台灣藝術家英文簡傳（1）－聲樂家曾道雄 Baritone Tseng Dau Hsiong

編輯／邱斐顯
Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu  

Prof. Tseng Dau-Hsiong is a famous conductor, stage director, baritone and educator. He founded the Taipei Opera Theatre (台北歌劇劇場) in 1971 and has premiered more than 30 operas in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. In each opera production, he served as producer, stage director, vocal coach, chorus master, and even as a singer or conductor.

He is also an internationally recognized music educator. He was director of the Music Research Institute and the head of the Music Department at the National Taiwan Normal University from 1981 to 1984. He has conducted the chorus of the National Taiwan Normal University for more than 30 years, directing plays of sacred and secular works.

“IDOMENEO, King of Crete” was produced and conducted by Tseng in January 2008. Under Tseng’s instruction, the members of the Taipei Opera Theatre performed an ‘old-fashioned’ opera “IDOMENEO, King of Crete”.

This opera was composed by young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, using a classical plot (King Idomeneus, ‘Idomeneo’ in Italian, is mentioned in Homer and Virgil). Tseng also wrote the Chinese subtitles for this opera.

A note about Tseng Dau-Hsiong（曾道雄）, director.

Tseng Dau-Hsiong is a renowned Taiwanese baritone. Tseng, born in 1939 in Chang-hwa, Taiwan, studied with Robert Scholz and Paul Dai at National Taiwan Normal University, and with Franco Navarette and Maria de Los Angeles at the Royal Madrid Music Conservatory. He also studied opera and singing at Los Angeles University, under the guidance of Dr. Jan Propper, and opera directing under Maria Carta.

Tseng has given critically acclaimed operatic performances in Europe, U.S.A., Japan and Taiwan. As a highly regarded conductor, Tseng studied with Franco Ferrara in Siena and has conducted numerous operas and oratorios in Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia.

In 1988, Tseng was invited by the United Nations Refugee Agency to sing a baritone solo in Tokyo, Japan at concert to raise funds for hungry African children. He sang the famous Taiwanese song “Don’t Keep Fish in the Bottom of the Cup,” at the agreement of the composer Lu Chuan-Sheng. His performance highly impressed many people at the concert, including the Japanese Royal family.

In 1990, Tseng made history as the first Taiwanese to be invited by China to conduct and direct the opera La Traviata, produced by the National Central Opera Company, to celebrate the Asian Olympics in Beijing. That same year, he conducted the first opera ever performed at the Grand Theatre of the New Culture Centre in Hong Kong.

Tseng founded the Taipei Opera Theatre in 1971 and has since premiered more than 30 operas in Taiwan and Southeast Asia, including “Dido and Aeneas”, “Magic Flute”, “Idomeneo”, “Fidelio”, “Der Freichuetz”, “Hansel und Gretel”, “Macbeth”, “Rigoletto”, “Faust”, “Pagliacci”, “Il Segreto di Susanna”, “Mazart und Salieiri”, and “Gianni Schicchi”.

He was the director of the Music Research Institute and the head of the Music Department at National Taiwan Normal University from 1982 to 1985. He taught at Iowa State University as a visiting professor, and gave lectures at Louvain University in Belgium, as well as at the Universities of Leeds and Cambridge in the U.K.

Tseng has been recognized for the breadth of his achievements in opera, song and education. Many musicians and artists who worked with him have expressed appreciation for his fine conducting, profound musical knowledge and teaching enthusiasm.

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（2）－作曲家鄧雨賢

Composer Deng Yu-Shian

編輯／邱斐顯

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu   

The great Taiwanese composer Deng Yu-Shian, the “Father of Contemporary Taiwanese Music”, wrote his famous folk melodies several decades ago, but much of his music is still very popular today. 

Deng was born into a scholarly Hakka family in Longtan Township, Taoyuan County in 1906. When he was three years old, he moved to Taipei with his family because his father was appointed as a Chinese teacher at the Japanese School of the governor’s office. He had to get used to speaking the Holo language, under the circumstances. 


At Taipei Normal School, where his father had taught, Deng became fascinated with music and composition. There was a piano in every classroom, as the students in this school were all trained to be teachers with music teaching abilities.

After his graduation in 1925, Deng began teaching at the Ze Hsin Primary School. As soon as got his pay, he would rush to buy books on music theory. In 1929, he decided to quit his teaching job and to pursue studies at the Tokyo School of Music for one year. He later worked as a translator for the Taichung District Court, but quitted the job after a few months. 

From 1932 onward, he devoted his efforts to writing popular music, and for about 13 years, his songs were often big hits on the radio. In 1932, his composition “The Dadaocheng March”（大稻埕進行曲）gained good reviews and he was subsequently invited to serve as a professional composer and to train the singers for Columbia Music Entertainment, Incorporated. From 1933 to 1934, Deng composed songs that included “Longing for the Spring Breeze”, “Sorrow in a Moonlit Night”, “Golden Age of Dance” and “Flowers in a Rainy Night.” 


His melodies reflected the life and the thoughts of the Taiwan people under Japanese colonial rule. He not only composed new melodies but also collected traditional folk songs in his spare time. However, he was unhappy when the Japanese colonial government asked him to restructure his melodies during the Second World War as motivational war songs. He therefore quitted his job and chose to be a teacher, as his wife was, in Cyonglin Township in Hsinchu County. In 1944, he fell ill and died at the age of 39. 


Deng’s influence on Taiwanese music is everlasting. The first Deng Yu-Shian Memorial Concert was held by Taoyuan Philharmonic Orchestra in the Auditorium of Longtan Township Hall on February 15, 1992. The Deng Yu-Shian Composition Concert was first staged at the National Concert Hall on July 14 and 15 that same year. 

On November 29, 2002, in a memorable concert in Taipei, Placido Domingo, a world-renowned operatic tenor, sang "Flowers in the Rainy Night” in Taiwanese with the well-known Taiwanese female singer Chiang Hui. This particular work has acquired the status of a musical centerpiece at international cultural events in Taiwan. 

Photo courtesy of DYS Foundation

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（15）－作曲家許家毓 Composer Hsu Chia-Yu

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（15）－作曲家許家毓  Composer Hsu Chia-Yu  





編輯／邱斐顯 

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu 





A note about Hsu Chia-Yu, composer

Chia-Yu Hsu, born in Banciao, Taipei , Taiwan , received her Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music, and Master’s degree and Artist Diploma from Yale University.

 

Prior to entering Duke University to study with Stephen Jaffe, Scott Lindroth and Anthony Kelley, Hsu studied with Ezra Laderman, Martin Bresnick and Roberto Sierra at Yale University School of Music, David Loeb and Jennifer Higdon at Curtis Institute of Music, and Pan-Yen Chan at the National Taiwan Academy of Arts. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Duke University .

  

Hsu has received numerous awards and honors for her compositional endeavors. In 1999, her “Dinkey Bird” won the Maxfield Parrish composition contest and was the subject of a feature in Philadelphia Inquirer. “Shui Diao Ge To”, composed for the 2004 Milestones Festival, received a 2005 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer’s Award. She has also received the first prize in the National Taiwan Academy of Art Composition Competition, in the Charlotte Civic Orchestra Composition Competition, in the Philip Slates Memorial Composition Contest, the Prism Quartet Student Commission Award, the Renée B. Fisher Foundation Composer Award, and the William Klenz Prize.  

 

Hsu’s “Huan” for solo harp was the winner of the Composition Contest for the 7th USA International Harp Competition in Spring 2006 and was included in the repertoire for the harp competition. “Huan” was introduced by Sonja Inglefield in an article in the fall 2006 issue of World Harp Congress Review. In August 2006, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra premiered Chiayu’s work, Hard Roads in Shu, which later received performances by the Detroit Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. Hsu was also invited to conduct a composer’s forum in the competition and was interviewed for a documentary, which will be televised on PBS in 2008.

  

In 2007, her “Fantasy on Wang Bao Chuan”, commissioned by Taiwan ’s Evergreen Symphony orchestra, was selected for the American Composers Orchestra’s annual Underwood New Music reading and also received an honorable mention by the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute.

 

Hsu also won the 2007 International Harp Competition Composer Contest, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer's Awards, the William Klenz Prize, the Prism Quartet student commissioning Award, the Maxfield Parish composition contest, and the Renée B. Fisher Foundation Composer Awards.

  

In February 2008, her “Reverie and Pursuit” received its premiere performance, commissioned and performed by Carol Jantsch, the tuba principal from the Philadelphia Orchestra.

 

Photo courtesy of Hsu Chia-Yu 





The above information is edited by Felicity Fei-Hsien CHIU（邱斐顯）, former editor of center of web and wireless news service, the Central News Agency.

 

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（14）－詩人李魁賢Poet Lee Kuei-Shien

 



台灣藝術家英文簡傳（14）－詩人李魁賢  Poet Lee Kuei-Shien

編輯／邱斐顯 

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu 







A note about Lee Kuei-Shien

Lee Kuei-Hsien, born in Taipei in 1937, is a famous poet who graduated from Taipei Institute of Technology. He first started to write poems in 1953 and by 1976, had become a member of the International Academy of Poets in England . He helped to establish the Taiwan PEN, and was elected vice president of the organizing in 1987 and president in 1995.

His poems have been translated and published in Canada , Greece , India , Japan , Korea , Mongolia , the Netherlands , New Zealand , Romania , Russia , Spain , the U.S. and Yugoslavia .

His awards include Merit of Asian Poet, Korea (1994); Taiwanese Poet Prize (1997); Poets International, India (1998); Poet of the Millennium Award, International Poets Academy, India (2000); and Lai Ho Literature Prize and Premier Culture Prize, both in Taiwan (2001). He was nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature by the International Poets Academy, India, bringing great honor to Taiwanese literature, even as a nominee for the prize.

He also received the Michael Madhusudan Best Poet Award from the Michael Madhusudan Academy (2000), the Wu San-Lien Prize in Literature (2004) and the Poet Medal from the Mongolian Cultural Foundation (2005).

 

He has attended international poetry festivals in El Salvador , Japan , Korea , India , Mongolia , Nicaragua and the U.S. He served as Chairman of the National Culture and Arts Foundation from 2005 to 2007.

 

Photo courtesy of Lee Kuei-Shien 





The above information is edited by Felicity Fei-Hsien CHIU（邱斐顯）, former editor of center of web and wireless news service, the Central News Agency.

 

 

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（13）－作曲家王明哲Composer Wang Ming-Jer

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（13）－作曲家王明哲

Composer Wang Ming-Jer

編輯／邱斐顯   

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu 





A note about Composer Wang Ming-Jer（王明哲）





Wang Ming-Jer was born in 1955 at Pintong Checheng, a small town near HengChun in southern Taiwan, where the southern Taiwanese folk music known as Hengchun-Tiao（恆春調) originated.



Many people are moved by Wang's compositions because of his

expressions of crying out for basic dignity, self-esteem and freedom for the Taiwanese under the martial law of the KMT.



He did not learn from traditional musical theory, but is very sensitive in melody and knows how to present his feelings in music.



His outstanding compositions include “Ocean Country”, “Taiwan Spirit”, “ Taiwan ”, “ Formosa and Forever My Country”. 







Photo courtesy of Lee Sing-jen（李信仁） 





The above information is edited by Felicity Fei-Hsien CHIU（邱斐顯）, former editor of center of web and wireless news service, the Central News Agency.

 

 

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（12）－詩人向陽

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（12）－詩人向陽

Poet Xiang Yang 



編輯／邱斐顯 

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu 



 

A note about Poet Xiang Yang （向陽）





Xiang Yang is the pen name of Lin Chi-yang（林淇瀁）, who was born in Nantou in central Taiwan in 1955. He received a B.A. in Japanese and an M.A. in journalism from Chinese Culture University , and earned a Ph.D. in journalism from National Zhengzhi University . He worked as chief editor of China Times Weekly and was vice president of the Independence Evening Post. He is now a professor of Taiwanese literature at National Taipei University of Education.





Since the mid-1970s, Xiang Yang has been active on the poetry scene. He founded gathering in the Sunshine Poetry Society in 1979 and was among the first in Taiwan to write modern poetry in Taiwanese. He attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 1985, helped establish the Taiwanese PEN in 1987 and served as its vice president in 1990. As a prolific writer, he has published 12 books of poetry, two English translations of selected poems, 11 volumes of essays, another seven of literary criticism and social commentaries, as well as children's stories and poetry.





Xiang Yang got the idea of composing the Choral Symphony in Taiwanese after being invited to attend the Poet Festival in El Salvador in October 2007, where the official language is Spanish. However, he was glad to find that local people enjoyed his poems by his expression even though he recited them in Taiwanese which they could not understand.

Photo courtesy of Xiang Yang 





The above information is edited by Felicity Fei-Hsien CHIU（邱斐顯）, former editor of center of web and wireless news service, the Central News Agency.

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（11）---詩人吳晟 Poet Wu Sheng

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（11）---詩人吳晟  Poet Wu Sheng 



 

編輯／邱斐顯  

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu 



 

Preface

 

Wu Sheng’s poetry is the first choice in the National Museum of Taiwan Literature’s plan for digital archives. Wu’s poetry will be presented in two sections. In the first section, Wu will give a reading on themes that focus on concerns over the land, with some musical accompaniment. In the second section, some composers will present music based on Wu’s poetry on themes of the love between parents and children.

A note about Poet Wu Sheng  

Poet Wu Sheng (Wu Sheng-Xiong 吳勝雄), born in 1944 to a farming family, lives in the rural county of Changhua in central Taiwan. After he graduated from Pingtung Agriculture College in 1971, he taught biology at Hsichou Junior High School . In addition to teaching, he also worked on the family's rice fields. His leisure time, however, was devoted to writing poetry. 



 

In 1975, Wu received the Modern Chinese Poetry Award from the Epoch Poetry Society. The Award Committee had the following to say about Wu’s work: "His poetic style is simple and real, natural and solid. He uses the rural language in a touching and sincere manner." Wu also stated, in his award speech entitled "I Would Rather Lose Myself in Simplicity and Clumsiness," that it is because he was not academically trained in literature and literary theories that his creativity has very little to do with academic forms. Instead, most of his writings, drawn from life experiences, have to do with the sincerity of the hard-working peasantry.

In the 1980s Wu was a leading nativist local poet and he remains best known for his depictions of rural Taiwan . He was invited to attend the International Writing Program at University of Iowa in 1980. 

 

Visiting the longest river in Taiwan 



 

During his four decades of writing, Wu Sheng published five volumes of poetry and six essay collections. He retired in 2000. A new collection of his poetry and some new poems were published the same year. Later, Wu and his wife embarked on a journey along Taiwan's longest river, the Chuoshui River（濁水溪）. This was a project in which Wu and his wife aimed to visit, explore, and report on the bio- and socio- conditions of the environment along the river. Their observation, Notes on the Chuoshui River , was published in 2002.

In 2007, Wu received the Wu Sanlian Literature Award (吳三連文學獎), which is one of the great honors in Taiwanese literature.

Wu's poetry is deeply enrooted in the ordinary life and work of farmers in Taiwanese villages. They evince pure love for the earth and profound social concern.

 

Strong Taiwanese Identity on his poetry

Wu’s poetry is not mere superficial nostalgia for the land, but serious commentary that radiated from his strong Taiwanese identity and his belief that social justice will eventually triumph. Such is his unchanging style and character since he first emerged in the field of Taiwanese poetry in the 1960s.

In addition to his poetry, Wu is also noted for his essays that delve deeply into Taiwanese village life, bringing to elucidating the contribution that farming makes to economic development, and recording various aspects of the village life and the lives of farmers. While presenting the farmers as resilient, hard-working, sturdy and tolerant, his writing highlights the common spirit of the Taiwanese people.

He recently spent an entire year not only studying the social and environmental conditions along the banks of the Chuoshui River , but also establishing himself as a paragon of Taiwanese intellectualism who puts his love for his land into actual practice.

Wu continues to write poems and essays (both literary and journalistic). He also teaches courses on creative writing in several colleges. Forever concerned with affairs of this land, Wu is keenly observant of the social movements and political reforms in Taiwan . His benches in his front yard have become a gathering place and forum for authors, artists, social reformers, occasional politicians and aspiring young writers. As for the fields where he toiled for most of his life, they are now planted with native Taiwan trees. With his fields turned into forests, he has officially become The Man Who Planted Trees.

 

Photo courtesy of A Good Day Records（風和日麗唱片行）

The above information is edited by Felicity Fei-Hsien CHIU（邱斐顯）, former editor of center of web and wireless news service, the Central News Agency.

 

 

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（10）——畫家謝里法 Painter Shaih Lifa

Painter Shaih Lifa

 Photo courtesy of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

編輯／邱斐顯

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu

Preface

The lifting of Martial Law in 1987 brought a liberalized cultural-political environment that allowed artists to deal with issues of self-identity and self-fulfillment through their works. Art history studies not only help to enhance our understanding of these artworks, but also articulate the inner spirit of a culture. Shaih Lifa’s "Taiwan’s Art Movements under Japanese Occupation," which follows the structure of Wang Bair-juan's（王白淵） earlier studies, "Taiwan’s Art Movements (1955)," pulls together scattered and often unorganized pieces of historical evidence, and in doing so, provides us with a clear view of the development of Taiwan’s fine arts.

A note about Shaih Lifa

Born in 1938, Shaih Lifa was separated from his parents, as a child. This unsettling experience drove Shaih to seek solace in art; it also contributed significantly to his artistic sensitivity, and prepared him for a life-long artistic career.

Shaih Lifa lived in Paris for two years, and in New York for twenty-two years. During those years abroad, he rose to fame by publishing voluminously on artistic trends in the West as well as on art movements in Taiwan . His books include “Some Notes on Art: The Letters of Shaih Lifa”, “The Adventure of Art”, “The Art World of New York”, “Great Taiwanese Painters of the Twentieth Century”, “Reshaping the Mind of Taiwan”, “Exploring the Historical Horizons of Taiwanese Art”, and “New Taiwanese Art”.

Since returning to Taiwan , he has continued his longstanding contribution to Taiwanese art by creating a series of installation projects and publishing more books.

In 1972, Shaih Lifa first contributed an article “On Hsu Pei-hung and his art” to the supplement section of the China Times. This article was well-received in art circles in Taiwan .

His book, " Taiwan ’s Art Movements under Japanese Occupation," was then serialized in Artist Magazine after the launch of the first issue in 1975. This book is now widely regarded as a significant milestone in Taiwan ’s art history and the Nativist Movement of the 1970s.

In describing the basis on which he undertook this study, Shaih once said: “Fortunately, New York helped me to find my own historical perspective which is entirely based on the characteristics of Taiwanese fine arts. I would emphasize that it is imperative that one writes art history in the first person. In other words, when a Taiwanese author pens art history, it can be identified as ‘Taiwanese art history’ as long as it starts with ‘I’.  This is the most basic principle of all historical studies.”

Shaih Lifa has long had other interests apart from his art. With the help of friends in literary circles, he has written and published a number of books since returning to Taiwan . These include “Those Painter Friends of Mine”, “Figures unearthed in Taiwan ”, and “Notes on Our Predecessors”. Some of these books feature profiles of Shaih’s friends and colleagues in the art world, while some of them explain his observations and interpretation of historical characters, from a contemporary perspective.

Shaih explained his particular interest in historical novels thus: “Whenever I find history too unreal and difficult to engage mentally, I would seek comfort from novels because a good historical novel often makes the stories seem more real and believable than history, and significantly boosts my confidence in developing plots for my writing. When I rewrote " Taiwan ’s Art Movements under Japanese Occupation," which was first published thirty years ago, I felt strongly that many of the paragraphs were in fact written by someone else; it is only when I read it out loud that the book becomes mine.” When Shaih asked his friends to suggest the most appropriate color that represents the novel, the most popular choice turned out to be violet. Shaih therefore chose Grande Chaumière Violette for both his ‘novel’ and for the retrospective exhibition.

Shaih Lifa’s Concept of the Exhibition

“Taking a retrospective view of one’s past by means of exhibited documents is like opening a book for everyone to closely examine. ... I am not entirely sure whether or not there is anything worth noting in my life. Between what’s notable and what’s not, I realize that my life has had too many repetitions thus far. I encapsulate my life experience in the brief act of artistic creation; what you see here are my views on life.”  -- Shaih Lifa

Shaih first returned to Taiwan in 1988, six months after the 40-year period of Martial Law had been lifted. At the time, the extent of environmental pollution on the island was appalling. After he went back to the United States , he tried, but failed, to articulate through his paintings how he felt about all this.

After two years of struggle and careful consideration, he finally decided to express his complex feelings through the use of "readymade" objects. This is how the idea of "Aesthetics of Litter" was conceived. This project, which was the main feature of an exhibition on the theme of "Garbage," uses bin bags as a symbol of the twentieth century. It sets out to explore the environmental issues that confront Taiwan in our time. By placing litter in the art museum, "Aesthetics of Litter" raises questions with regard to the status of the litter: does it remain an art object, a status it gained through the art exhibition? Or does it return to its initial character, i.e. simply garbage. By raising these questions, the piece can also be seen as posing the classical questions of conceptual art, i.e. “What is art?” “What is garbage?” “What is an art museum?”

An egg was surprisingly hatched from the bin bags after the "Aesthetics of Litter" exhibition. This, in effect, allowed the story of garbage to evolve into what Shaih called "oviparous civilization." Shaih started this project by making a collage with reproduced images of classical European paintings and then scribbled on this collage with transparent paints, before finally putting all this in an egg-shaped container. This signifies a new life cultivated in the egg, which can be seen as a symbol of the rebirth of civilization.

Shaih never thought this series would later be acclaimed as representing the peak of his painting techniques. With the simple oval shape, the prototype of four eggs marked the successful conclusion of this project.

Shaih also collected a large number of paintings by other artists, after he settled in Taiwan . As he recalled the story behind each painting, he was brought increasingly closer to these works, and came to a realization about the nature of the collection. The collection reflects his experience, disposition, fate, personality and thoughts and symbolizes a certain aspect of his life.

Therefore, he decided that the retrospective exhibition should encompass the artwork that he had so far collected, and that he would display them as a single piece of his own work. He felt that this would most appropriately summarize the artistic ideals that he had held for many years.

A note about Grande Chaumière Violette

Grande Chaumière Violette is the most complete exhibition of Shaih Lifa’s works to date. This exhibition showcases Shaih Lifa’s paintings, manuscripts, newspaper clippings and his own art collection. Part of the installation project, "A Landmark Made of Floating Lights," as well as its full-sized prints, will be displayed in the Art Corridor of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. This exhibition is organized in conjunction with a conference on Shaih Lifa’s contribution to the writing of Taiwanese art history. Renowned scholars will present their research at the conference, which will explore Shaih Lifa’s thoughts and philosophy on life, as well as his views on the history of Taiwanese art.

Photo courtesy of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

The above information is edited by Felicity Fei-Hsien CHIU（邱斐顯）, former editor of center of web and wireless news service, the Central News Agency.

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（9）---畫家張萬傳

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（9）---畫家張萬傳 

Painter Chang Wan-Chuan（張萬傳）  
{###_phesha0822/16/1936018553.jpg_###}


編輯／邱斐顯
Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu

A note on Painter Chang Wan-Chuan（張萬傳）:

 

Chang Wan-Chuan was one of Taiwan 's important artists of the senior generation and studied Western painting in Japan . He was born in Damshui in 1909, and passed away at the venerable age of 95 in 2003.

 

Looking back on the creative trajectory of this artist's career, one can more clearly see the broad outline of the historical development of art in Taiwan .

 

The painting style of Chang Wan-Chuan

{###_phesha0822/16/1936018551.jpg_###}
 

Chang, a prolific painter, often used unrestrained and heroic brush strokes to present his emotional view of the world, emphasizing an aesthetic fusing color and form and borrowing techniques from both Les Fauves and Expressionists.

 

His style was grand and powerful, with quick and easy brushwork that portrayed a lively spirit is his paintings. While Chang primarily painted landscapes, still lifes and figures, it is especially interesting to see the virtuosity of drawing in his quick sketches.

 

The affection he had for ancient houses, Western buildings and landscapes in his early period won him the honor of inclusion in the Taiwan Fine Art Exhibition and Taiwan Government Fine Art Exhibition.

 

Small work, great explanation.

 

Chang's early canvasses tended to be small due to his straitened financial circumstances at the time; however this did not detract from the beauty of these paintings. Because of his limited access to material, he often just used what was available, like wooden boards or cardboard to serve as his painting surfaces, which was indicative of the enthusiasm and dedication of the artists of his generation.

 

Chang relied on concrete material objects for all of his paintings, including landscapes, still lifes and figures, yet his assertive and penetrating intuition retained the special characteristics of his time.

 

Chang traveled all over to make his paintings －－ from Hsiamen scenery（廈門風景）, to the White Building in Damshui（淡水白樓）, to Japan and Europe. In 1975, at the age of 66, he traveled to France and Spain to expand his vision, and also to make a lasting record of the ancient historical buildings of Europe .

 

Loving fish, painting on the dinner table.

{###_phesha0822/16/1936018552.jpg_###}

 

Because Chang loved fish, not only for their flavor but also for their variety of colors, shapes and lines, he often used them as the subjects of his paintings, and captured their vitality in his nimble and powerful painting style. Once, with his eye fixed on the dinner table, he excitedly drew on a piece of paper a vivid rendition of a fish, a moist chopstick, cigarette ash and soy sauce. He expressed his powerful passions with seascapes, the highly inflected lines of the female form, other fascinating subject matter, and especially his birthplace Damshui.

 

Chang Wan-Chuan's temperament comes through faithfully in his paintings, and his confident brush strokes were thoroughly informed by his vitality for life. He did not confine himself to objective realism, but rather took life itself as his example, subjectively and individually making use of the brush to reinforce the visual tension in his work.


{###_phesha0822/16/1936018554.jpg_###}

 

He often brandished a large brush and made bounding marks with red and black paint and then added blue, green and yellow among the main brush strokes, using lush textures to convey his perceptions of the world and feelings at the moment. When sketching, his most direct method of expression, Chang used succinct, resolute lines to boldly describe forms and juxtaposed them with watercolor washes, harmonizing colors and shapes. Different subjective feelings often burst forth from Chang's brush when he was painting similar themes in different times or places. His themes repeatedly explore a passion for theatricality, transcend objective visual analysis and establish his unique creative style.

 

 

Photo courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum

 

 

The above information is edited by Felicity Fei-Hsien CHIU（邱斐顯）, former editor of center of web and wireless news service, the Central News Agency.

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（8）－作曲家蕭泰然

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（8）－作曲家蕭泰然

Composer Tyzen Hsiao  

編輯／邱斐顯

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu

A note on Composer Tyzen Hsiao（蕭泰然）:

Tyzen Hsiao, born in Kaohsiung City in 1938, is a Taiwanese composer of the neo-Romantic school. Many of his vocal works incorporate poems written in Taiwanese, the mother tongue of the majority of the island's residents. His compositions stand as a musical manifestation of the Taiwanese literature movement that revitalized the island's literary and performing arts in the 1970s and 1980s.  

Hsiao moved from Taiwan to Atlanta in 1977 for both personal and political reasons. He kept composing while staying in the U.S. His rich tonal style has earned him an international reputation as " Taiwan 's Rachmaninov." His compositions include works for solo instruments and chamber ensembles, many works for solo voice, and large-scale pieces for orchestras and choirs with soloists. 

Hsiao's art songs are often performed in Taiwan and many have achieved popular status. " Taiwan the Formosa " is regarded by many as the island's true national anthem. 


Hsiao struck by heart attack in 1993 while composing “1947 Overture”. He overcome the illness by the confidence from the God and completed that composition.

He first returned to Taiwan in 1995. He was part of a wave of overseas Taiwanese who relocated to the island in response to the democratic reforms of the 1990s.  
 

His stroke in 2002 made him move to Los Angeles for recovery. He came back to Taiwan on April 11, 2008 for the his concert－－Hearing the Sound of Taiwan－－The Concert of collective works by Tyzen Hsiao.

 

Photo courtesy of Proud Wolf (Ken Chuang, 莊傳賢) and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra.



The above information is edited by Felicity Fei-Hsien CHIU（邱斐顯）, former editor of center of web and wireless news service, the Central News Agency.

 

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（7）－鄒族作曲家高一生 Composer Gao Yi-Sen

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（7）－鄒族作曲家高一生

Composer Gao Yi-Sen

編輯／邱斐顯  

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu  

Gao Yi-Sen (1908-1945) was an aboriginal hero named Uyongu  

Yatauyungana in the mother tongue of his Tsou tribe. He entered the Tainan Teachers College in 1924 and showed his talent in the field of both music and literature. He graduated in 1930 and then worked as a teacher and policeman at his hometown. In addition, he led the people of his tribe in the development of bamboo cultivation. He composed many songs at this time and led the people of his tribe in a performance of the "Hunting Song" in front of the president office in the Japanese colonial government. 



 

Gao served as governor of Wu Fong township in 1945 but was arrested during the 228 Incident of 1947 because his tribe occupied the Chiayi magazine and the Chiayi airport. In 1951, Gao was accused of hiding Tainan County Governor Yuen Kuo-chin who was considered a spy by the Kuomintang government. Gao was therefore arrested and executed. 

Photo courtesy of Formosa Aboriginal Song and Dance Troupe

 

 

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（6）－畫家鄭自才

 

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（6）－畫家鄭自才

 



台灣藝術家英文簡傳（6）－畫家鄭自才

Painter Deh Tzu-Tsai  

編輯／邱斐顯

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu  

A note on Deh Tzu-Tsai 

 

Deh Tzu-Tsai, born in Tainan in 1936, gained a Bachelor’s Degree in architecture from National Cheng-Kong University of Tainan in 1959. 



 

Deh applied for a graduate program in Urban Design at Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., in 1962 and obtained his Master’s Degree in 1964. 



 

While studying in the U.S., Deh was strongly influenced by the ideas of the 1960s liberation movements against authoritarianism in Taiwan. In 1966, he became one of the original members of United Formosans for Independence in America. He also joined the office of Marcel Breuer and Architects in New York that same year. 



 

In 1970, he became a member of the central committee and executive secretary of United Formosans for Independence . He was later implicated in an assassination attempt on Chiang Ching-Kuo, the vice premier and son of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, during a visit by the younger Chiang to New York on April 24, 1970. 



 

Chiang Kai-shek established himself as president of the Republic of China in Taiwan after he and his Nationalist troops withdrew from mainland China in 1949. But many Taiwanese regarded Chiang Kai-shek as a dictator. In the late 1960s, he moved to give more political power to his son Chiang Ching-Kuo, in disregard of some people’s objections.



 

Deh’s former brother-in-law Huang Wen-Hsiong attempted to shoot Chiang Ching-Kuo, but the assassination attempt failed and both Huang and Deh were immediately arrested by American police and incarcerated in the notorious “Tomb” by the U.S. government. 



 

In 1971, Deh fled from the U.S. to Stockholm , Sweden and where he was given political asylum by the Swedish government. In 1972, he was detained in Longholmen of Stockholm for three months amid legal proceedings for extradition to U.S., and in Bailey Prison of London for nine months before extradition from England to the U.S.   



 

He was extradited from the U.K to the U.S. in 1973 and sentenced to five years in prison for the attempted assassination of Chiang Ching-kuo. He was finally released on parole in December of 1974 and later settled in Stockholm, Sweden. 



 

Deh returned to Taiwan in 1991 after 29 years in exile, but was accused by the Kuomintang government of illegally entering his own homeland, and in 1992 was sentenced to one year in prison.



 

In 1993, Deh held his first painting exhibitions in front of a prison and at an art gallery. He also won the competition for the design of the national 228 monument, while he was still in jail. He was released from prison in November of 1993. 



 

Deh is now dedicated to being a fine artist and had held several art exhibitions in the past years. He was commissioned by the Association of National Culture to design and produce a monument to commemorate 

Taiwan ’s pioneer dancer, Tsai Jui-Yueh, for her contribution to modern dance. The monument was unveiled on March 29, 2008.

  

參考網址：

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/phesha0822/13406484 

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（5）－舞蹈家蔡瑞月

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（5）－舞蹈家蔡瑞月  

（舞蹈家蔡瑞月，攝於1954年）

Choreographer Tsai Jui-Yueh  

編輯／邱斐顯

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu

A note on Tsai Jui-Yueh

Tsai Jui-Yueh (1921~2005), born in Tainan , was a dancer, choreographer, innovator and revolutionary. Her life and career have shown her to be a true internationalist and renaissance woman of dance.    

During WWII, Tsai went to Japan to study dance with Ishii Baku and Ishii Midori. Under the aegis of these two pioneers, Tsai was exposed to the ideas of German expressionist dancer, Mary Wigman, and to a form of dancing known as Eurhythmy, derived from the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. Tsai danced in over a thousand shows with Baku and Midori’s company in Japan , China and Indochina , assimilating, at the same time, the dances of these regions.

In January 1947 Tsai’s institute presented the Taipei Dance Season, accompanied by the prestigious Taiwan Orchestra. The orchestra’s manager, Lei Shi-Yu, was strongly attracted to Tsai and her public success, and therefore proposed to her.  

However, in mid-1949 Tsai and Lei became caught up in the civil strife, “The White Terror.” The Kuomintang (KMT) government expelled Lei and all his fellow staff members from National Taiwan University . Tsai was later arrested by KMT authorities and held at a concentration camp on Green Island . Under less than ideal circumstances, Tsai continued to teach and produce dance dramas in both Taiwanese and Chinese modern dance styles. Astutely enough, Tsai often cast the chief prison officer in the lead role. After three years, Tsai was released and once again began teaching and choreographing in Taipei.  

 

Lei Shi-Yu had been working a professor of Chinese and Western literature at the University of Jingu in Tianjin City , China , from 1951. The political climate of the time made any kind of communication between Tsai and her husband Lei impossible. In 1983, Tsai and her son, Roc, resolved to immigrate to Australian from where they could communicate with Lei and be free from the constraints imposed by the KMT regime in Taiwan . The couple was finally reunited in China in 1994. 

 

Tsai returned to Taiwan in 2001 and continued to develop her dance career, in both Taiwan and Australia . She died in Australia in 2005. Her student Ondine（蕭渥廷） Shiau took over the foundation and has helped to keep dance alive in Taiwan. 



 

A note on Rose Monument－－Tsai Jui-Yueh Dance Foundation  

Rose Monument , designed and produced by Deh Tzu-Tsai, premiered on March 29, 2008 , in memory of Taiwan ’s pioneer dancer, Tsai Jui-Yueh and her contribution to modern dance.  



 

Photo courtesy of Tsai Jui-Yueh Dance Foundation

 

 

台灣藝術家英文簡傳（4）－作曲家呂泉生 Composer Lu Chuan-Sheng

Composer Lu Chuan-Sheng

Photo courtesy of Sunny Koo

編輯／邱斐顯

Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu

The composer Professor Lu Chuan-Sheng, the “Father of Taiwan 's Children’s Choir”, Lu Chuan-Sheng, who passed away on March 17, 2008 in Los Angeles, U.S. at his age of 92.

A note on Lu Chuan-Sheng

Lu Chuan-Sheng, born into a Christian family in Shengang, Taichung County in 1916, was a great music educator known as the “Father of Taiwan 's Children’s Choir”. Lu’s parents were devoted Christians and they often took him to participate in the church choir, which inspired him to study music later on.

Because of his strong interest in music, Lu went to Japan to study and majored in Piano. His dream to become a concert pianist was shattered when he damage his arm. However, this unfortunate event marked a new beginning in his life. He changed his major to Vocal Music and did a minor in Piano Theory and Composition. The choral singing on his curriculum had a tremendous influence on his later devotion to lyric composition and choral singing education. While studying in Japan, his extra curriculum activities included singing for theatrical plays, auditioning for a place in an Olympic Choir member, and gaining admission to the NHK Broadcast Choir’s Group F. After graduating from Music School, Lu became a professional singer. He played lead roles in the theater and sang part time with the NHK Choir.

Lu returned to Taiwan in 1943 and settled in the Dadaocheng（大稻埕）area of Taipei, where his interest in Taiwan folk songs began to take root. He composed three folk songs, “Paddy Field of June for Chiayi”（六月田水）, “Train through the Tunnel” (pronounced as “diu-diu-dang-ah”，丟丟銅仔) for Yilan, and “A Chirping Bird”（一隻鳥仔哮救救）which became the pioneer folk song pieces for choirs singing in Taiwanese.

During the course of his career, Lu composed more than two hundred folk songs. The three songs, “Lullaby”（搖嬰仔歌）composed in 1945, “Don't Keep Fish in the bottom of the cup”（杯底毋通飼金魚）composed in 1947 and released in 1949, and “Open the Window to the Heart”（阮若打開心內的門窗）in 1958, are the most popular. 

The three well-known Lu compositions

In May 1945 during WWII, the allies bombarded Taiwan heavily in their attacks against Japan. Lu sent his wife and 3-month-old child to his hometown, while he remained in Taipei and worked at the Taipei Broadcast Bureau. But his longing for his wife and newborn baby grew deeper day by day. He asked his father-in-law, who was a pastor, to write the lyrics for what would later become the widely acclaimed “Voice for the Formosan Parents – the Lullaby.”

“Don't Keep Fish in the bottom of the cup” was intended to ease the ethnic tensions between local Taiwanese and the so-called mainlanders on the island after the 228 Incident. Lu, who had experienced the conflict, thought that better understanding could be achieved among people if they drink together, bottoms-up style, and open their hearts to each other. He composed both the melody and lyrics of the song and performed it at its premiere in April 1949.

“Don't Keep Fish in the bottom of the cup” was once performed by the renowned Taiwanese baritone Tseng Dau-Hsiong（曾道雄）at a United Nations concert in Tokyo, Japan, in 1988. Tseng chose it as the representative song for Taiwan.

“Open the Window to the Heart” was a composed in collaboration with doctor Wang Chang-Hsiung (王昶雄), who was the same age with Lu and was known as a famous Taiwanese writer. The song was meant to comfort and encourage young men who had moved from rural areas to the cities because of the social structure transformation. It is now a very popular piece in the repertoires of choirs.

Lu composed three hundred and seventy pieces of music throughout his life. He received several honors such as the “Music Composition Award from Chinese Culture and Art Association” in 1990, “National Cultural Award from the government” in 1991, “Special Achievement Honor for the Fourth Annual Golden Songs and Lyrics of Republic of China” in 1992, and “Humanities Achievement Award of Taiwanese-American Foundation” in 2007. 

Lu and his wife moved to Los Angeles in 1991 to be with their children, after he retired at age 75. However, when he was 91 he returned to Taiwan twice in 2007 accompanied by his family. The first time was to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of the Rong-Shing Chorus in July, the second was to receive the “Humanities Achievement Award” from the Taiwanese-American Foundation in November 2007.

A note about Lu Chuan-Sheng and Rong-Shing Chorus（榮星合唱團）

Rong Shing Chorus, one of Taiwan's more prestigious choruses, was founded by Koo Wei-Fu（辜偉甫）in 1957. At the time, Lu Chuan-Sheng was the music director of the group. Koo and Lu both believed that educating children through music is a means of uplifting a country's culture.

They therefore founded the Rong-Shing Children's Chorus, which was the first children's chorus in Taiwan. The Rong-Shing Women's Chorus was later founded in 1962 and Rong-Shing Girls' Chorus in 2005.

Lu had created a rich environment for musical education in Taiwan through his unwavering efforts and his dedication to children’s choirs.

Lu devoted his efforts to the Rong-Shing Children's Chorus for over 35 years, from 1957 to 1991. The Rong-Shing Children's Chorus, under his direction, was selected to represent Taiwan at the second annual Asian Children's Chorus Festival in Tokyo in 1967. The Rong-Shing Children's Chorus earned the high praises for it’s a cappella performance at a concert in 1973.

Over the past 51 years, the Rong-Shing Chorus has contributed tremendously to the field of the music education in Taiwan and also inspired its students to become brilliant professionals and excellent amateurs. Rong-Shing Chorus has a very busy concert schedule that includes touring around Taiwan and abroad to countries such as Japan, the U.S. , Canada and Southeastern Asia. The celestial voices and the innocent smiles of these children have profoundly touched Rong-Shing's worldwide audience.

The above information is edited by Felicity Fei-Hsien CHIU（邱斐顯）, and checked by Peggy Carr, English consultant, the Central News Agency.