When the Taiwanese came over from China to the beautiful island they still inhabit today, they brought with them not only the will to turn this piece of land at the end of the world into the high-tech paradise that Taiwan is today. They also had a lot of culture in their luggage.
Those people who travel there today can (see my earlier reports here) not only visit a lot of incomparable natural wonders, including water running up a mountain and a gorge that almost splits the entire island. No, they will also have the opportunity to see the islanders' peculiar way of making opera.
The so-called Taiwan Opera (Chinese 歌仔戲 / 歌仔戏) is available here in countless small theaters like the ultra-modern TaipeiEYE (chinese 臺北戲棚) to experience. Unlike operas in the old Occident, this asian form is strictly regulated. "A night at the opera", like the famous band Queen sings - but in another world.
All costumes are the same, and the roles are always cast identically. This only form of musical drama, which originated in Taiwan and was originally created in the Yilan region, tells of great dramas and mighty heroes, there are heaps of sword and stick fights, wild dances, drum interludes and lots of shouting.
Although it is all performed in Chinese, even foreigners understand what it is all about. Men, woman, the bad, the ugly and the beauty the hero must save. From old folk songs from the mainland province of Zhangzhou and folk tales from the Minnan region, where many followers of the state founder Chiang Kai-shek came from, the Taiwanese have crafted their own versions of "Faust," "Lohengrin" and "Fidelio", except that the music here does not sound as smooth and polished as in Bayreuth or New York.
Nevertheless, the Taiwanese kind of opera has been so popular for seti decades that the Japanese became afraid of this special kind of art. When they occupied Taiwan, they decided to ban Taiwanese opera in order to force the Chinese already living here at that time to live Japanese style as soon as possible.
This did not succeed. The natives played on in the underground. The opera survived this dark days and the artists, whom you can even in the small theaters meet before and after the performances, still love the weird spectacle dearly. The do their makeup in the foyer!
In screamingly colorful costumes they embody the main characters Sheng, Dan, and Chou, who play their roles with exaggerated movements, surrounded by large flags and in a rather not lavish backdrop. They shout at each other and fence with each other, they fall in love and bicker loudly, but then reconcile to defeat evil spirits. The music is a constant strumming, hammering and droning, to which a musician blows an instrument called a suona that sounds like a broken saxophone. He is accompanied by stringed instruments with one or two strings, called kezaixian and daguangxian here. A kingdom for a violin!
If you want, you can drink Chinese tea while listening to all this, to get in the mood for crazy stories like the one about the peasant clown Zhang Sanlang, who has to hold his own against two begrudging neighbors. You don't understand everything, but enough to laugh along. And how brilliantly the actors dance while swinging their swords and singing at the top of their lungs and without microphones is worth the entrance fee alone.
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