The Ten Drum Percussion Group was established in 2000 with the purpose of advancing Taiwan’s drum culture at home and abroad. Since then, it has quickly catapulted itself to the front ranks of the world’s percussion groups.
The 39-year-old founder and visionary of the troupe is Hsieh Shi. Born in a small village in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, Hsieh began learning to play drums with his father when he was only three, an experience that kindled his lifelong passion for music and especially the sound of beating drums.
When he was a teenager Hsieh moved to the southern Tainan City to attend high school and college. Upon obtaining his bachelor’s degree, he went to the United States for graduate studies.
Looking back on his time in the states in West Virginia, Hsieh said he is deeply impressed by the music scene there. “America is so multicultural. I studied a bit of jazz and it opened my eyes to the world and what is out there.”
Even now Hsieh continues to participate in cultural drum art exchanges throughout Asia and the world. Because of his knowledge of the to a global audience.
Not surprisingly, it is in talking about music that Hsieh becomes most impassioned and singing often takes the place of speech to convey his meaning more precisely.
“It is true that all Asian drum cultures come from China, but Taiwan’s drum art is unique, because it has a religious dimension found nowhere else,” he said. In Taiwan the Tiao Gu Zhen and the Song Jiang Battle Array are both very popular forms of drums performances at religious festivals, Hsieh noted.
He added that the creativity and uniqueness of traditional Taiwanese drum music stems from its distinctive transmission form. For generations the music was passed down orally, from master to pupil, through an onomatopoeic system for composing and teaching. This method fosters creativity and innovation, according to Hsieh.
It has certainly worked for Hsieh. Just two years after Ten Drums was founded, it was invited to perform at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Australia. In 2009, an album produced by the group was nominated for a Grammy Award in best traditional world music. And the group keeps going strong, giving numerous performances throughout the world, to the delight of fans everywhere.
When asked what he thought upon learning of the nomination, Hsieh said with a laugh, “Surprised!”
Ten Drum has also branched out in numerous directions recently. It has set up more than 100 schools and associations throughout Taiwan. In 2007 it opened up the Ten Drum Art and Cultural Park and has also established a Ten Drum Village in Kaohsiung.
These activities are all in accordance with the percussion troupe’s mission of passing the nation’s drum legacy to the next generation and of advancing drum art in Taiwan.
The cultural park is a five-hectare drumming facility built out of a Japanese colonial era (1895-1945) sugar refinery. Its distinguishing feature is a 67-meter chimney that rises above the area’s farms and symbolizes preservation, a major Ten Drum tenet.
Japanese era structures have been turned into performance theaters, drum classrooms, museums, a restaurant and other drum-themed facilities. The park is most popular with childern and their laughter rings through the park as they tour the facilities, learn drum culture and play.
In March of this year, guesthouses were also set up in the park, allowing visitors to stay overnight. But instead of checking into a typical hotel room, guests live in little cabins, each named after a song, and whimsically designed as a tree house.
While fun for children and adults alike, these houses boast environmentally friendly designs. Raised above ground, the cabins do not damage the soil and are better able to resist rot and regulate temperature. The houses are sturdily built in such a way that they will be easy to dismantle and reuse. The troupe members also pitch in to help build whenever possible.
The cozy rooms feature wooden floors and walls, imparting a fragrant smell of timber to their interiors. Tables are beautifully made from drums, and chairs gorgeously crafted by local artisans are in keeping with the park’s theme.
“The primary target of the guesthouses is families,” Hsieh said. A large glass panel separates the room’s wooden tubs from the bedroom so parents may keep an eye on young children while soaking.
In an effort to lower their carbon footprint, the verdant grounds are irrigated with the polluted waters of the neighboring river. Hsieh hopes this small effort will lower the park’s water consumption and clean the river via filtered runoff. All the gardens, including the vegetable patch the troupe tends, are organic.
Nature appreciation is another of the park’s many attractions. As Hsieh strolls through the park, his knowledge of nature is evident as he masterfully mimics and identifies an Oriental Turtle Dove. He knows every tree in the area. “This is the Bauhinia, the troupe’s flower—they bloom for the annual festival when the troupe needs to be at their best,” he said while pointing to a nearby flower.
For Hsieh, the park, the schools, the guesthouses and the devotion to nature and conservation are all complementary to music making and performance.
The latest creation by the troupe is “The Enchanted East,” which takes the listeners on a journey through Eastern legends—a Taoist exaltation, a Buddhist introspective, Taiwanese tribal legends—up until East meets West on the Silk Road.
“Art is a continual learning process, sowe plan to continue promoting drum culture through our workshops and to create a new album every year,” Hsieh said.
In their immediate future, they are looking forward to returning to Le Festival d'Avignon. Hsieh explained that the art festival, one of the largest of its kind in the world, “is a pilgrimage of like-minded artists that creates an artistic atmosphere like no other festival. It’s like art as a religion.” Perhaps it is comparable to Ten Drum Percussion Troupe’s devotion to drum arts and their propagation. (HZW)
Rich Matheson is a freelance photojournalist based in Tainan. Copyright © 2011 by Rich Matheson
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