Mon, Nov 10, 2014 page3

• FEATURE: Theater troupe director tells government to put spotlight on interests of children

  • By Chen Hsiao-yi and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  For the past eight years, the Paper Windmill Theater Troupe (紙風車劇團) has been trying to foster an interest in drama and plays among children in urban and rural areas, saying that it wants to make them more appreciative of the liberal arts because it is these children who are the nation’s future.

  Paper Windmill Cultural Foundation director-general Lee Yung-feng (李永豐) says that he abhors domestic politics, since, aside from digging up every inch of the past, it has done nothing to improve Taiwan.

  The nation is slowly dying at the hands of the people in government, Lee said.

  

  Paper Windmill Cultural Foundation director-general Lee Yung-feng, front second left, poses with Paper Windmill Theater Troupe cast members and a monster mascot in Taipei on Sept. 19.

  Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

  He cited the process of applying for state funding as one of the ways in which the government has marginalized the local development of the liberal arts.

  “I have stopped applying for funding from the government because the process is too convoluted and stressful,” Lee said in a recent interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), adding that it would be more meaningful if he used that time and effort raising funds on his own.

  Lee said that to his surprise, when he went to host events around the nation to raise money for his troupe, he met the most resistance from the government, for example by officials soliciting additional fees for relocating an event indoors or responding rudely when asked to help promote an fund-raiser.

  “It is utterly confounding that civil servants would seek to complicate our fund-raising efforts when all the foundation wants is to let children watch free plays and also because civil servants are the group which donate the most to the foundation and ask us to stage these events,” Lee said.

  He said it is the government and bureaucratic culture that have led to such conundrums, adding that with elections held every four years, politicians only care about tangible “products” they can show off to voters around election time.

  When they first join the civil service sector, young men and women are filled with passion to do something for the public, but they quickly lose their creativity and drive after going through the bureaucratic system, Lee said, adding that civil servants then become obsessed with operational procedures rather than providing services for the public.

  “In China, they at least claim to serve the public; we don’t even hear those claims in Taiwan,” he said.

  Lee said he would like to put the focus of the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections on children, rather than on which political faction would win because it is children who will shape the future. However, he said that most candidates either brushed off matters to do children or only touched on them lightly.

  Turning to the importance of fostering creativity in children, Lee cited US author Daniel H. Pink, who wrote in his book, A Whole New Mind, that developing creative abilities, a sense of aesthetics, and love and concern for others are key in determining how future talents are recognized.

  Lee said that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) has also mentioned how important creativity is, adding that Apple Inc is another firm that has attained its successes through creativity.

  The Taiwanese education system is overly focused on Mandarin, English and mathematics, leaving children with no room to develop their creative side, a sense of aesthetics and empathy.

  Without possessing these capabilities, children will be unable to find jobs even if they have achieved very high grades, Lee said, adding that if this system is not changed now, there will be no hope for the future.

  The nation’s systems are creating a whole generation of people plagued by depression, who are able to succeed in exams, but lack the creativity and aesthetic sensibility to deal with problems, Lee said.

  This is what will determine whether Taiwanese businesses will keep being original-equipment and original-design manufacturers — essentially designing products or their parts for other companies — or start coming up with their own products, Lee said.

  Some may ask how Taiwan can hope to compete with other nations economically, but brands like Heineken and IKEA are both major players that come from small nations, the Netherlands and Sweden respectively, Lee said.

  With factories relocating to China, Vietnam and Cambodia, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) stance that “Taiwan takes the orders, China does the processing” may end as Taiwan’s industry is made vacuous.

  Despite many expressing wishes for the nation to start conducting research and development into new technologies, for it to becomes more innovative and develop its creative cultural industry, no one really cares about making these hopes a reality, Lee said.

  When asked if there is anything the government could learn from the foundation’s experience in promoting plays for children in rural areas, Lee said there was nothing useful for the government to learn because it does not carry culture or art in its heart, only political backstabbing.

  In France, the government’s largest unit is the French Ministry of Culture, but in Taiwan, the Ministry of Culture — from the central government-level to the local — are all minor units, Lee said.

  “As intellectuals, we must do as director Wu Nien-jen (吳念真) said and apologize to the next generation, for we have taken too many resources in our time,” Lee said.

  “If the head of state and the heads of government truly want to do something for the next generation, they must make some changes for the children,” he added.
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