If some nosy magazine were to conduct a public vote on the ten most attractive men…or men of talent…or popular male celebrities…or major representatives of social opinion, Hsu would be a natural nominee in each category.
The New Aspect Promotion Corporation, established by Hsu alone, according to a survey completed in 1983, "staged seventy-two percent of the year's international art activities." The survey report added, "Without Hsu's efforts, patrons of the performing arts in our country would have had many lonely hours."
Without Hsu's efforts, Taipei's splendid center for the performing arts, the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, would be solely dedicated to the seminar and convention activities of large enterprises in Taipei. Instead, it is a "Cultural International Airport" for the Republic of China.
Born to a genteel family at Tamsui, Taipei County, during the Japanese occupation era, Hsu counts a sixteenth measure of English blood in his veins. Though his formal schooling ended with Taipei Chienkuo High School, in his youthful years, he was a student-disciple of composer Hsu Tsang-houei, and music became a continuing part of his life. During that early period, he recalls, he often assisted in putting up posters for the recitals or exhibitions of his many artist-friends. Many of today's major artists in Taipei artistic circles were buddies of his youth.
His given name, Po-yun (Widely Learned), is apt: Hsu's knowledge and talents extend into many fields. He is at home in the details of the life of the French artist Rouault, in describing the cachet and timbre of Paganini's treasured violin, discussing the scientific assumptions for an astronomical Black Hole, or outlining the historical facts of the terrible, early WWII Nanking massacre by the Japanese.
His knowledge is not, for the most part, from formal educational sources; he never attended any college. But he conducts business with art agents around the world in English, Japanese, or French, as well as Chinese, and is otherwise an ideal illustration of anyone's model of a successfully self-educated man.
Hsu is above all a musician. His musical compositions rank him among the top contemporary Chinese composers, though they amount to less than thirty scores. Among them, A Meditation on Chinese Theater, The Story of Chieh Chih-tui, Four Dimensions, Life & Death, Miscellaneous Writings for the (stringed instrument) Pi-pa, and State of Mind are best known in this country. He also composed the music for the drama presentation of Wandering in the Garden, Waking from A Dream, staged in 1982, and for the experimental drama The Mask, produced in 1984. His works, limited in quantity, are considered exquisite in quality, and should be in the portfolios of all those interested in modern Chinese music.
Before assuming his present posts as general secretary of the Federation for Asian Cultural Promotion and chief executive of the New Aspect Promotion Corporation, he was truly a jack of all trades. He was, variously, an architect, a TV program producer, and a newspaper-magazine columnist. But all that while, he also worked to cultivate a better musical environment.
Beginning in 1978, he promoted a series of activities under the umbrella-name "Asian New Environment in Music." Annual program activities over the next few years involved the introduction to Asia of multi-form media on stage, and of avant-garde music and dance.
Among activities contributing substantially to heightened overall standards for the nation's performing arts, probably the most important was Hsu's International Arts Festival promotion, which has brought such internationally renowned artists as Ravi Shankar, Marcel Marceau, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Christoph Eschenbach to the ROC. At long last, they are no longer just names printed in newspapers, but life experiences in first rate art for Taiwan audiences.
The International Arts Festival, now in its sixth year, has sponsored nearly a thousand performances. Among its musical presentations: the Versailles Chamber Orchestra, the Mozart Chamber Orchestra of Salzburg, the Paul Maria Orchestra, the Nova Quartet, Britain's Royal Symphony Orchestra, and America's National Symphony Orchestra.
The overflow-audience success of the International Arts Festival has proved that individual enterprise in the arts is invaluable to promotion of the arts...and, also, that such an enterprise can survive entirely on profits from art activities. It also demonstrated that ROC audiences have the taste for quality art productions.
The impact of the festival has been emphatically epitomized by Professor Wang Chi-Mei, of the drama department of the National Institute of the Arts: "Without the International Arts Festival...it would be impossible for me to properly teach my classes."
Though the government also actively promotes cultural activities, its purposes are mainly to further Chinese-heritage endeavors and to encourage local artists. The International Arts Festival brings great foreign art to the ROC, as well as presenting supreme local artists.
Still, in its sixth year, the festival continues to deal well with critical problems. For example, since it is not subsidized by even one penny from either official or private sources, it must make its own self-sufficiency a priority goal. Accordingly, Hsu actively shifts the emphasis of the presentations: they must demonstrate not only the highest quality, but attract requisite audiences.
"An art agency is always a personal-effort enterprise"—After ten-year's experience as an art agent, Hsu has taken this as his motto. An art agent, he says, must deal directly with many people, and not only artists of varying kinds and temperaments, but patrons representing several generations. So he has to be, at the same time, a critical connoisseur of many arts, a shrewd businessman, and a passionate "educationist."
In the summer of 1984, Hsu established the long-planned, multi-purpose New Aspect Arts Center. Its manifest aims are: to educate the public's taste in the arts, to enrich the daily life of the community...and to enhance the harmony and peace of our national society via active appreciation, participation, and exchanges in the arts and related activities.
Hsu invited prominent artists in the relevant fields to be directors for fine arts, music, dance, and literature at the center.
Among the center's specially designed facilities, the following have been specially welcomed by participating artists.
—The Dramahouse: the nation's smallest, most "user-friendly" theater facility, with superb lighting. It can also serve as an excellent studio, lecture hall, or conference room.
—The Audio-Video Library: provides a quality collection of art periodicals, books, and recordings, plus excellent audio facilities.
—The New Aspect Gallery: the nation's first private gallery to provide interior exhibition space as high as five meters. Periodic art exhibitions alternate with specific shows of masterpieces of art from at home and abroad.
—The Arts Bazaar: offers a variety of articles and books related to the arts. The items available here are sectionally displayed in four categories—music, dance, fine arts, and miscellaneous.
—Music Practice Rooms, Dance Studios, and Fine Arts Studios, plus good tutors and varied courses.
In fact, art is everywhere at the new center. Aside from the "compartments" dedicated to varied art purposes, photographs from performances at various International Arts Festivals decorate the hallways and the new Silk Road Restaurant, located in the first basement. And even the restrooms down in the second basement: a photocopy of a short article discussing the art of lavatory design is posted on the door for the edification of patrons.
The name of the restaurant was very carefully chosen. Hsu hopes that it and the center will become the communications channels for art and culture from all periods and places, just as the ancient Silk Road once served China and the Western countries in times long past.