By mixing traditional and contemporary, Eastern and Western, local and international, Taiwan’s artists in both the visual and performing arts are exploring different approaches and developing their own unique styles. Writers, similarly, are drawing on both global and nativist cultural codes to create new modes of literary expression, and explore issues of national concern.
Taiwan Folk Arts
Traditional handicrafts such as paper cutting, knotting, and dough figurine sculpture continue to be fairly common in Taiwan. Other apprentice-oriented folk arts are struggling to survive. Traditional performing arts such as puppetry, dragon and lion dancing, folk opera and dance, and traditional acrobatics have a tough time competing with TV, movies, and other modern-day activities.
Woodcarving and other temple crafts have also advanced in recent years; one significant project is the extensive renovation of the 200-year-old Zushih Temple in Sansia by some of Taiwan’s top craftspeople over the past four decades.
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Three styles of puppetry are common in Taiwan: glove puppets, shadow puppets, and marionettes. Glove puppets with finely embroidered costumes, exquisite headdresses, and delicately carved faces perform on elaborate stages covered with intricate gold carvings. Shadow puppets cut out of leather and painted in bright colors are larger; lit from behind and with joints allowing movement, the puppets throw a colorful and lively performance onto the white screen viewed by audiences. Marionette puppets are usually about two feet high and, manipulated by up to 14 strings, are usually presented in front of simple backdrops. Many of the stories used in puppet shows are adapted from classical literature or ancient legends.
Painting
A new generation of Taiwan painters appeared during the period of Japanese rule (1895-1945) whose subject matter, like that of the Impressionists, centered on daily life or local landscapes. Through their Nativist Art, characterized by a conscious desire to depict images evoking Taiwan’s unique identity, these oil painters had an important influence on Taiwan’s artistic development.
Ceramics
Taiwan contemporary ceramic art emerged in the late 1940s in Miaoli City and Yingge Township in Taipei County. In the early 1950s, it broke out of ceramic factories into artistic workshops, experimenting with shapes and glazes, while remaining largely within traditional functional frameworks.
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Exhibitions at the National Museum of History in the late 1960s and at private galleries in the 1970s led to creative ceramists gaining wider recognition, with a major boost coming with the opening of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 1983. The Chinese Ceramics Association was formed in 1992, and held its first festival the following year. The Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan’s first, opened in 2000 to present the latest developments in Taiwan’s ceramics and to promote cultural exchanges with overseas artists.
Seal Carving
Carving names or other inscriptions onto chops was once a requisite skill for any well-rounded literati, along with painting and calligraphy. Nowadays, chops used for daily business transactions are generally machine carved; only a small number of artists still specialize in the art of engraving name chops by hand.
Typically made of wood, jade, or soft precious stones, the body of a name chop may be left plain or be sculpted into symbolic images such as lions or dragons. In addition to their use in business transactions, chops are imprinted onto traditional paintings and calligraphy to identify the artist and add aesthetic feeling.
Music
The four main professional Chinese music groups in Taiwan are the Taipei Municipal Chinese Classical Orchestra, National Chinese Orchestra, Kaohsiung Chinese Orchestra, and Chinese Orchestra of the Broadcasting Corporation of China. At least another ten smaller ensembles perform regularly around the island. These musicians play mostly traditional Chinese instruments, but sometimes perform Western compositions or Chinese works that incorporate Western-style rhythms or harmonies.
Drama Taiwanese opera features colorful makeup and costumes, stage props, and stylized gestures. It was initially performed on outdoor stages; often in front of temples. Best-known is the Ming Hwa Yuan Theater Troupeand the most celebrated actress is Yang Li-hua. Television performances of Taiwanese opera have also been important to its development since the 1960s.
Dance
Dance in Taiwan has become increasingly diverse since the late 1960s. Early pioneers of modern dance including Cai Ruei-yue and Li Cai-e began performing in the 1940s after studying European-influenced modern dance in Japan.
Other key figures who introduced modern dance to Taiwan include Liu Feng-shueh who formed the Neo-Classic Dance Company, and Lin Hwai-min who founded the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre to express local identity, and which has gained a devoted local audience and deserved international reputation.
Indigenous Literature
Indigenous intellectuals have been trying to recreate their cultural histories since the 1980s by re-expressing oral traditions. Stories of creation myths and tribal heroes have been transcribed by romanizing indigenous languages, and are published with Chinese translations. Such texts constitute a belated effort in the struggle for cultural survival and the preservation of languages and traditions, as even indigenous children resist using their native tongues.