Taiwan Today

Many aspects of Chinese culture and history are on display at the Taipei International Doll Museum. The young lady of the last picture wears a costume of yesterday but the delicacy she represents has not changed. All of the ladies (left picture) are from one of China's greatest novels, "The Dream of the Red Chamber, "which tells a family history of the 18th century. Lady Shih Hsiang-yun at top is tipsily asleep. Girls at bottom practice Chinese fine arts.

 

Dress of Ch'ing times was based on that of the Manchu rulers with some Han modifications. Slippers of tassels covered the "lily feet" of high class maidens. Figure below represents the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi.

 

Chinese women of great strength and influence abound in both fact and fiction. Liang Hung-yu of Northern Sung helped her husband recover his lost lands from invading barbarians (top). Folk tales which have been made into Chinese operas tell of ferocious lady generals. One of these was Mu Kei-yin, shown at right in operatic dress, who was undefeated in battle. Another heroine was Hua Mu-lan, who took her father's place in the army and became a noted general. The Ming concubine.

 

Fei Chen-o attempted to assas­sinate the bandit Li Ku when he overran the palace and brought the Manchus into central China (top). Stories of ghosts and all manner of other magical beings long have been among China's favorites. A recurring theme is that of the spirit who becomes a beautiful girl and has adventures and romances in the mundane world. White Snake is one of these characters. At left she is seen oppos­ing Black Snake in a fight over a lover at West Lake in Hangchow.

 

Aborigines bring a South Seas style of singing and dancing to Taiwan. These "people of the mountains" have preserved much of their own culture despite the influences of Chinese and Japanese civilizations. The Ami tribe on the east coast sponsors an annual Harvest Festival which draws thousands of foreign and local tourists to Hualien each autumn. A Miss Ami contest is held among the comely girls and hundreds of tribesmen join in a dance ceremony.

 

Various aborigine peoples are found throughout China. Taiwan alone has nine tribes. Some live in the high mountains; others have descended to the valleys of the east coast. Dress of the Alishan aborigines (top) may be contrasted with that of the Amis. The Alishan tribe are mountain dwellers. Men are hunters. The women engage in primitive agriculture and weave their cloth. Some of Taiwan's first people are matriarchal. Wives are won only after the husband has worked for his intended's family for a year or two. Aborigines of the mainland include the Hui people of the Southwest. During Ch'ing dynasty times, Sa Tien-hsiang (center) became queen of the Hui tribe. She was known as the Fragrant Queen because she ate pear blossoms and took on their odor. An­other aborigine group is that of Hai­nan Island off the coast of South China. Dress of the women (left bottom) is simple but distinctive. As in Taiwan, the men of Hainan are hunters. In general, the dress of people living in temperate or cold climates is more ornate and voluminous than that of tropical and semitropical regions. This is apparent in the right top. The dolls depict aborigines of Kiangsi province in a courtship dance. Headdresses of both girl and boy are complex. Each wears a form of leggings and a jacket. The doll at right bottom suggests the changes made in dress by the acquisition of such skills as embroidery and drawn work. These are an inheritance from the Han Chinese.

 

These costumed dolls have stories to tell. General Yang of the Sung dynasty was captured by the barbarians and married Princess T'ieh Ching. In time she was able to help him go home to see his aging mother. This impressed filial piety on the tribe.

 

A Sung merchant died, leaving his young son in the care of his third wife, San Niang, and a faithful servant, Hsueh Pao. When San Niang applied the rod too harshly the servant intervened to beg mercy for the boy. Thanks to San Niang, the son grew up to become a high court official.

 

This is a scene from the love story "Jade Bracelet." Sun Yu-chiao, the village beauty, finds the bracelet used by her admirer Fu Peng. True love triumphs over complications.

 

This is a soap opera for the more mature. Young widow Wen Chun meets Ssu-Ma Hsiang-ju, who is living a hard but happy life in a wine house after losing his government post. All ends well.

 

Love story of Chia Pao-yu and Lin Tai-yu is from "Dream of the Red Chamber," a saga of upper class family life during the Ch'ing era.