea, a part of the Yellow Sea on the coast of Northeastern China.
As the Han-Chinese migrated southward, the words yingzhou and nanying became the names for Quanzhou (泉州) and Zhangzhou (漳州) in China’s Fujian Province during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the bureau’s researcher Lee Ming-yu (李明育) said.
“The inhabitants in Quanzhou and Zhangzhou referred to themselves as people of ying. As a large number of people immigrated to Taiwan from the these two regions during the Qing Dynasty, Taiwan became known as Nanying, Lee said.
The festival is to highlight cultural diversity and folk traditions from different corners of the world.
From Russia, the State Chuvash Academic Song and Dance Ensemble has preserved and promoted folk heritage of the Chuvash people since its establishmeny in 1924.
The Bulgarian troupe Sofia-6 was founded in 1976 by choreographer Nestor Nestorov in the hope of passing down traditional music and dance. Over the years, the troupe has trained more than 1480 performers and toured regularly around the world.
Closer to home, Miyabi Daiko has celebrated the art of taiko drumming for the past 20 years. Meanwhile, award-winning Sanggar Ayudha is to bring traditional Indonesian dance to the festival’s audience.
To further facilitate cultural exchanges, the organizer has arranged homestays with local families for the foreign performers. Elementary and high schools in Tainan as well as community-based art groups are also encouraged to visit the festival to share their experiences.
This year, 26 host families, 45 schools and nine local dance troupes have signed up to welcome the visiting guests.
The festival is set to take place between Oct. 6 and Oct. 14 at two main venues, Nanying Green Heart Park and Tainan Municipal Cultural Center, as well as at various locations across the greater Tainan areas. The event’s Web site, nyiff.tnc.gov.tw, is currently under construction, but should be ready by the end of next week, the bureau said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS