Taiwan Today

Chiayi Cultural and Creative Industries Park makes the arts more accessible for neighboring rural communities.

Situated in the agricultural heartland of Taiwan, Chiayi Cultural and Creative Industries Park is expanding the country’s imaginative sphere from the urban centers to the rural south. Lu Yi-yun (呂翼雲), who grew up in the area and teaches at Nanhua University’s (NHU) Department of Ethnomusicology in Chiayi County, hopes to enrich the lives of the local populace through the arts. His vision led him to base the headquarters of Chiayi Traditional Orchestra (CTO), which was founded in 2016 to perform a blend of traditional and contemporary music on Eastern and Western instruments, at the park. Now every Sunday, up to 60 musicians aged 10 to 30 bring their cellos, cymbals, drums, dulcimers, erhus, flutes, harps, pipas, trumpets and yueqins to the park’s historical J Building for rehearsal.

  The building is one of nine refurbished Japanese colonial era (1895-1945) structures on the grounds, where a sorghum liquor—known locally as kaoliang—distillery operated from 1916 to 1999. After its closure, buildings on the 3.92-hectare site were renovated by the Ministry of Culture (MOC) and in 2003 the park was designated as a venue for exhibitions, forums, performances and shops. “The park, which is also called G9 Creative Park, was designed to combine and amplify local service industry resources by serving as the nucleus of cultural and creative business growth in the region,” said Lee Liang-wen (李良文), senior executive officer at the MOC’s Department of Cultural and Creative Development.

Lee emphasized how the park’s central location among the farming communities of Chiayi County and neighboring Yunlin County and Tainan City has enabled it to augment the area’s development. By joining with the Chiayi City Government (CCG)-administered Chiayi Art Museum (CAM) across the street, G9 can host large-scale events like the 2021 edition of Taiwan Design Expo. Co-organized by CCG and the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Industrial Development Bureau, the event attracted more than 600,000 visitors over the course of 11 days.
  Dramatic Staging
Now home to a total of 46 art- and culture-related entities, G9 provides studio space for actors, ceramists, painters, photographers, musicians and other creative professionals. Among those based at the park is Our Theatre, the first contemporary performing arts troupe in the Chiayi area. The group’s latest work, “The Prawning Decameron,” premiered in April 2022 at Chiayi Performing Arts Center (CPAC) in the county’s Minxiong Township and was later held at National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in the southern Taiwan city and National Taichung Theater in the central metropolis. The piece is an adaptation of Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio’s best-known work and was produced with traditional puppetry, fusing elements of East and West.

  Like the company’s other productions, the work is performed mainly in Holo—also known as Taiwanese—in line with the group’s goal of reviving the language spoken by the country’s largest ethnic group. The troupe is adept at weaving traditional elements into modern drama to infuse each piece with an authentic local feel. “Through our original creations and adaptations of the classics, we strive to promote Holo along with cultural aspects unique to Chiayi and southern Taiwan,” Executive Director Vivian Tsai (蔡明純) said.

Since its formation in 2003, Our Theatre has staged around 800 plays in 19 cities at home and abroad, including at such prestigious events as Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the U.K. In 2018, the troupe began operating the Sinkagitso—named in Holo after the first theater established in Chiayi in 1909—out of G9’s K Building, which was originally used to ferment liquor starter cultures. The space now serves as a rehearsal and performance hall for Our Theatre and is also available for rent by other groups. “With its spaciousness, historical ambience and proximity to public transportation, G9 is the ideal place for Our Theatre’s base,” Tsai said. “Moving forward, we’ll keep working to broaden our audience while helping the public gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the area’s cultural and historical roots.”

Melodic Novelty
The musicians of CTO also relish G9 as a space for the orchestra to evolve as it incorporates both local and global influences into its traditional Chinese repertoire. Each year, CTO invites composers to create Chiayi-themed works for the ensemble to perform at its annual concert. The latest event featured “The Impression of Eagle’s Sound,” which was inspired by the composer’s experience boating at the largest water storage facility in Taiwan, Zengwen Reservoir. “We’re creating our own distinct style spanning music genres and integrating dance, drama and multimedia into our performances,” Lu said. He views the establishment of G9 as a milestone in expanding access to the arts for Chiayi residents. “It’s hard for people in big cities like Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung to imagine the scarcity of live shows in remote areas,” Lu said. “More often than not, locals are limited to seeing the occasional performance by a touring group from Taipei.”

  Augmenting CTO’s mission to enhance access to the arts is an ongoing project to popularize innovative orchestral music across all age groups, with the ensemble developing special programs for audiences as young as eight years old. The shows began hitting the stage at CTO-organized events including the inaugural Chiayi Traditional Music Festival that took place last August and September at CPAC and the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum in Chiayi County. This was followed in December by a concert at CPAC showcasing orchestras from NHU and four Chiayi County elementary and junior high schools that entered the National Student Competition of Music. The event was a welcome revival of group performances, which were suspended for two years during the pandemic.

In recent years, G9 has drawn an increasing number of professional artists, many of whom are locals returning to their hometown like CTO’s Lu and Our Theatre’s Tsai. The latter hopes to see closer future collaboration between the MOC, CCG and G9-based businesses and groups to further promote the park’s cultural brand. To this end, the MOC is integrating resources and support from government units, nearby communities, educational organizations and local enterprises. Ongoing initiatives include an artist-in-residence program at the park in partnership with CAM. “We’re looking forward to seeing cooperative initiatives bear fruit in the form of a close-knit cultural and creative community that offers a wealth of opportunities for creators of all kinds,” Lee said. 

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw