A group of local artists in the world of Peking opera headed to the Ministry of Education June 1 to call for the replacement of the president of National Taiwan College of Performing Arts for failing to cultivate talent.
Peking opera diva Wei Hai-min, Contemporary Legend Theatre Art Director Wu Hsing-kuo and artist Li Baochun said the college has placed little importance on Peking opera in recent years, thereby leading to a serious shortage of new blood in the traditional art form.
NTCPA, upgraded from junior college status in 2006, is considered Taiwan’s sole cradle of Peking opera talent. The junior college had been established in 1999 through the merger of the National Fu Hsing Dramatic Arts Academy and the National Kuo Kuang Academy of Arts.
Cheng Rom-shing has served as president of the school for 12 years.
Taiwan at one time nurtured and gave rise to an abundance of talented young stars in Peking opera, but an apparent progressive decline in the quality of education at NTCPA in recent years has led to a situation where opera troupes have had difficulty recruiting qualified new performers.
Wei, who also serves as the president of a Peking opera association, claimed in the petition to the education ministry that NTCPA was upgraded in status in too much of a hurry.
She noted that the number of students at the school rose sharply from just 695 in 2001 to 1,259 last year, while the school’s budgets actually dropped, from NT$397 million (US$12.4 million) to just NT$382 million over the same period. This has led to a decline in the quality of the curriculum, facilities and teaching staff at the school, she said.
Wei said the college’s current curriculum does not respect professionalism. She claimed that noted Peking opera teachers have been shifted to the teaching of Hakka opera, and that the practice established during the National Fu Hsing Dramatic Arts Academy era of inviting mainland Chinese teaching masters to train local students has rarely been seen at the college over the past few years.
Lin Hsiu-wei, producer at the Contemporary Legend Theatre, stated she has discovered in recent years there are very few aspiring young performers that the CLT can use, saying that many of them sing Peking opera “out of tune.”
The theater once found one talented young performer who actually graduated from the college’s Hakka opera department. Lin said the student was originally a Peking opera major but was advised to transfer to the Hakka opera department. The result, according to Lin, is that the student now sings Peking opera in Hakka.
She said actor Wu, who is also CLT art director, is heartbroken by the fact that the traditional art form on the island has come to this state. Wu was “so saddened by the fact that he has not been able to sleep for a month,” Lin noted.
In response to the artists’ petition, NTCPA’s Cheng said the school cannot be blamed for local Peking opera troupes’ difficulty in finding qualified new performers. He claimed most graduates of the college either decide to continue their studies or to switch to other professions.
Cheng further said the increase in the college’s enrollment in recent years is a natural result after the school was changed from an eight-year school to a 12-year educational institution (5th grade through college). The school did not expand enrollment on purpose, as some claimed, to qualify for an upgrade in status. (SB)