Since 2008, teachers Chen Pei-wen (陳珮文) and her husband, Wang Tzu-chien (王子建), have endeavored to bring professional musical education to Aboriginal students at Nantou County’s Chin Ai Elementary School.
The orchestra of Aboriginal children and young adults — current and former students of the school in Renai Township’s (仁愛) remote Cinai Village (親愛) — on Dec. 12 performed its first major concert at the National Taiwan Arts Educational Center in Taipei, playing classical string instruments while wearing traditional Aboriginal clothing.
Chen said members of the audience told her that the Chin Ai Philharmonic performed “the most moving music they had ever heard.”
Photo: CNA
Tickets for the orchestra’s six scheduled performances at four venues had completely sold out, Chen said, adding that the proceeds had gone toward the musical education program.
The story for Chin Ai Philharmonic began seven years ago, when students who saw Chen practicing the violin asked to be taught to play the instrument, she said.
The violin lessons bloomed into a full education program that involved almost all of the school’s 58 students, Chen said, adding that it aimed to provide a pathway to a musical career instead of employment in industry, Chen said.
“There were many difficulties. In addition to funding, we had to find music instructors and of course there was pushback from parents. Families in remote villages expect their children to leave the village and start earning as soon as they graduate from middle school,” Chen said.
“It was hard for them to accept that their children might enter senior high schools and universities to learn music,” she added.
To provide opportunities to elementary-school graduates for musical instruction, Chen and Wang arranged for Chin Ai Elementary graduates to attend Caotun Junior High School, which offers music lessons, but is 70km from Cinai, she said.
The couple borrowed money to buy a house in Caotun Township (草屯) to give the students a place to stay while they attended school and they drove children still attending Chin Ai Elementary to the house to practice with the older students at weekends, she said.
As many as 45 students live in the house at a time, Chen added.
Chen said that on Saturdays her husband drives students to music classes in other counties and cities from Miaoli County to Tainan, sometimes traveling more than 600km a day.
“He has to pick them up in the evening. So he often leaves home early and comes back at midnight,” Chen said. “If there is a small commercial performance in another county or city, he and the students do not arrive home until early on Sunday morning or even Monday.”
Wang taught himself to make and repair string instruments to support the orchestra, Chen said, adding that he buys foreign-language literature and supplies the group with handmade instruments and maintenance at a workshop he has set up in Cinai.
The workshop has obtained financial support from the government as well as corporate sponsors, which has helped to bridge the differences in educational expectations and views between the orchestra and parents, she said.
To keep the program afloat, Chen said that she and her husband sell CDs, oil paintings and souvenirs from the workshop to supplement donations.
If the orchestra continues to grow, she plans to create a conservatory in Nantou to provide free musical education and board for students of elementary and middle-school age, Chen said.
“The stereotype that only rich people study music needs to be challenged,” she said.
“Heaven has been provident and gave us a tough but sure path,” she added.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by