Dressed in a robe fringed with beaded tassels, traditional Taiwanese opera singer Jen Chieh-li (任潔儷) applies the final touches to her heavily painted face as she prepares to take the stage. The 34-year-old is a member of Jing Sheng Opera (景勝戲劇團), one of a handful of troupes in Taiwan still staging traditional dramas in the Hakka language.
Taiwan’s traditional Hakka opera, usually performed at religious festivals, dates back to the late Qing Dynasty and was brought to the nation by Hakka settlers from southern China.
Even as its popularity dwindles, Jen, who has trained at a drama school since the age of 12, said she would not give up the fading art.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
“I could find a regular job, but it would be a waste of all the time and effort I have devoted to studying and performing Hakka opera,” she said.
That sweltering night in Taoyuan, Jen was performing Legend of the White Snake, a Chinese folk tale about a romance between a man and a serpent spirit. About 100 people — mostly of an older generation — sat on plastic stools to watch the show on a makeshift stage outside a temple in a reflection of Hakka opera’s struggle to capture the attention of a shrinking audience.
“It is a niche performance art as many people don’t even understand the language,” said Chiang Yu-ling (江玉玲), who founded the Jing Sheng Opera troupe with her husband, Lin Bao-mu (林保木), 19 years ago.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
There are only eight Hakka troupes in Taiwan that are able to keep regular staff, albeit with financial support from the government and private sponsors, Chiang said.
She is counting on new blood, such as Jen, who is studying for a master’s degree in performance art, to help bring in more and younger audiences.
“My husband and I are in our 50s and we have limited ideas. We hope to get more young people on board ... to make Hakka opera more different,” Chiang said.
Hakka shares similarities with Peking opera, the most dominant form of traditional Chinese opera that has UNESCO heritage recognition, but language is one of the main reasons for Hakka opera’s flagging popularity. In Taiwan, Hakka make up less than 20 percent of the population, and even those within the community are no longer fluent in the language.
“My father’s generation speak mostly Mandarin already and I speak very little Hakka,” said Louis Lo, 30, who was accompanying his elderly relatives to the show. “The opera doesn’t appeal to young people due to the language barrier.”
To attract more fans, Jing Sheng’s troupe has incorporated modern elements into traditional performances.
One example is their update of a Chinese folk drama involving a dragon princess and her human lover, which now includes street dance sequences, pyrotechnical acts and acrobatics.
“We are getting the audiences to know Hakka opera through more innovative performances and hopefully they would also want to watch the traditional ones,” Jen said.
Despite their dwindling audience numbers, fellow performer Shih Yu-tsen (施侑岑), 31, said the art form “definitely won’t vanish.”
“There may be fewer Hakka operas, but people are nostalgic,” she said. “They will recall the past all of a sudden and they will want to watch it.”
Besides, a show ticket costs as little as NT$200 with student discounts, Jen said.
“We often say it just takes the same amount of money to buy [a cup of] Starbucks [coffee] to support traditional art, to keep it alive,” she said.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
RSS