TAIWAN is home to many of the gadgets we love – smartphones and that nifty transformer laptop – and its a Taiwanese company that makes the iPhone in China but the country has another face that is very different and just as alluring. Taiwan’s culture is a rich and dynamic one, capable of blending art forms from the West, China, Japan and the island’s indigenous people. It is a soft power and a million miles away from production lines with workers wearing face masks while endlessly turning out circuit boards for electronic goodies.
Taiwan’s culture lies behind the neon lights of the cities
The home of U-Theatre is in a suburb Taipei and getting there leaves behind the concrete and dazzling neon of the capital and ascends a steep road past small dwelling places, teahouses and hiking trails. Mountains are visible but to the north so too is Taipei 101, until recently the tallest skyscraper in the world. This is the Wenshen district, bucolic compared to downtown Taipei and the place where an annual Art and Culture festival takes place, spearheaded by the remarkable U-Theatre.
Taiwan_Ut-Theatre’s location is not downtown Taipei
U-Theatre is not your usual theatrical company, primarily because of the unique way it blends drumming and dance to dramatise a story. It was set up in 1988 by a then famous actress, Liu Ruo-yu, and Huang Chih-Chun: the U in their company’s English name being a phonetic borrowing of the first character in its original Chinese name, which when combined with the second character means “performers”. Put together all four characters of its original Chinese name and you get “beating drums in a peaceful state of one’s own”.
Taiwan Ut Theatre in rehearsal
U-Theatre’s etymology hints at an ascetic discipline and this is confirmed when seeing their shows or, as I did, watch the troupe practising for a performance. On the morning of my visit they were working on one of their signature works – Beyond Time – and Huang Chih-Chun was in charge of the session. Their rehearsal space resembles a dojo and this makes sense on learning that Mr Huang, born in Malaysia, has been a drumming and martial arts practitioner for over thirty years. It is his combination of the two disciplines that makes a performance such a mesmerising event.
Taiwan Ut-Theatre’s rehearsal space rehearsal resembles a dojo
Watching him put his players through the same routines over and over again, demonstrating to individual performers precisely what movement need refining, is professional to a relentless degree. After 45 minutes of practising the players were sweating and reaching for water bottles and cups of tea and my ears were still ringing to the percussive music of their remarkable art form.
A Taiwan festival
U-Theatre is just one aspect of Taiwan’s creative and successful search for an identity of its own. Mandopop (Mandarin Chinese pop music) is hugely popular and has been given a distinctive Taiwanese twist; the country was home to the incomparable Teresa Teng until her untimely death in 1995. Traditional Chinese opera also flourishes in Taiwan – though this is one art form that eludes the sensibilities of many visitors from the West– and the production of films continues apace in the wake of Ang Lee’s international success.
A traditional pharmacy in Taipei’ old quarter
Directors like Doze Niu explore aspects of contemporary life in films like Monga, portraying gangster life in Taipei in the 1980s. Wei Te-Sheng directed Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, produced by John Woo, based on a historical incident when Taiwan’s aboriginals revolted against Japanese rule in 1930. The island’s indigenous peoples have their own distinctive culture which finds expression in a host of festivals and celebrations and this is another good reason for visiting the island and exploring its artistic heritage.
Serving tea in Taiwan
Architecturally, Tapei is a modern city but there is an old Chinatown quarter, Dadaocheng, which was bypassed by town planners and property investors until its cultural value was realised; now some of the old shops and their five foot ways in Dihua St are being renovated and preserved for the future and it’s a delightful neighbourhood to wander around and do some shopping. Exotic-looking dried mushrooms are proudly displayed in some stores even though they look indigestible and possibly as dangerous to eat as puffer fish. More congenial are boutique shops like Artyard retailing designer items for the home, especially handcrafted Taiwanese crockery.
Taiwan’s Chinatown
Whatever you do and see in Taipei, find time for an evening meal at Yu Shan Ge restaurant because it is in a class of one. The exterior looks inauspicious but calming Japanese décor defines the dining area – this is the sort of restaurant where talking loudly would be gauche in the extreme– and the cuisine might also seem to be inspired by Japan.
Taking tea in Taiwan
The menu is not in English but there are set menus featuring sushi and sashimi as a first course – except there is no fish because Yu Shan Ge is a vegetarian restaurant, something you would never guess from the plates of food that arrive on your table. You may be familiar with mock meat dishes in Chinese vegetarian restaurants but this is infinitely more imaginative and more artistically presented. It is another attractive face of the art and culture of Taiwan.
by Sean Sheehan