Political democratization and economic prosperity in Taiwan in the past decade or so have brought about a pluralistic cultural environment in which visual, performing, and literary arts have taken root and flourished. While Taiwan's artistic development in the postwar decades was intimately interwoven with traditional Chinese culture, its artists and writers, driven by a sense of Taiwan identity, are now placing increasing emphasis on creating works with local hues. Today's artists develop unique styles by combining traditional and contemporary elements, and Eastern and Western concepts. Writers, too, draw on both local and global cultural codes to create new modes of literary expression in exploring issues of domestic concern.

With the aim of bringing Taiwan to the forefront of the global art scene, plans have been set in motion to establish exhibition and performance venues for international artistic and cultural activities. It is hoped that Taiwan can be transformed into a center of creativity for Chinese-language pop music and performing arts. Efforts have also been devoted to preserving Taiwan's cultural diversity and heritage, promoting cultural events in local communities, developing relevant industries, and building or expanding local facilities for the arts.

This chapter discusses developments in Taiwan's mainstream arts and literature as well as ongoing government efforts to maintain and develop the cultural and artistic traditions of Taiwan's different ethnic groups, and to enrich the lives of the citizenry and enhance appreciation for culture and the arts.

Temple Arts

Restoration work on Taipei Dalongdong Baoan Temple 大龍峒保安宮 was honored with a UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Culture Heritage Conservation.

Temples are a traditional venue for many folk art displays and performances, particularly lantern-making competitions, puppet shows, and folk operas. In addition, many temple buildings are themselves repositories of some of the most important folk crafts on the island. Examples of traditional stone-carving, colorful ceramic figurines (known as "cut and paste" 剪黏), and embroidered banners of legendary scenes are just some of the many arts that can be viewed at a well-preserved temple.

The most predominant form of temple craftsmanship, however, is woodcarving. From the entrance to the back altar, nearly all beams, lintels, and other wooden structures are covered with elaborate carvings of legendary figures, and stories from history, literature, and folklore. Also common are symbolic animals, including birds, dragons, and other mythical creatures. The subject matter chosen is often not directly related to the religious function of the temple but tends to promote traditional values such as loyalty, chastity, filial piety, and patriotism.

Like most traditional crafts, exquisite hand-carvings are in danger of being replaced by simpler, machine-tooled decorations. Woodcarving and other temple crafts have been boosted, however, through several temple reconstruction projects. One of the most significant has been the 200-year-old Zushih (Ancestral Master) Temple 祖師廟 in Sansia 三峽, which has been undergoing extensive renovation for 50 years and has employed some of the island's top craftspeople.

Among those who have worked on the Zushih Temple was Huang Guei-li 黃龜理, who died in 1996 at the age of 94. A woodcarver for 75 years and a national Folk Arts Master, he created thousands of carvings for more than 80 temples around the island, with many of his works depicting complex battle scenes from history or literature.

Another woodcarver well known for his temple figurines was Li Song-lin 李松林, who passed away in 1999 at the age of 93. His works can be seen at the Zushih Temple, and at the Tianhou Temple 天后宮 in Lugang. Among the younger generation of carvers is Chen Jheng-syong 陳正雄, who has worked on the Zushih reconstruction for nearly two decades.

Woodblock Printing

Another folk art that has benefited from renewed interest is woodblock printing 版畫, which is used to make colorful Lunar New Year hangings. Traditional woodcut prints in Taiwan are of a simple, rural style. Commonly depicted images include the God of Wealth 財神, Kitchen God 灶神, and Door Gods 門神, who often appear in the form of elaborately dressed and fierce-looking generals. These images are usually printed on red or orange paper in prominent black outlines and then filled in with several colors.

Among the handful of woodcut artists left is Pan Yuan-shih 潘元石, who has been key to the art form's transmission to children, university students, and teachers. Exhibitions and annual competitions sponsored by the CCA also help to keep the art of Lunar New Year printmaking alive. These events promote both traditional and modern methods, including lithography, silk-screening, and etching, as well as generating a wider variety of subject matter.

Puppetry

The traditional folk art of glove puppetry, originally performed at temples, has found new life in television and cinema. Shown here is the film version of a popular TV series.(Courtesy of the Pili International Multimedia Co.)

Three styles of puppetry are common in Taiwan: glove puppets 布袋戲, shadow puppets 皮影戲, and marionettes 傀儡戲. In glove puppetry, the stage is covered with intricate carvings that are painted gold, resembling the entrance to a traditional temple. The elaborate setting is ideal for presenting the finely embroidered costumes, exquisite headdresses, and delicately carved faces of the puppets, which stand nearly a foot tall. Shadow puppets, which measure one to two feet tall, are cut out of leather, then engraved, dyed, and painted in bright colors. With joints to allow movement, the puppet characters are placed against a white screen that is lit from behind, thus creating a colorful and lively performance. Marionette puppets, about two feet high and manipulated by as many as 14 strings, are usually presented before a simple backdrop. Many of the stories used in puppet shows are adapted from classical literature or ancient legends. Some popular examples are The Tale of the White Serpent 白蛇傳 and Journey to the West 西遊記. Traditional puppet performances are always accompanied by live music.

Over the centuries, puppetry has developed its own distinct styles in Taiwan. This is especially true of glove puppetry. One of the most popular puppeteers of recent years was Lee Tien-lu 李天祿, whose life is immortalized in Hou Hsiao-hsien's 侯孝賢 award-winning film The Puppetmaster 戲夢人生 (1993). Lee, a national Folk Arts Master, first became famous in the 1950s and 1960s for his serial dramas based on kung fu novels. He was especially popular for his innovative martial arts sequences, acrobatic stunts, and use of modern slang mixed with classical Chinese. Along with his two sons, Lee helped set up two children's puppet troupes, the Wei Wan Ran 微宛然 and the Ciao Wan Ran 巧宛然, both of which have been highly praised. In addition, Lee's own troupe, Yi Wan Ran 亦宛然, performed throughout Asia, the United States, and Europe, winning awards at puppetry festivals in New York and France. The puppet master passed away in 1998 at the age of 90.

Another key figure in glove puppetry is Syu Wang 許王, whose Siao Si Yuan 小西園 troupe has toured China, Japan, Canada, and the United States. Syu keeps a busy local schedule, and he is often invited by the Chinese Folk Art Foundation to perform at temples and other venues around Taiwan.

Two more recognized masters are Huang Hai-tai 黃海岱, whose melodramatic tales of ancient swordsmen full of action-filled battle scenes are highlighted by elegant and highly literary dialogue, and his son, Huang Jyun-syong 黃俊雄, who was at the forefront of the 1960s trend to modernize puppet theater for television. The younger Huang, using his father's chivalry repertoire, has added popular music, fantastic lighting, and other visual effects to create "golden light" 金光 puppetry. The Huangs have a cable TV channel primarily devoted to puppet shows.

The less common forms, shadow and marionette puppetry, have had a much harder time surviving than has glove puppetry. Among the more prominent representatives of shadow puppetry still performing today are the relatives of national Folk Arts Master Jhang De-cheng 張德成, who died in 1996. His son, Jhang Fu-guo 張榑國, is the family troupe's sixth generation puppeteer. Syu Fu-neng 許福能, whose shadow group Fu Sing Ge 復興閣皮影劇團 has earned two Folk Art Heritage Awards and has toured in Asia, Europe, and North America, has been very active in passing on the art, regularly giving lessons and demonstrations to students around the island.

Painting

Only a limited amount of traditional Chinese painting was practiced in 18th- and 19th-century Taiwan. Works produced during this time were mostly amateur paintings of landscapes or flowers by scholars or government officials that had little influence on later artistic developments.

Western-style Oil Painting and Japanese-era Impressionism

During the period of Japanese rule (1895-1945), Chen Cheng-bo 陳澄波, Li Shih-ciao 李石樵, Li Mei-shu 李梅樹, Yang San-lang 楊三郎, and others studied Western oil painting in Japan, where they learned fixed perspective, and naturalistic rendering of light and shadow. Strongly influenced by French Impressionism (albeit via Japan), these artists were eager to capture and depict the flavor and hues of Taiwan.

The works of this group became known as nativist art 鄉土藝術. Characterized by a conscious desire to depict images that evoked Taiwan's unique identity, nativist art had a long-lasting influence and was to resurface in the 1970s in both art and literature, and subsequently in music and film.

1950s: Traditional Ink Painting

While many of the nativist impressionists were reaching their prime, official backing of traditional ink painters such as Huang Jyun-bi 黃君璧 and Fu Jyuan-fu 傅狷夫 resulted in that genre replacing Western styles at official art exhibitions, competitions, and in school curricula in the early 1950s.

The most important figure to emerge from this group of artists was Chang Dai-chien 張大千, who went far beyond the conventional precepts of ink painting. He made a significant contribution to the art world with his more than 200 detailed copies of the ancient Buddhist murals in China's Dunhuang Caves 敦煌石窟, which he painted in the early 1940s. Chang's mature paintings, which earned international recognition, were marked by his unique "splash-ink" technique. Using broad strokes and deliberate blotches of color, particularly deep greens and blues, he created powerful landscapes that were often monumental in size.

1960s: Abstract Art

By the late 1950s and early 1960s, many younger artists were becoming disillusioned with traditional painting, and were drawn to contemporary Western trends, especially abstract art. The most influential of the Taiwan abstract art pioneers was Li Jhong-sheng 李仲生. Once established, some of the more prominent artists of this generation sought to find a synthesis between modern abstraction and traditional painting. Liou Guo-song 劉國松 and Jhuang Jhe 莊喆, for example, sought to create a new, modern form of landscape art.

By the late 1960s, artists were working in a much greater variety of modernist styles as more Western movements filtered into Taiwan. American trends, such as pop art, minimalism, and optical art, all had their local followers. European trends, such as surrealism and especially Dada, also found avid supporters. Many modernist painters of the 1960s immigrated to the United States and Europe in order to fully develop their Western-oriented art skills.

1970s: New Nativist Art

In the late 1960s and 1970s, some artists began to reject the idolization of Western-style art and searched for something more in touch with their own environment and culture. What emerged was a new nativist movement in Taiwan art.

This new movement found its expression most among both those who had been trained in Western-style oil painting and those with backgrounds in traditional ink painting. A number of artists who had left Taiwan to find inspiration in America or Europe returned at this time. Among this group was Si De-jin 席德進, who gave up his earlier devotion to abstraction and, in 1966, began sketching and painting local scenery and architecture, exploring the island's folk art traditions. His change in direction had significant influence on younger artists of the time.

Another influential artist of this time was Wu Hao 吳昊, whose folk-like woodblock prints were colorful and nostalgic renditions of the Taiwan countryside. At the same time, Jheng Shan-si 鄭善禧 provided a new direction to traditional ink painting. He focused on local landscape scenes, seeking a more colorful and down-to-earth vitality. In the calligraphic inscriptions on his works, he replaced classical poetic lines with vernacular descriptions.

Important inspiration was also found in the work of native artists like Ju Ming 朱銘 (see section on sculpture) and Hong Tong 洪通. The latter had no training as a painter, but possessed a rich imagination nurtured on Taiwanese folk traditions. His intriguing, childlike paintings, full of colorful patterns and simplistic figures and animals, became the talk of the art world.

Contemporary Trends

During the 1980s and 1990s, artists employed increasing diversities of style and subject matter.

The rising of Taiwan consciousness was an important departure point for the influential 101 Modern Art Group 一○一現代藝術群 founded in 1982. These artists often expressed their sense of local identity with symbolic or metaphoric images. Wu Tian-jhang 吳天章 and Yang Mao-lin 楊茂林, for example, filled their canvases with primitive-looking images that often suggested social events. Often working in monumental scale with a harsh black and white palette, Wu has produced works commemorating the February 28 Incident and commented on other events and figures from Taiwan's past. By comparison, Yang's Made in Taiwan 臺灣製造 series presents a quieter juxtaposition of subjects native to the island, such as sweet potatoes, sea shells, images of Taiwan's aboriginal peoples, and references to the 17th-century Dutch occupation of Taiwan. His approach presents a more subtle vision of Taiwan's history and society.

Other painters have departed from tradition not only in their brushstrokes but also in their subject matter. Lo Ching 羅青, for example, in his Palm Tree Boulevard 棕櫚大道, replaces the standard pine or willow trees with palm trees, and mountains or waterfalls with an asphalt road. In his inscriptions, he replaces traditional metaphors with modern-day references. Lo and other ink painters have also embraced the exploration of a Taiwan consciousness, drawing much of their inspiration from local reality.

Plastic Art

Sculpture

Before the 1920s, temple and folk sculpture were the only sculptural forms thriving in Taiwan; it was not until the 1970s that sculpture was widely accepted as a fine-art genre.

Born in 1906, Huang Tu-shuei 黃土水 is widely recognized as Taiwan's first fine-art sculptor. Like many painters of his generation, he studied Western-style techniques at the Tokyo Fine Arts Institute. His most celebrated works are of water buffaloes, animals symbolic of the Taiwan countryside. The most renowned sculptor after Huang was Chen Sia-yu 陳夏雨, who was also trained in Japan and returned to Taiwan after World War II to create realistic portraits and figures, often of women in pensive poses.

The tide of Western-oriented abstraction that swept through the local art world in the 1960s produced the first Taiwan sculptor to gain worldwide attention. Yuyu Yang (also known as Yang Ying-fong 楊英風), who died in 1997, was most famous for his stainless steel sculptures, which often converted traditional symbols like the phoenix and dragon into fluid abstract forms. His works, which were sometimes monumental in size, have been erected in cities around the world. His East West Gate 東西門 (1973) stands on Wall Street in Manhattan, and the 23-foot Advent of the Phoenix 鳳凰來儀 (1970) can be found in Osaka. In 1996, Yang held a major retrospective of his works in England at the invitation of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.

The back-to-roots movement of the 1970s (see section on painting) is exemplified by Ju Ming, who initially trained as a folk sculptor but later studied with Yuyu Yang. Ju was originally admired for his rustic, simple figures carved from wood, especially his monumental Tai Chi Series 太極系列. In recent years, he has explored a variety of materials, including painted bronze and rolled stainless steel sheets, creating abstract figures of athletes, ballerinas, and people in everyday poses. Like Yuyu Yang, Ju has exhibited worldwide, including in Hong Kong, England, and New York.

Ceramics

The growth of ceramic art has encouraged ceramists to look beyond the practical and explore the endless creative possibilities that this medium has to offer. Pictured is a vase by Wang Shiu-Kung.

Taiwan is also known for its high-quality ceramic reproduction, an industry that got its start in the late 1940s. Several talented figures, such as Lin De-wun 林德文 and Cai Siao-fang 蔡曉芳, became known for their skill at imitating ancient porcelain. Today, there are a number of kilns in the north-central city of Miaoli and in Yingge 鶯歌, a small town southwest of Taipei, that are known worldwide for their ceramics. In the early 1950s, several ceramists, including primarily Lin Bao-jia 林葆家, Wu Rang-nong 吳讓農, and Wang Shiu-kung 王修功, made their first efforts to develop Taiwan's ceramics into a contemporary art form. These men began their careers by working in ceramics factories, helping to revive the industry after its decline during the Japanese occupation. Eventually, they broke away to pursue their own creative ideas and to establish teaching studios. Although they remained within the traditional framework of functional ceramics, making vases, bowls, and pots, their works represented a creative venture into unusual shapes and experimental glaze effects.

It was not until the late 1960s that creative ceramists began to gain widespread recognition, thanks in large part to exhibitions at the National Museum of History 國立歷史博物館, which continues to promote the art form. In 1968, the museum held the island's first major solo ceramics show, featuring Wu Rang-nong. In the following decade, ceramic exhibitions at private galleries gradually became more common. A key figure during this era was Ciou Huan-tang 邱煥堂, who studied ceramics in Hawaii and returned to Taiwan to introduce the contemporary ideas he had learned abroad. Ceramist Sun Chao 孫超 also gained recognition during this time for his crystalline glazes 結晶釉. After a career in the National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院, Sun began applying his experiments with ancient glazing techniques to his own work. In recent years, he has moved from making decorative crystal patterns on vases and bowls to large, flat glaze "paintings" that combine Chinese ink landscapes with abstract expressionism.

Ceramic art quickly came into its own after 1981, boosted by the 1983 opening of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum 臺北市立美術館, which included ceramics in its opening show. In 1986, the National Museum of History held its first biennial ceramic show. The Chinese Ceramics Association, Taiwan 中華民國陶藝協會 was formed in 1992, and the following year held its first festival, which featured indoor and outdoor exhibitions, demonstrations, and lectures by prominent ceramic artists. Taiwan's first ceramics museum, the Yingge Ceramics Museum 鶯歌陶瓷博物館, opened in 2000. It presents the latest developments in Taiwan's ceramic arts and promotes cultural exchanges between local and overseas ceramists.

Seal Carving

Carving chops and seals with names or other calligraphic inscriptions was once as necessary a skill as painting and calligraphy for well-rounded literati. Machine-carved name chops are commonly used for most business transactions nowadays, and only a few artists specialize in engraving chops by hand. These include Wang Bei-yue 王北岳, who teaches seal carving at the art department of National Taiwan Normal University 國立臺灣師範大學, and, of the younger generation, Huang Ming-siou 黃明修, who was recognized in the 1994 Provincial Art Contest for his work. Name chops are typically made of wood, jade, or soft precious stones such as "field yellow" 田黃. The body of the chop may be rectangular and plain, or may be sculpted into symbolic designs such as lions or dragons. In addition to their use in business transactions, name chops are also stamped onto traditional paintings and calligraphic works to identify the artist and add an aesthetic touch.

Public Art

In 1992, the Act on Encouraging and Rewarding Cultural and Art Enterprises 文化藝術獎助條例 opened a new era in the development of Taiwan's public art. Article 9 of this statute stipulates that public buildings must set up artworks and beautify their premises at a cost equivalent to no less than 1 percent of their construction costs, and owners will be rewarded if their public art expenditures exceed this requirement. In accordance with this regulation, the Public Art Establishment Regulations 公共藝術設置辦法 were implemented in 1998.

The Taipei City Government sponsors an annual Public Art Festival. It recently completed a public art survey in Taipei and has implemented a comprehensive management plan for the 800-plus artworks currently on display throughout the city.

Museums and the Art Market

Art Museums

Taiwan's best-known museum is the National Palace Museum in Taipei, which is recognized as having the world's best collections of Chinese art. These include ancient bronze castings, calligraphy, scroll paintings, porcelains, jade, and rare books. Totaling over 640,000 items, the collection is so large that only about 1 percent can be displayed at any time.

The National Museum of History, also located in Taipei, is best known for its impressive collection of ancient bronzes, pottery, and ceramic burial figurines. The museum regularly exhibits the works of major artists of the 20th century.

The Taipei Fine Arts Museum has been a major catalyst for the development of modern art. It features many local artists and important foreign exhibitions. Since 1995, the museum has been commissioned to promote exhibits for the Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennial.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei 臺北當代藝術館, located in the refurbished old city hall, opened officially in 2001. As Taipei's second fine arts museum, it has further invigorated the city with cultural energy while keeping in step with a quickly changing society.

The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art 國立臺灣美術館 in Taichung also concentrates on Taiwan's artistic developments. The museum undertakes research and plans exhibitions. As well as presenting the works of local artists, the museum introduces works by foreign artists of worldwide fame and hosts international exchange exhibitions.

The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts 高雄市立美術館, which opened in 1993, is one of the largest fine arts museums in Asia and boasts a fine outdoor sculpture park.

The Chang Foundation 鴻禧美術館 is Taiwan's first private traditional art museum. Although small, it has an impressive collection that features traditional painting, exquisite porcelain, and other ceramics.

The Juming Museum 朱銘美術館 in suburban Taipei boasts a full collection of Ju Ming's works done at different stages in his life, including around 500 pieces of sculpture in wood, mud, stone, bronze, and stainless steel, as well as 500 paintings in oil, ink, pastel, and multimedia.

Galleries

The number of galleries in Taiwan has grown tremendously from a single enterprise, the Lung Men Art Gallery 龍門畫廊, in 1975, to about 150 galleries today. Lung Men has managed to retain its prominence among Taiwan's galleries, however, and shows works by artists from both Taiwan and overseas. The Hanart TZ Gallery 漢雅軒, which has its head gallery in Hong Kong, has also played an important role in promoting Taiwan's younger generation of artists.

Other prominent galleries include the Galerie Elegance Taipei 愛力根畫廊; Cherng Pin Gallery 誠品畫廊; Taiwan Gallery 臺灣畫廊 and Home Gallery 家畫廊, both of which focus on contemporary art; and Caves Art Center 敦煌藝術中心 and Pristine Harmony Art Center 清韻藝術中心, which focus on ink paintings by both traditional and contemporary artists. IT Park 伊通公園 is an alternative gallery for non-mainstream artists and provides a much-needed venue for installation and performance artists.

A number of galleries in central and southern Taiwan have also established a niche for themselves in the art market. Some of the best known include Gallery Pierre 臻品藝術中心, East Gallery 東之畫廊, and Modern Art Gallery 現代藝術空間 in Taichung; New Phase Art Space 新生態藝術環境 in Tainan 臺南; Up Gallery 阿普畫廊 and Duchamp Gallery 杜象藝術空間 in Kaohsiung; and Gallery Venus 維納斯藝廊 in Hualien 花蓮.

This growth in art galleries around the island was partly due to the great expansion of art collecting in the 1980s. Sotheby's and Christie's both began holding art auctions in Taiwan in the early 1990s, with varying degrees of success. These focused on traditional paintings and works by Taiwan's Japanese-trained impressionists.

Another major development is the annual Art Taipei exhibition 臺北國際藝術博覽會, which promotes the local art market both regionally and internationally. The event gives local art collectors a chance to appreciate and bid for masterpieces by world-renowned artists, and draws around 70,000 to 80,000 visitors each year.

Music

Traditional Chinese Music

The four primary groups performing Chinese music professionally in Taiwan are the Taipei Chinese Orchestra 臺北市立國樂團, National Chinese Orchestra 國立實驗國樂團, Kaohsiung City Chinese Orchestra 高雄市國樂團, and Chinese Orchestra of the Broadcasting Corporation of China 中國廣播公司國樂團. In addition, ten smaller ensembles perform regularly around the island. The Ensemble Orientalia of Taipei 臺北民族樂團 conducts fieldwork, including researching and transcribing traditional music from throughout Taiwan.

Although these groups play mostly traditional Chinese instruments, they sometimes perform Western compositions or Chinese works that incorporate Western-style rhythms or harmonies.

Beiguan and Nanguan

Traditional nanguan music is winning increasing recognition from international audiences. (Courtesy of the Han Tang Yuefu Ensemble)

While many traditional musicians are drawing on Western influences, others have shown a renewed interest in preserving the traditional quality of several types of ancient music, including beiguan 北管, a fast-tempo music that commonly accompanies operas and traditional puppet shows, and nanguan 南管, which has a more delicate and soothing sound. The interest in nanguan music has been especially prominent. The Han Tang Yuefu Ensemble 漢唐樂府, which was founded in 1983 by Chen Mei-o 陳美娥, has performed nanguan in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and released a number of CDs. The group later established the Liyuan Dance Studio 梨園舞坊, which was inspired by "The Musical Theater of the Pear Orchard" 梨園戲, a form that flourished in China from the eighth century on and was introduced to Taiwan in the 18th century. The two groups often perform together at Han Tang's own theater in Taipei, which offers a small, traditional teahouse-like setting.

Other main figures in nanguan music are singer Wu Su-cing 吳素慶 and musician Li Siang-shih 李祥石. Li was awarded the title of Folk Arts Master for his work, and both Wu and Li were invited to teach in a special Nanguan Performance Program set up in 1988 at the Taipei National University of the Arts. The Changhua County Cultural Center 彰化縣立文化中心 is also the home of the Nanguan and Beiguan Center 南北管音樂戲曲館.

Western Classical Music

While traditional Chinese music has an important position in Taiwan, Western classical music still predominates, and Taiwan has many young classical musicians who have succeeded in international music circles. Violinists Lin Cho-liang 林昭亮, Hu Nai-yuan 胡乃元, and Edith Chen 陳毓襄 are among the many internationally prominent Taiwan-born musicians. Conductor Lu Shao-chia 呂紹嘉, a graduate of the Vienna Conservatory, had been the music director of several major opera houses in Europe. While many young musicians often have successful careers abroad, many more are now returning to Taiwan, both as visiting musicians and as regular members of orchestras and chamber groups.

Taiwan's main Western-style orchestras are the National Symphony Orchestra 國家交響樂團, now under the direction of Chien Wen-pin 簡文彬, and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra 臺北市立交響樂團, which is directed by Andras Ligeti. The National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra 國立臺灣交響樂團, based in Taichung, is Taiwan's first symphony orchestra. The Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra 高雄市交響樂團 is a semi-professional group.

The largest private orchestra in Taiwan is the Taipei Sinfonietta and Philharmonic Orchestra 臺北愛樂室內及管弦樂團, founded in 1985 by conductor Henry Mazer. With some of the island's most talented musicians among its members, the group has toured the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Perhaps the busiest ensemble on the island is the Ju Percussion Group 朱宗慶打擊樂團隊, directed by Ju Tzong-ching 朱宗慶. The group's music is often a hybrid of Western and Chinese, and its instruments are both traditional and experimental, ranging from drums, gongs, and xylophones to empty beer bottles, sawed-off steel pipes, and even bursting balloons. The affiliated Ju Percussion Foundation 財團法人擊樂文教基金會 oversees a research center for traditional Chinese percussion music and operates educational centers for children around Taiwan. The group has performed in major cities throughout the United States, France, South Korea, and China.

Western Opera

The Taipei Opera Theater 臺北歌劇劇場, under Zeng Dao-syong 曾道雄, and the Taiwan Metropolitan Opera 首都歌劇團, directed by internationally known tenor William Wu 吳文修, have both performed Western opera in Taiwan, including such works as Gounod's Faust, Mozart's Magic Flute, and Verdi's Rigoletto. The Taiwan Metropolitan Opera has also presented Puccini's Madame Butterfly; Leoncavallo's Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci; and The Great Wall 萬里長城, a Western-style opera sung in Chinese that narrates a Chinese story. Another active opera promoter is the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, which presented Verdi's Aida in 1995, Wagner's The Flying Dutchman in January 1997, and Puccini's Turandot in 2000, with the first two featuring international casts.

Composers

Taiwan hosted the annual conference and festival of the Asian Composers' League (ACL) most recently in 1998. Syu Chang-huei 許常惠, considered by many to be the pioneer local composer, was one of the founders of the ACL in 1973. Syu, who studied in France, founded the Music Creative Group 製樂小集, which promoted the development of local music composition in the 1960s. He also introduced new, experimental developments from the West, such as Arnold Schoenberg's serialism. For many years, Syu conducted extensive research of Taiwan folk music. His passing away in 2001 is considered a great loss to the local music scene.

Other composers known regionally and internationally include Ma Shui-long 馬水龍, whose works have been performed in Europe, the United States, South Africa, and Southeast Asia; and Pan Hwang-long 潘皇龍, who has introduced avant-garde compositions to local audiences.

Drama

Taiwanese Opera

Taiwanese opera 歌仔戲 was once performed on nearly every auspicious occasion, including weddings, birthdays, and temple festivals. By tradition, the form is said to have its origin in short songs from Yilan County 宜蘭縣. These songs were purportedly influenced by the narrative music of Taiwan's aboriginal peoples and later evolved into a more powerful musical form. These "Yilan folk songs" are accompanied by an orchestra consisting of the sansian 三絃, three-stringed banjo; pipa 琵琶, four-stringed vertical lute; the dongsiao 洞簫, vertical flute; shaona 嗩吶, trumpet-belled, double-reeded horn; and various percussion instruments, including gongs and drums. Many music theater forms, particularly the beiguan and nanguan music theater, have clearly influenced Taiwanese opera. This is evident from the colorful makeup and costumes, stage props, and stylized gestures used in Taiwanese opera, which had become a complete musical genre of its own by the 1930s.

Yilan continues to play an important role in the development of Taiwanese opera, with several major troupes based there. These include one sponsored by the Yilan County Cultural Center 宜蘭縣立文化中心, which also houses a Taiwanese opera museum. Today, there are nearly 200 troupes performing around the island, but only a few are of professional caliber. The best-known is the Ming Hwa Yuan Theater Troupe 明華園歌劇團, established in 1929. Like other Taiwanese opera troupes, it began by performing on outdoor stages, often erected in front of temples. Today, it also performs at such prestigious venues as the National Theater and has toured overseas, performing in Paris and China. Other important companies include the Ho Lo Taiwanese Opera Troupe 河洛歌仔戲團, Han Yang Troupe 漢陽歌劇團, and Lan Yang Troupe 蘭陽戲劇團.

Taiwanese opera's most celebrated actress is Yang Li-hua 楊麗花, whose career spanned more than 30 years. Like many Taiwanese opera actresses, Yang is known for playing only male roles.

Television performances of Taiwanese opera have also been important to its development since the 1960s. Although many TV troupes have a soap opera mentality, with electronic music and pop songs, the Ye Cing Taiwanese Opera Troupe 葉青歌仔戲團 is one of the few that has managed to retain its basic traditional forms. Its founder, actress Ye Cing, has developed an islandwide following through her TV performances and has won numerous awards.

Other Opera Forms

An opera form that has been regaining attention in recent years is Kun opera 崑曲, which features more delicate and complex music and singing, as well as employing more poetic language. There are currently only two amateur groups performing Kun opera in Taiwan. Another opera form found in Taiwan is beiguan opera. The Sin Mei Yuan Troupe 新美園劇團 is the only professional beiguan opera group on the island to ever win a Heritage Award.

The Contemporary Legend Theater 當代傳奇劇場, founded by Beijing opera actor Wu Hsing-kuo 吳興國, is an internationally acclaimed group best known for its Beijing opera adaptations of Western classics, such as Shakespeare's Macbeth and King Lear and Euripides' Medea. These adaptations incorporate elements of Western drama, including dramatic stage and costume designs, as well as greater psychological character development than is generally found in traditional Beijing opera. Using tragic stories to raise moral questions rather than providing conventional answers is also a distinct departure from tradition.

Spoken Drama

Taiwan's theater scene began in the 1960s, with what is known as the Little Theater Movement 小劇場運動. Thanks to the enthusiasm and talent of several new dramatists, including Li Man-guei 李曼瑰 and Yao Yi-wei 姚一葦, the repertoire of locally written plays expanded in a more creative direction. Li, alone, wrote more than 50 plays, including full-length dramas, one-act plays, and children's performances, which have been compiled into a volume entitled Collection of Chinese Plays 中華戲劇集.

The first professional stage play produced by an independent (rather than government-sponsored) troupe was Yao Yi-wei's Red Nose 紅鼻子, which came to be considered a classic. The 1970 debut of Red Nose initiated a period in which private mini-theaters proliferated and directors began experimenting more freely with stage techniques and imaginative interpretations of both local and Western plays.

The Lanling Theatre Workshop 蘭陵劇坊, founded in 1977 by Wu Jing-ji 吳靜吉, was the first theater group to recast a Chinese opera into modern colloquial language. This involved an experimental approach that emphasized strong physical movement and the importance of body language. Although Lanling is no longer active, it continues to influence theater in Taiwan.

Another theater pioneer was the New Aspect Art Center 新象藝術中心, established in 1978. Although New Aspect never maintained an actual theater group, it has produced a number of major plays and presented some new dramatic forms to the local theater world. In 1982, it introduced a new multimedia approach associated with epic theater in the landmark production of Wandering in the Garden and Waking from a Dream 遊園驚夢. Taiwan's first locally produced musical, The Chess King 棋王, was also a New Aspect production. Today, New Aspect is an arts agency, bringing a wide variety of performing arts to Taiwan from abroad.

The early efforts of Lanling and New Aspect helped set the stage for the mid-1980s, when several leading theater companies were established. Most prominent is the Performance Workshop 表演工作坊, set up in 1984 by Stan Lai 賴聲川. This theater introduces collective improvisational theater, which is heavily influenced by Shireen Strooker's Amsterdam Werkteater. The group's first production The Night We Became Hsiang-sheng Comedians 那一夜我們說相聲 marked the first time that the highly stylized hsiang-sheng (now romanized as siang-sheng) 相聲, a traditional form of fast-paced comic dialogue (cross-talk), was expanded into a full-length play. Its subsequent productions, such as Red Sky 紅色的天空, The Complete History of Chinese Thought—Cross-Talk Version 又一夜，他們說相聲, The Peach Blossom Land 暗戀桃花源 (see also section on cinema, Second New Wave), The Comedy of Sex and Politics 一婦五夫,
Waiting for Godot 等待狗頭, Who's Calling Eileen Chang 張愛玲請留言, Love on a Two Way Street 他和他的兩個老婆, She Is Walking, She Is Smiling 永遠的微笑, A Dream Like a Dream 如夢之夢, reflect modern society and are well received at home.

The Ping Fong Acting Troupe 屏風表演班, organized in 1986, is also popular with local audiences. Directed by Li Guo-siou 李國修, who formerly worked with both the Lanling Theatre Workshop and Performance Workshop, the troupe often presents slapstick comedies. Underneath the pranks and wisecracks, however, are satirical comments on Taiwan society.

The Godot Theater Company 果陀劇場, set up in 1988, interweaves theater, music, and dance. The company has staged local adaptations of such works as Our Town, Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, and Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy 黑色喜劇，白色幽默 and Amadeus 莫札特謀殺案. It had also produced several popular musicals, such as The Angel Never Sleeps 天使不夜城 (1998).

Another unusual group is the U Theatre 優劇場, founded by Liou Jing-min 劉靜敏 and dedicated to creating a form of contemporary theater that expresses a unique Taiwanese identity. To absorb the traditions of Taiwanese culture, the actors and actresses participate in a strict physical training program that includes martial arts. They also work with a variety of folk artists, Taiwanese opera performers, and traditional drummers.

Theater companies based in central and southern Taiwan include the Tainan Jen Theatre 臺南人劇團 in Tainan, the Taitung Drama Theatre 臺東劇團 in Taitung, and the Spring Wind Art Theatre 南風劇團 in Kaohsiung.

Dance

Dance in Taiwan has become particularly diverse since the late 1960s. Early pioneers of modern dance in Taiwan include Cai Ruei-yue 蔡瑞月 and Li Cai-e 李彩娥, who studied European-influenced modern dance in Japan and began performing in the 1940s. Though temporarily sidetracked by Chinese folk dance in the 1950s, modern dance was revived in the 1960s when local dancers and audiences were exposed to new styles through tours by American companies such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Paul Taylor Dance Company.

One of the first people to introduce modern dance to Taiwan was Liou Fong-syue 劉鳳學, whom many today consider the matriarch of Taiwan dance. With dancers from her own studio, which was established in 1967, as well as students from the Department of Physical Education at National Taiwan Normal University, Liou brought modern choreography to Taiwanese audiences. In 1976, she formed the Neo-Classic Dance Company 新古典舞團, which continues to perform today. Her choreographic style has been heavily influenced by Rudolf Laban, whose famous system of dance notation she studied in Germany in the 1970s. As a result, many of her works, such as Carmina Burana 布蘭詩歌 (1993), emphasize structural concepts of space and group formation.

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre

According to Chinese legend, Cloud Gate—a ritual dance dating back 5,000 years—is the oldest known dance in China. In 1973, choreographer Lin Hwai-min 林懷民 adopted this name when he founded the first ever contemporary dance company to be established in a Chinese-speaking community—the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre.

Lin Hwai-min is one of Asia's most prominent choreographers and draws his inspiration from Asian cultures and aesthetics to create works with contemporary resonance. Most of Cloud Gate's productions, from the signature work, Legacy 薪傳 (1978), to subsequent works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 (1983), Nine Songs 九歌 (1993), and Cursive Trilogy 行草三部曲 (2005), have been made into dance videos. Among them, Songs of the Wanderers 流浪者之歌 (1994) was filmed in the Netherlands, Moon Water 水月 (1998) was filmed in France, and Bamboo Dream 竹夢 (2001) was filmed in Germany by RM Associates, London. These productions are available on DVD and have been televised in many countries since their publication.

Cloud Gate's rich repertoire has its roots in Asian myths, folklore, and aesthetics, but also brings to these age-old beliefs and stories a contemporary and universal perspective. Cloud Gate has made dozens of overseas tours throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and America and performances include those at the Next Wave Festival, Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival, Lyon Biannual Dance Festival, Berlin Festival, the festival celebrating the 25th anniversary of Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal, Sadler's Wells Theatre London, Deutsche Opera Berlin, and the Kennedy Center. Cloud Gate has been acclaimed as "Asia's leading contemporary dance theatre" (The Times, London) and "One of the finest dance companies in the world" (The Globe and Mail, Toronto). At home in Taiwan, Cloud Gate performs regularly throughout the country.

In 1998, the Cloud Gate Dance School was founded to introduce the joy of dance to students of all ages and Cloud Gate 2 was founded in 1999 to further tours in campuses and local communities and foster young choreographers in Taiwan.

Diverse Dance Styles

Since the 1980s, a number of smaller dance companies have started up, many of them founded by former Cloud Gate members. The most prominent among them is Lin Siou-wei's 林秀偉 Taigu Tales Dance Theater 太古踏舞團, known for its meditative dances based on Asian philosophy. With an emphasis on poetic expression and soul-searching, her works are stirring and cathartic, often with a primitive quality similar to the modern Japanese dance form Butoh.

Another former Cloud Gate dancer, Liou Shao-lu 劉紹爐, also studied with Liou Fong-syue early in his career and started his own group, the Taipei Dance Circle 光環舞集. Liou's best known work, Olympics 奧林匹克, is based on an innovative technique in which dancers with oiled bodies spin and slide on an oiled floor to create a surprisingly poetic display of motion. In 1996, the play received the Ludwig Foundation's innovative choreography award for the performing arts.

The Dance Forum Taipei 舞蹈空間, founded in 1989 by Ping Heng 平珩, presents a wide mixture of styles, but is best known for works that combine postmodernism with a Chinese or Asian frame of reference.

Although ballet has held a less prominent position in Taiwan, there are several ballet schools and small companies. One of the better known is the Taipei Chamber Ballet 臺北室內芭蕾舞團, which presents annual summer performances choreographed by Yu Neng-sheng 余能盛, the artistic director of Landestheater Coburg in Germany.

The works of Legend Lin Dance Theatre 無垢舞蹈劇場, founded and directed by Lin Li-jhen 林麗珍, are inspired by Taiwanese folk traditions. The theater's works, such Mirrors of Life 醮 and Anthem for Fading Flowers 花神祭, were performed both at home and at a number of major European festivals.

In 2000, Taiwan was invited to perform at the French Lyon Biennial Dance Festival for the first time. Groups and individuals invited included Cloud Gate, Legend Lin Dance Theatre, Han Tang Yuefu Ensemble, U Theatre, and the performance troupe of the National Taiwan Junior College of Performing Arts 臺灣戲曲專科學校綜藝團, as well as artists Chen Jie-ren 陳界仁 and Mei Ding-yan 梅丁衍.

Cinema

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Taiwan's film industry was one of the strongest in Asia, but was dominated by syrupy romances, grade-B kung fu movies, and moralistic or propaganda-oriented dramas. In time, the public grew weary of the limited variety of domestically produced films. At the same time, they became increasingly exposed to high-quality foreign movies through film festivals held by the Chinese Taipei Film Archive 國家電影資料館 and through the increasing availability of movies on videotape.

New Wave Cinema

One of the first films in this mode was The Sandwich Man 兒子的大玩偶 (1983), a three-part movie by directors Hou Hsiao-hsien, Zeng Jhuang-siang 曾壯祥, and Wan Ren 萬仁. Adapted from several short stories by the famous writer Huang Chun-ming 黃春明, this film dealt with the struggles of working class people in the 1960s.

New Cinema directors took a highly introspective approach in examining the effects of the political, social, and economic changes that Taiwan experienced over the postwar decades. Their works thus offer a fascinating chronicle of the island's social transformation in modern times. For example, Wang Tong's The Strawman 稻草人 (1987) and Hill of No Return 無言的山丘 (1992) portray the tragic, work-burdened lives of rural Taiwanese during the Japanese occupation. Wang's latest work, The Red Persimmon 紅柿子 (1996), tells the story of a mainland family that escaped to Taiwan in 1949. Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness 悲情城巿 takes place just after the Japanese occupation and focuses on the conflicts between local Taiwanese and the newly arrived Nationalist government, which came to a climax in the February 28 Incident of 1947 (for historical details, see Chapter 3: History). Another of Hou's films, A Time to Live and a Time to Die 童年往事 (1985), examines life in rural Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s. His more recent Good Men, Good Women 好男好女 (1995) covers political developments from the end of World War II to the present day. In contrast, the works of Edward Yang, such as Taipei Story 青梅竹馬 (1985), The Terrorizers 恐怖份子 (1986), and Confucian Confusion 獨立時代 (1994), reflect the clash of traditional values and modern materialism among young urbanites of the 1980s and 1990s.

Second New Wave

New talents emerge in Taiwan's film industry every year. This poster advertises just one of the many Taiwan-produced motion pictures to be shortlisted in international film festivals. (Courtesy of Green Light Film Ltd.)

While New Wave films have continued to win critical acclaim, the initial enthusiasm of local audiences began to wear off in the late 1980s. The genre soon gave rise to many low-quality imitations, and viewers, growing tired of New Wave seriousness, were drawn to the escapist, entertainment-oriented films from Hong Kong, which soon began to dominate the market. Local directors found it increasingly difficult to secure financing for their films, which were not big box-office draws.

Nevertheless, during the lean years of the late 1980s and early 1990s, a number of talented new filmmakers began to create a "Second New Wave" for Taiwan cinema. Compared with the older generation, these new directors offered a much greater variety, in both content and style, although they were still strongly committed to portraying a uniquely Taiwan perspective. They also tended to reject the nostalgic, historical approach of older filmmakers, being drawn instead to explore the pain and absurdities of contemporary life.

One of the major figures of the Second New Wave is Tsai Ming-liang 蔡明亮, whose films Rebels of the Neon God 青少年哪吒 (1992) and the 1994 Venice Film Festival award winner Vive l'Amour 愛情萬歲 take an existentialist look at the plight of urban teenagers and young adults who are on the margins of today's affluent society. The latter also won praise for its unique style of filmmaking, which has no music or soundtrack, only the background noises of the city, and a minimal amount of dialogue, relying instead on the power of simple but ambiguous images.

Second New Wave director Stan Lai 賴聲川, a key figure in Taiwan's stage theater, has also brought an experimental and light-hearted touch to his films. The Peach Blossom Land 暗戀桃花源 (1992), which won prizes at the Tokyo and Berlin film festivals, is an adaptation of one of Lai's stage productions. It is a tragicomedy involving two groups of actors who take turns rehearsing two very different plays on the same stage. His 1994 film, The Red Lotus Society 飛俠阿達, juxtaposes a fantastic story about a young man who is determined to fly like the martial arts masters of ancient times set against the realistic backdrop of modern-day Taipei.

The films of Ang Lee 李安, another Second New Wave director, take a more realistic approach to contemporary life. Pushing Hand 推手(1991), The Wedding Banquet 囍宴 (1993), and Eat Drink Man Woman 飲食男女 (1994) look at the generational and cultural conflicts confronting modern families. In 2006, Taiwan-born Lee became the first Asian to win the Academy Award for best director for his English-language film Brokeback Mountain.

Wu Nien-chen 吳念真, who already had a solid reputation as one of the island's top screenwriters, directed A Borrowed Life 多桑 (1994), which was awarded best film at the Turin International Film Festival, and Buddha Bless America 太平天國 (1996), which was shown at the Venice Film Festival. Chen Yu-hsun 陳玉勳 was awarded the Blue Leopard Prize at Switzerland's Locarno Film Festival for Tropical Fish 熱帶魚 (1995). Hsu Hsiao-ming 徐小明, Steve Wang 王獻箎, and Lin Ceng-sheng 林正盛 are also among Taiwan's new directors whose works have been shown at prestigious film festivals around the world.

Between 2000 and 2005, Taiwan's movie industry was transformed as filmmakers shifted from an earlier preference for tragedies to a new unique style that touches viewers' hearts. Films in this genre include Comes the Black Dog 黑狗來了, Taipei 21 臺北二一, Double Vision 雙瞳, Blue Gate Crossing 藍色大門, The Best of Times 美麗時光, Love Me If You Can 飛躍情海, Formula 17 十七歲的天空, May Love 五月之戀 , and 20-30-40. The first two of these films won best supporting actress award and best picture award respectively at the 49th Asian Pacific Film Festival in 2004. Directed by Tsai Ming-liang, The Wayward Cloud 天邊一朵雲, a musical drama, won the Fipresci Award (also known as the International Critics Prize) at the 55th Berlin Film Festival in 2005. Meanwhile, digital cinematography has gradually increased, with directors such as Chu Yen-ping 朱延平, Alice Yu-ya Wang 王毓雅, and Li You-ning 李佑寧 experimenting with 24P digital format film productions. Leading examples include Shaolin—Let's Go 來去少林, Love Me If You Can, and My Grandpa's Home 爺爺的家.

Through the Challenge 2008 National Development Plan, the government is working to improve motion picture production and encourage animation with a unique Taiwanese style. New guidance strategies have been drawn up to establish a filmmaking environment conducive to creative production and investment, and targeting innovation, capital, market, talent and technology, as well as overall integration. Several measures have been promoted, covering the revision of the Motion Picture Act 電影法; selection of outstanding film scripts; establishment of a guidance fund for flagship film productions; guidance for the establishment of private digital theaters; funding for digitization equipment purchases; guidance funding and awards for short films and documentaries; training and scholarships for talented film personnel; funding for feature film production, digital-to-optic conversion, promotion, and screening; box office reward measures; and establishment of an English online archive of Taiwan's movies. (See also Chapter 17: Mass Media.)

Literature

Indigenous Traditions

Expression of indigenous people's culture was marginalized for a long time. Since 1980, however, aboriginal intellectuals have been increasingly active in recreating their histories and recording their peoples' oral traditions. In this way, a large body of oral narratives about creation myths and tribal heroes have been transcribed and circulated in the form of bilingual texts (romanization of aboriginal languages accompanied by Chinese translations). Such texts constitute a belated hope for transmission and survival of many languages and cultures, as indigenous children are resisting the use of their native tongues, which are therefore threatened with disappearance.

Taiwan's Early Literature

A number of Taiwan's poets made names for themselves in the mid-19th century. Including Cai Ting-lan 蔡廷蘭, Chen Jhao 陳肇, Huang Jing 黃敬, Jheng Yong-si 鄭用錫, and Lin Jhan-mei 林占梅, these poets belonged to the literati and cultural elite, and wrote in the classical lyric mode. As such, they played important roles in Taiwan's intellectual history, and their influence on local culture remains strong. Over the following two decades, other poets including Chen Wei-ying 陳維英 and Wang Kai-tai 王凱泰 became interested in more everyday subjects and expressed nationalist sentiments. Two officials who were also poets, Tang Jing-song 唐景崧 and Ciou Fong-jia 丘逢甲, played prominent roles in the establishment of the short-lived Republic of Taiwan 臺灣民主國 in May 1895 (see Chapter 3: History), after they had learnt of Taiwan's cession to Japan.

During the subsequent colonial period, the local elite tried to preserve their cultural heritage and develop distinctive arts of improvisation. Hong Ci-sheng 洪棄生 was probably the most famous writer of the period. In his poetical and prose works, Hong made frequent references to Taiwan's contemporary social and cultural conditions to display his patriotism and nationalism. The most important literary event of the first 20 years of Japanese occupation was the establishment of the Li Poetry Society 櫟社. Including key members such as Lian Ya-tang 連雅堂, Lin Chih-sian 林痴仙, and Lin Sian-tang 林獻堂, the society supported nationalistic movements. Lian's monumental work on Taiwan's history, A Comprehensive History of Taiwan 臺灣通史, remains a classic in the field. In 1918, Lin Sian-tang along with Lin You-chun 林幼春 and Cai Huei-ru 蔡惠如 founded the Taiwan Literary Society 臺灣文社 which, in January 1919, started publication of Taiwan's first Chinese-language literary magazine during the period of Japanese rule, the Taiwan Literary Miscellany 臺灣文藝叢誌.

Following Liang Ci-chao's 梁啟超 introduction of various ideas from Western enlightenment and experimental literature to Taiwan in 1911, a shift toward modern literature became inevitable.

New Literature in Taiwan

During the 1920s, the Taiwanese New Literature (TNL) 臺灣新文學運動 movement began as part of a larger cultural reform movement driven by sociopolitical resistance to Japanese colonial rule. The first events of the Taiwanese New Culture movement 臺灣新文化運動 took place in 1920, when a number of Taiwanese expatriates in Tokyo organized the New People Association 新民會, which was followed by establishment of the student-based Taiwanese Youth Association 臺灣青年會. These two organizations published Taiwanese Youth 臺灣青年 to propagate progressive ideas and voice opinions about the current state of affairs in Taiwan.

The zeal for cultural reform soon spread to Taiwan and was carried on by the Taiwanese Cultural Association 臺灣文化協會 (1921-1931). Intellectuals sought to transform the masses through popular education and cultural enlightenment 文化啟蒙. Lai He 賴和 (1893-1943), regarded as the "father of Taiwan's New Literature," Chen Syu-gu 陳虛谷, and Cai Ciou-tong 蔡秋桐 were active members of the association and expressed nationalist sentiments in their literary works. Between 1924 and 1926, the New-versus-Old Literary Debate 新舊文學論戰 broke out, which led to the TNL movement. In this debate, new literary concepts—mainly those centered on the advantages or disadvantages of adopting vernacular language as a new literary medium and the social functions of literature in a modern age—were introduced, criticized, and defended.

Consciousness of this new reality manifested itself in two consecutive literary debates in 1931 and 1932—the Nativist Literary Debate 鄉土文學論戰 and the Taiwanese Language Debate 臺灣語文論戰—which represented a turning point in the TNL movement. The Nativist Literary Debate testified to the prominent leftist presence in Taiwan's literary circles, with its chief advocate, Huang Shih-huei 黃石輝, suggesting that writers target their creative works at the working class masses. He forcefully argued that Taiwanese writers should only write in their own language about things in their own homeland. Advocates of nativist literature envisioned a distinctive "Taiwanese consciousness."

This Taiwanese consciousness was the core spirit of Guo Ciou-sheng's 郭秋生 campaign for the Taiwanese language. The Taiwanese Language Debate, which used the literary journal Nan Yin 南音 ("Southern Voice") as its major forum, revealed the anxieties and ambivalent feelings of a colonized people in their attempts to develop a national language. The fact that many words in Taiwan's spoken language (Holo Taiwanese) were believed not to have corresponding Chinese characters made the development of a new writing system an enormous project, which was beyond the reach of private groups. It is said that Lai He, after extensively using the Holo Taiwanese language to write his short story "A Letter of Criticism from a Comrade" 一個同志的批評信 (1935), was so frustrated with the experiment that he completely stopped writing fiction in the New Literature style. Despite this failure, however, the Taiwanese Language Debate should be regarded as a significant turning point in the TNL movement.

Various literary organizations were formed and new literary journals mushroomed. The new literary form made impressive progress over the next decade. The first generation of Taiwanese writers struggled to break away from the past and usher in progressive social visions. Writers born slightly later (such as Yang Kuei 楊逵, 1906; Wong Nao 翁鬧, 1908; Jhang Wun-huan 張文環, 1909; Long Ying-zong, 1911; and Lyu He-ruo 呂赫若, 1914) demonstrated a more hybrid cultural identity. With regard to Japan's colonial laws, for example, they tended to present both good and bad aspects, suggesting that they held more realistic views about the contemporary judicial system despite certain discriminatory practices.

Following the 1937 outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the colonial government in Taiwan initiated an intensive Japanization program and banned Chinese-language sections in newspapers and magazines. Second-generation TNL writers of the 1940s responded by confronting oppressive relationships within the colonial structure. They championed realism, and consciously shifted to more detailed depictions of local customs, rural life, and folk traditions of Taiwanese origin in order to register their resentment of the Japanization program.

In artistic terms, the modern literary form of the TNL movement represented a significant departure from classical traditions, but this evolution was brought to an abrupt cessation at the end of the Second World War when Taiwan was returned to the Republic of China. Relocation of the Nationalist government to Taiwan a few years later ushered in an entirely new era. Thus, many TNL writers never developed to their fullest potential, and the movement ended before any genuinely masterful works of art could emerge.

Post-1949 Literature in Taiwan

Mainland Émigré Literature: 1950s

After Taiwan returned to ROC control in 1945, Mandarin replaced Japanese as the official language and increasingly replaced Holo Taiwanese as the language of much day-to-day usage. This language barrier greatly hampered the creative activities of many middle-aged native Taiwanese writers. Political fears also silenced native Taiwanese writers, as many intellectuals were persecuted during and after the February 28 Incident in 1947 (see Chapter 3: History). The literary scene in Taiwan during the 1950s was, therefore, dominated by "mainlanders," writers who had come to Taiwan from China around 1949.

In addition to writing political propaganda, writers of the 1950s were frequently faulted for their amateurism. This was partly the product of a special institution in Taiwan, the fukan 副刊 (newspaper literary supplements). Fukan were, undeniably, the most significant sponsors of literary activities in Taiwan before the new millennium. Nevertheless, with their large demand for works of immediate popular appeal, they also fostered casual, lightweight writing and pandered to middlebrow literary tastes.

Two broad categories of writings, traditionalist prose 散文 and realistic fiction, are considered representative of 1950s literature.

The prose style tended to be more literary, retaining a great many archaic expressions and allusions to classical literature. The proliferation of traditionalist prose in Taiwan during the 1950s, in the form of familiar essays and the hybrid genre of essay-fiction, was apparently a continuation of an earlier trend in China during and following the Sino-Japanese War. The decade's best-known essayists—Jhang Siou-ya 張秀亞, Jhong Mei-yin 鍾梅音, Syu Jhong-pei 徐鍾珮, Liang Syuan 亮軒, and Ci Jyun 琦君—were all mainland Émigré writers.

The 1960s saw the publication of several well-written, realistic anticommunist novels, such as Rice-sprout Song 秧歌, The Whirlwind 旋風, and The Di Village 荻村傳. Although important in their own right, these stories were set exclusively in pre-revolutionary China, and their authors either never resided in Taiwan (e.g., Eileen Chang 張愛玲, 1921-1995), or were marginal to Taiwan's literary scene (e.g., Jiang Guei 姜貴 and Chen Ji-ying 陳紀瀅), thus diminishing their significance in Taiwan's post-1949 literary history. Far more relevant were such writers as Wang Lan 王藍, Meng Yao 孟瑤, Pan Ren-mu 潘人木, Lin Hai-yin 林海音, Nie Hua-ling 聶華苓, Peng Ge 彭歌, Jhu Si-ning 朱西寧, Duan Cai-hua 段彩華, Sih-ma Jhong-yuan 司馬中原, and Chung Chau-cheng, who had established their literary reputations around the mid-1950s and who continued to play prominent roles in Taiwan's literary scene for some time.

All of these works were unique products of the contemporary cultural and political environment. Thus, it was only natural that they were set in the past and discussed such subjects as the oppression of women, the repressive nature of the traditional family system, and the conditions of working-class people and domestic servants.

Modernist Literary Movement: 1960s

The modernist literary movement was an expression of the predilection by Taiwanese intellectuals of the time to emulate Western high culture. It is readily observable that important literary figures of post-1949 Taiwan—such as Liang Shih-ciou 梁實秋, former member of the Crescent Moon Society 新月社, Sia Ji-an 夏濟安, mentor of a core group of modernists, and Yan Yuan-shu 顏元叔, leading critic of the 1960s who introduced New Criticism to Taiwan—had ideas that were fundamentally rooted in Western liberal-humanist traditions.

Taiwan's modernists stressed the principle of artistic autonomy. They explored new spheres of human experience, favoring rationalism, scientism, and serious philosophical contemplation. For example, apparently influenced by popular versions of Freudian psychoanalysis, young writers at the early stage of the modernist literary movement were particularly fascinated with nontraditional interpersonal relationships. These writers included Wang Wun-sing 王文興, Bai Sian-yong 白先勇, Ou-yang Zih 歐陽子, Chen Ruo-si 陳若曦, Shuei Jing 水晶, and Chen Ying-jhen 陳映真. Their sincerity and bold, honest self-analysis broke new ground in Taiwan's cultural context and redefined the boundaries of normality in human behavior, thus presenting challenges to the conservative middle-class mentality that had originally been the backbone of the dominant culture in post-1949 Taiwan.

The upsurge of aesthetic iconoclasm in the 1960s represented a significant moment in postwar Taiwan's literary history. The vigorous dynamics of newly introduced artistic concepts associated with modernism called into question conventional forms and criteria of literary excellence. The more enduring efforts generated by this initial enthusiasm eventually ushered in a new era of Taiwan's modern literary history.

Most modernist fiction writers in Taiwan stayed within the general confines of realism, but their conscious explorations of language and voice brought forth fundamental changes in rhetorical conventions of modern narrative. Since the attempts of earlier modern writers to offer realistic portraits of life were frequently hampered by the dominance of the subjective voice in the work's rhetorical structure, modernists tried to redress this deficiency by introducing a new "objective form." They strove to present an "impartial" picture of reality so that readers could be given the privilege of forming their own opinions and moral judgments.

Despite the fact that Taiwan's modernist literary movement took place in a postmodern period from the standpoint of the West (the 1960s and 1970s), the dominant tendency of this movement was more like that of the early phase of Western modernism (late 19th century and early 20th century). In the extremely compressed timetable of Taiwan's modernist literary movement, certain features could be discerned. These included the reversal of the conventional content-form hierarchy and the radical rejection of traditional writing techniques, ideas that represented a burgeoning skepticism about language and meaning. Most of the modernists' explorations of language unmistakably reflect Western influences, but original experiments were also made. These resulted from a new awareness of the unstable relationship between language and its referents, as well as of a reawakened sensitivity toward the ideographic nature of the Chinese language. These experiments, especially those found in Wang Wun-sing's two novels Family Catastrophe 家變 (1973) and Backed Against the Sea 背海的人 (1981), and Li Yong-ping's 李永平 story series Chronicle of Ji Ling 吉陵春秋 (1986), marked the apex of the development of modernist aestheticism in contemporary literature.

Nativist Literary Debate: 1970s

As the modernist fiction writers began to mature artistically in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so too did the resistance to modernism's dominance of Taiwan's literary scene begin. The precursor to a large-scale denunciation of the modernist literary movement was the 1972 Modern Poetry Debate 現代詩論戰, which bore a special social implication in that it was closely tied to the Taiwan intellectuals' growing consciousness of their endangered cultural identity. In what was later known as the "return to native roots" 回歸鄉土 trend around the 1970s, progressive intellectuals criticized the blind admiration and slavish imitation of Western cultural models, and exhorted their compatriots to show more respect for their indigenous cultural heritage, as well as greater concern for domestic social issues. Many liberal scholars, especially those who had just returned from the United States, played important roles in igniting this new trend.

Shortly after the Modern Poetry Debate, a group of critics began to publicly renounce the foreign-influenced modernist work and to advocate a nativist, socially responsible literature. This trend reached its apex with the outbreak of two virulent Nativist Literary Debates in 1977 and 1978, and suddenly declined when, in 1979, several key figures of the nativist camp dropped out of the literary scene and became directly involved in political protests. The tradition of nativist literature as a creative genre—of which the main features were the use of the Holo Taiwanese dialect, depiction of the plight of country folk or small-town dwellers caught up in economic difficulty, and resistance to the imperialist presence in Taiwan—can be traced back to the nativist literary trend during the Japanese colonial period.

Nativists believed that Taiwan's socioeconomic system needed changing. They fiercely attacked the government's economic dependence on Western countries (especially the United States), deplored the infiltration of "decadent" capitalist culture into the lives of ordinary Taiwanese people, expressed indignation on behalf of Taiwan's farmers and workers who paid a high economic price for the nation's urban expansion, and attempted to draw public attention to the adverse effects of the country's overall economic development.

The regionalist sentiment implied in the nativist project immediately touched on an extremely sensitive issue, the "provincial heritage problem" 省籍問題. Tensions had always existed between native Taiwanese and those who had arrived on the island following the civil war defeat, and their descendents, but were heightened by perceptions of an unbalanced distribution of political power at the time. As a consequence, even though some of the leading nativist critics were socialists or nationalists rather than separatists promoting Taiwan independence, the nativist critical discourse as a whole could not help but be one part of the ongoing political strife.

It is undeniable, therefore, that literary nativism was used by a particular group of people at a particular period in history to challenge the existing sociopolitical order. Attacks launched by the nativists on modernist writers, whose literary ideology was conspicuously apolitical, largely centered on the latter's supposed default of their social responsibilities as members of the intelligentsia.

By the mid-1970s, Taiwan's literary writers were already deeply split into opposing camps. Placed within a larger historical context, the modernist-nativist split was part of the continual struggle in modern Chinese history between liberal and radical intellectuals with different reform programs and different views of literature's social functions. The new paradigm of ideological writing as established in the mid-1970s moved in a direction diametrically opposed to that of the introspective, humanist, and universalist approach of the modernists, and deliberately focused on the historical specificity of contemporary Taiwan society. In addition to later works by Huang Chun-ming on imperialism, such writers as Yang Cing-chu 楊青矗 and Wang Tuoh 王拓 explored capitalist exploitation as it affected urban factory workers and fishermen.

Critical evaluation of nativist works produced in the 1970s is not generally positive. Although the change in thematic conventions was approved by a majority of critics, excessive ideological concern was considered to have detracted from their literary achievement. Just as modernist literature continued to evolve after the rise of nativist literature, the practice of nativist literature did not come to an end even though the Nativist Literary Debate folded toward the end of the 1970s.

Pluralism: 1980s

In a sense, articulation of dissident views during the Nativist Literary Debate paved the way for more intense struggles toward democratization in the early 1980s. Eventually, with the formation in 1986 of an opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party, literature was largely relieved of its function as a pretext for political contestation. It became even more inextricably involved in the country's booming mass media, however, most notably, in the two competing media giants, the United Daily News 聯合報 and
China Times 中國時報. Annual fiction contests sponsored by these two from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s gave creative writing a solid boost, with an overwhelming majority of the writers of the baby-boom generation rising to literary prominence by winning one of these contests.

The nativist theorists may have felt both frustrated and vindicated in the 1980s, as the "spiritual corruption" of capitalist society, which they had predicted, appeared along with the ascendancy of materialism and a sharp rise in the crime rate. The cultural environment also became heavily consumer-oriented. Not without a touch of irony, even nativist literature itself was largely co-opted by the cultural establishment, especially between the late 1970s and early 1980s. Newspaper supplements and literary magazines were inundated by pseudo-nativist works, which displayed an abundance of Taiwanese local color but contained little ideological content.

As public fervor for both the modernist and the nativist causes subsided, the literary scene of the 1980s became largely dominated by the baby-boom generation, whose vocational visions were drastically different from those of their predecessors. Rather than treating creative writing as an intellectual project or a political quest, they were more concerned with popularity and with various problems affecting Taiwan's middle-class urbanites. Some writers with a cynical intellectual pose, such as Huang Fan 黃凡 and Li Ang 李昂, offered critiques of materialism and the cultural impoverishment that it caused; while others with down-to-earth pragmatism, such as Siao Sa 蕭颯 and Liao Huei-ying 廖輝英, examined the new social factors that had changed ordinary people's ways of life, showing particular interest in liberated sexual views and the problem of extramarital relationships; and still others, such as Yuan Cyong-cyong 袁瓊瓊, Jhu Tian-wun 朱天文, and Su Wei-jhen 蘇偉貞, fell back on the sentimental-lyrical tradition and focused their attention on subjective, private sentiment with a posture of complacency regarding sociopolitical issues.

With public debate over Taiwan-China relations intensifying on a daily basis, many writers from the baby-boom generation tended to deliberately stress their unique cultural identity, rooted in the specific sociohistorical realities of Taiwan's post-1949 era.

Writers' approaches to literature in the 1980s were certainly pluralist. Although writers of the modernist generation published their more mature works during this decade, literary products of the younger generation were marked by a rich diversity. Including "residential military community" 眷村 literature, works about life in business corporations, political fiction (with a special sub-genre on the February 28 Incident), neo-nativist literature, resistance literature, feminist works, and science fiction, this phenomenon might be characterized as the orchestration of a multitude of discordant "voices."

The broadly defined trend of "returning to one's native roots" continued into the early 1980s, moving beyond the modernist-nativist contention. Several former modernist writers, including Shih Shu-cing 施叔青 and Li Ang, made notable contributions to this trend of cultural nostalgia. Lin Hwai-min incorporated both classical Chinese and folk Taiwanese elements in his choreography for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (see section on dance). All of these accomplishments set the tone for creative endeavors in the new decade, even while encouraging commercial exploitation of traditional and native cultural signs.

After the mid-1980s, as the indigenous began to replace the foreign as the primary source of exotic imagination, and cultural identity began to occupy a more prominent place in the public consciousness, postmodernism became vogue again, raising issues about Western influences on Taiwan's contemporary literature. In a pattern closely resembling that by which earlier Western literary trends such as romanticism, realism, and modernism were appropriated by writers in Taiwan, the postmodern mode of writing became a new fad and its surface markers, such as double endings, juxtaposition of the factual and the fictional, and the technique of pastiche, among others, appeared profusely in works by both greater and lesser writers.

The younger writers of the 1990s consciously subscribed to a more cynical postmodern ideology, as is evidenced by their emphasis on difference and pluralism, and indeterminacy, which are uncongenial to modernist temperament. There were also similarities between the two generations of writers: their intellectual disposition, their globalism, and the way they looked to the West, or Western-influenced literary traditions, such as those of Eastern Europe and Latin America, for literary models.

Multiculturalism and Postidentity Politics: 1990s

TV and film adaptations of novels have helped spark interest in Taiwan's contemporary literature.

Taiwan underwent a change in terms of national identity in the 1990s. Literature of the 1990s tends to use mixed genres and multilingual devices, drawing on a wide range of both global and local cultural codes, idioms, and traditions, to express the fluid, albeit disoriented, structure of feelings.

In the 1990s, Jhu Tian-wun and Chang Ta-chun 張大春 were still prominent in the field of political fiction, especially for their nostalgic narratives on the dissolution of the distinctive culture within government housing compounds. Chang was reputed for his technique of intermixing various genres—including history, dream text, diary, and news reports—and voices. As a writer appropriating all news and media events, Chang gradually moved from writing cynical diaries and "factual fiction" (such as that based on the tragic death of a navy officer), to producing public TV programs and becoming a media personality. Jhu's Notes of a Desolate Man 荒人手記 won the 1994 China Times best fiction award. Although the second-generation mainlanders who serve as the subjects of this novel reappear repeatedly, Jhu's sensitivity to the ethnic tensions, rupture of traditions, and societal psychopathologies is nicely matched by her literary style and narrative coherence.

Between Jhu and Chang was Yang Jhao 楊照, a young writer who successfully blended romance with saga, collapsing the distinctions between both public and private, and personal and social. Yang is currently a cultural critic, political activist, and novelist. His multiple roles in the public and cultural arenas, as well as his impressive talent in fusing personal and interpersonal histories, are self-evident in one of his trilogies, A Dark Alley on a Confusing Night 暗巷迷夜.

In contrast to Li Ang, who severely criticized the patriarchal system of domination, younger women writers emerging in the 1990s, such as Luo Yi-jyun 駱以軍 and Cheng Ying-shu 成英姝, were more playful in their treatment of sexual liaisons (often lesbian) in bars, of the object-choice "medial woman," and of the fantasies and frustrations of the so-called generation X 新新人類 in relation to the new, unsettling social milieu that had thus far failed to take shape. Writers like Cheng were moving toward postidentity politics, celebrating postmodern flexibility and unpredictability in the global cyberspace of easy accessibility. Their counterpart in the field