For the first time in three years, Taipei had an opportunity to see a highly competent modern dance troupe at the Taipei City Hall March 7 and 8. The performances were by the world-famous Paul Taylor Dance Company, one of the best in the United States.
The troupe was presented with flowers and received a thunderous standing ovation from the packed house of 2,500 on the first evening. Six curtain calls were required to quiet the crowd.
Against a simple backdrop of dark gray were movements of strange grace and impeccable rhythm. The dancing spoke a language of its own—beyond the barriers of time, place, and tradition. The musical accompaniments and the lighting were excellent.
The Taipei audiences saw the following program:
"Post Meridian", a Jerome Robbins style composition to atonal music composed by Evelyn Lohoeffer. This work was commissioned by the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in 1964.
"3 Epitaphs". The first epitaph was done in zombie-like costumes and masks to the African-rooted brass-band funeral music of the American South. The second, "Duet", brought together Taylor and Carolyn Adams, an American Negro girl of great grace and ability, in a pas de deux with its roots in classical ballet. Finally, "Junction" presented the crossings of pedestrians at Tranquil Street and Turmoil Boulevard to music by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The concluding number was the five-movement "Aureole" to music by Haydn. The fourth movement brought Taylor and Miss Adams together again in a bit that Nureyev and Fonteyn might envy. Miss Adams' leaps are long and lovely.
The company was lauded by one newspaper as "epoch-making in the impact on its audiences". "The performances," said the paper, "were a surrealistic delight, defying imagination." "Unbelievably beautiful," said another. "Onlookers had the feeling they were experiencing something entirely new; they were led into an undreamed-of world of poetry. This world is all passion, all vigor, all melody, and perfect in its expressions."
The Paul Taylor troupe arrived in Taipei from Manila March 1. After the two performances and a workshop at the Lincoln Center of USIS, the group left on March 9 for Okinawa, Korea, and Japan. The tour was sponsored by the U.S. State Department.
Other recent foreign presentations include three concerts by the Vienna Children's Choir at the Taipei City Hall in mid-March and a series of performances by Daizo Tamura of Japan, the inventor of the "finger flute".
Korean dancer and critic Dr. Cho Won Kyung demonstrated his art at Soochow University after a lecture March 14. Dr. Cho has danced at Carnegie Hall in New York and at the Seattle World's Fair. He is touring the Far East under the auspices of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia.
Among local stage presentations of cultural significance was a puppet shadow play given at the Taiwan Provincial Museum auditorium in downtown Taipei. The drama was adapted from the famous Chinese novel Hsi Yu Chi (Annals of Travels to the West). The China Society, an American scholastic organization in Taipei, and the Anthropology Department of the National Taiwan University co-sponsored the program.
Shadow plays have been popular in China for more than 2,000 years. They were introduced into Taiwan some 300 years ago and still survive the competition of movies and live drama.
Shadows of the puppet figures are cast on a screen and the manipulators voice the various parts. The museum performance in the Taiwanese dialect was explained in English and Mandarin. This was the first in a series of presentations to promote appreciation and understanding of the Chinese folk arts.
Second TV Station
Taiwan will have its second commercial TV station early next year. Plans for the Central Television Enterprise Ltd. have been approved by the authorities.
Beside TTV (Taiwan Television Enterprise), the Ministry of Education operates an educational TV station that broadcasts two and a half hours daily.
A spokesman of the Ministry of Communications said the government favors the project. The ministry has been contacting military and civilian telecommunication authorities on technical matters relative to channels.
Approval of a second station has been urged by the electronic industry, which wants to increase the sale of receivers, and the public. TTV has a sizable advertising volume. Some newspapers have suggested that competition will lead to improved programming.
Ideas for Education
The Chinese government is studying plans to improve education. An ad hoc group headed by Education Vice Minister Kao Hua-chen is in charge of revising curricula at all levels. Main objectives are increased emphasis on basic science at the college level and the stressing of vocational training in secondary schools.
The dignity of manual work will be inculcated beginning in primary schools so as to break down the traditional idea that intellectuals should not work with their hands.
Both government authorities and educators are stepping up criticism of primary school "cram sessions"—long an issue of concern to schools, parents, and teachers. Remedial suggestions were made at a meeting of the Education Committee of the Control Yuan.
Pan Chen-chiu, director of the Provincial Education Department, told a symposium that cramming is a big social problem. He said a solution requires the cooperation of schools, parents, and the public.
Medical Colleges
Plans are underway for two new medical colleges.
One will add a medical college to the Taiwan Provincial Cheng Kung University in Tainan. An appropriation of NT$30 million (US$750,000) will be made available from a loan granted the TPG by the Sino American Fund for Social and Economic Development.
The other college is backed by government and civic leaders and will be named after Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the nation's founding father. The site is near scenic Cheng Ching lake at Kaohsiung. Construction of the administration building, auditorium, library, classrooms, laboratories, and students' dormitories is scheduled to be completed this fall.
Soil Improvement
Dr. A. Earl Erickson, professor of soil physics at Michigan State University, and his assistant, Alvin Smucker, arrived in Taipei March 3 to help with a soil improvement project.
The project, co-sponsored by the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction and the Taiwan Sugar Corporation, seeks to improve the island's sandy soils by laying down an underground layer of asphalt to help retain water. The method will be used for upland crops and to impound water for paddies.
Walter Gilbert, an American authority on electronic meteorological instruments, has taken up a 12-month assignment to help expand typhoon and flood warning services on Taiwan. This is a U.N. Development program-Special Fund project.
The project will include (1) the installation of two storm-detecting radar sets and auxiliary equipment and (2) the establishment of an electronic instruments workshop for the repair and maintenance of radar and rainfall telemetering equipment.
Museums Popular
Tsiang Fu-tsung, curator of the Chung-shan Museum at Waishuangshi in suburban Taipei, announced visitors totaled 600,000 last year. One-fifth of them were foreigners. On some days the crowds were larger than the museum could accommodate. More exhibition rooms are under construction so more articles can be shown at a time.
The Chungshan Museum, named for the name by which Dr. Sun Yat-sen is known to Chinese, was opened on the Founding Father's centennial November 12, 1965. It houses some 300,000 of China's greatest art treasures, some as old as 6,000 years.
Taipei's Land Reform Museum was opened March 11 by the Chinese Land Reform Association. Vice President C. K. Yen cut the ribbon as the 10-story building on South Tun-hua Road was dedicated at ceremonies over which Governor Huang Chieh presided.
More than 1,000 items are on display, including historical documents. Charts show data on rural reconstruction and land reform.