|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(with Penny Lin,
Kelly Chu-Chun Fan, and Lucia Tai-Yun Cheng) The world's first
cinematic performance took place in the Grand Café of
Paris in 1895. During the same year, in Asia, the Chinese
Qing Dynasty signed the treaty of Shimonoseki, ceding Taiwan
to Japan and starting a Japanese rule that lasted to
1945.[1]
During this time of Japanese colonisation, the international
community progressively abandoned the foreign naming of the
island (Formosa), and adopted its Asian name (Taiwan). This
was the first step in a long quest for recognition of
Taiwan's own intrinsic identity. [1]
Ru-shou Robert Chen, "Taiwan cinema", in Yingjin Zhang
(ed.), Encyclopedia of Chinese film (London/New-York:
Routledge, 1998), 47. Both Taiwan and
Japan are archipelagos, isolated from the rest of the world.
So Taiwan's early film history was quite removed from that
of mainland China: the first films distributed in Taiwan
came through the Japanese islands, at first from France, and
later from other western countries and from Japan. By the
time the first Chinese film arrived in Taiwan, the electric
shadowplay had evolved within Japanese exhibition practices
for more than twenty years: a whole generation of Taiwanese
film audiences had become accustomed to cinema without
seeing a single Chinese production. Two Japanese
attributes characterized early Taiwanese film history:
the benshi, and the rengasi-kowairo. The
benshi is the Asian version of the silent film
commentator, typically different from elsewhere in the
world. In Taiwan, they became the cornerstone of film
performances. Marketing fashioned a glamorous aura around
the benshi masters, and the trade evolved a benshi
star system. Chained drama consisted of inserting a
short film exhibition in one act of an opera performance
(rengasi). The actors would then step behind the
screen, lending their voices to their characters
(kowairo). Then, in the next scene, the story would
continue as a stage play, thus live opera performances were
"chained" to film as a mode of narration. Both the
benshi and chained drama derived from Japanese
culture, which was the strongest influence on early film
practices in Taiwan. While Japanese
traditions were influencing early film projection in Taiwan,
colonial Taiwan was in search of its own identity. Some of
it was to be found in traditional opera. The Taiwanese
enjoyed ancestral legends and at the beginning of the
Japanese colonial rule, in the early 1900s, many Beijing
opera companies were touring Taiwan. The Taiwanese borrowed
elements from the traditional Beijing opera and the local
Luan-tan opera, to perform an opera in their own
dialect. So if the colonial legacy pertained mainly to film
exhibition, in parallel, a form of cultural dissent surfaced
with the emergence of Taiwanese opera blossoming from the
Chinese operatic tradition. Half a century of
Japanese rule (1895-1945), including two World Wars, will be
covered in this article. At first, in the 1910s to 1920s,
Japanese policy was magnanimous, allowing the development of
Taiwanese cultural traditions, but this was followed by the
Japanisation movement, in the late 1930s. After the
Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1937, an integral Japanese
lifestyle was imposed, so Taiwan became hostage to Japanese
ambition. Taiwan has been
profoundly scarred by the imperialist interests of numerous
nations. It was successively occupied by Holland, Spain,
Japan and China, before Japan's fifty years tenure, which
ended at the end of World War II with Taiwan returned to
China. This very last period of Taiwan history was not
considered to be an occupation, but the situation was
nevertheless that of a Chinese army ruling over a Taiwanese
majority (70%). To better
understand the disconnection between the Taiwanese and their
history, it is necessary to understand that recent return to
China.[2]
When the Kuomintang Nationalist government (KMT) refused to
recognise the communist government in China, they fled to
Taiwan. The KMT regime resolutely insisted that the Republic
of China in Taiwan was the only China: Taiwan became Taiwan
R.O.C., an appellation that still prevails today. However,
on the island the authority of the new KMT government, under
Chiang Kai-shek, was soon contested. On 28 February 1947 a
major rebellion arose against the KMT regime: the army
killed more than 20,000 Taiwanese, and Martial Law was
imposed. The Emergency Decree, as KMT rulers originally
called it, lasted forty years (1947-1987). During this
period, the Taiwanese were forbidden to teach their local
dialect in the schools, they could not travel to China, nor
could they study their own history.[3] [2]
Regarding the KMT influence on cinema in Taiwan, see Chris
Berry, "A nation t(w/o)o: Chinese cinema and nationhood", in
Wimal Dissanayake (ed.), Colonialism and nationalism in
Asian cinema (Bloomington: Indiana U.P., 1994),
42-64. [3]
Walter Chen, "Chronology, martial law", Taiwan History,
December 1996, http://www.leksu.com/mainp15e.htm,
accessed 14 May 2000. In the late
1980s, Taiwan tentatively ventured toward democracy. In
1989, Chen Nan-rong, the publisher of Free time
magazine, publicly burned himself to death demanding more
freedom for the press.[4]
In 1991 came the nation's first "democratic" elections, and,
with the defeat of the KMT and election of the Democratic
Progressive Party in 2000, Taiwan's metamorphosis into a
pluralist and democratic nation with a distinct identity was
complete. [4]
W. Chen, "Chronology, 1989". It has only
recently become possible to peer into Taiwanese history, so
there has been an abrupt increase in historical publications
in the past few years, despite the difficulty of searching
for the pertinent historical documents, and the consequent
wide margin for error. For instance, different sources date
the Portuguese naming of Taiwan as Formosa to have happened
in 1517, 1544, 1590 and 1592.[5]
The little information already published in English is
continually being challenged and updated and Taiwan's
history will need time to be re-written with greater
accuracy. [5]
W.Chen; Chien-chao Hung, A history of Taiwan (Rimini:
Il Cherchio Iniziative Editorial, 2000); Xian-zhi Kao,
Three-hundred years of history of Taiwan (Taipei:
Gu-Ting Book House, 1977); Feitau Kung & Eric Chia. "The
Taiwan timeline", May 1999, Lenexa (Kansas),
http://taiwanresources.com/
info/ history/ chrono.htm,
accessed 15 May 2000. Because there is
so little written on Taiwanese history, one is constantly
faced with having to choose from conflicting dates. In this
paper, when a source was provided the earliest date has been
kept, but when contradictory information has been provided
this has been mentioned. To add to the confusion, Taiwan
adopted a different calendar: in 1911, they went back to
year zero so the year 2000 would read as year 89 on the
local calendar[6].
The present work uses the usual universal time frame but
readers need to remember that the local year reference is
specific to Taiwan. [6]
Lizhi Fang, "Les mots interdits", Le nouvel
observateur, 1833 (23 décembre-29 décembre
1999): 13. There is so much
that Taiwan has striven to change. Adopting the new calendar
was a symbolic gesture to protest against the refusal of the
Chinese government to go along with scientific advancements
when they came from the West. Going back to year zero was a
symbolic gesture, an assertion that scientific laws are
universal. Taiwan has proven
it can walk out of colonial history and still unite change
and tradition. In its attempt to keep the best of both East
and West, the finest of modernity and tradition, Taiwan has
sometimes had to choose between native tradition and
colonial influences. In summary, searching into Taiwan's
colonial past, this paper will try to strike a balance
between the Japanese influence and Taiwan's own identity. It
will discuss Japan's influence on Taiwanese early film
history through both the benshi and chained drama,
how Taiwanese opera developed from traditional opera, and
finally how Taiwanese opera contributed to the development
of a strong national cultural identity. The colonisation
of Taiwan by Japan was an awakening to modernisation, as the
Japanese were curious about all novel western wonders. After
nearly three hundred years of self-imposed seclusion, Japan
had opened its doors to the rest of the world and had begun
a program of industrial modernization. Taiwan was thus
escorted by Japan into the modern age. For instance Japan
and Taiwan were the first throughout Asia to introduce the
Kinetoscope peepshow, which used film, but not a projector:
the viewer had to look through a small window to see the
action unfold. For instance Japan and Taiwan were the first
throughout Asia to introduce the Kinetoscope peepshow (which
used film, but not a projector: the viewer had to look
through a small window to see the action unfold). In August
1898, the Kinetoscope was brought to Taipei at the Tamsui
Goan Teahouse, presenting short films which lasted an
average of one minute: Acrobat performance, Barber shop,
Scottish dance, etc.[7]
Film projected onto screens, what the Taiwanese called "the
electric shadow play", came a few years later. [7]
Lung-Yen Yeh, The history of Taiwanese movies during the
Japanese colonization {in Chinese} (Taipei: Mt. Jade
Association, 1998), 21, 52. Although the
Lumière Cinématographe and the Edison
Vitascope both made their Osaka debuts in June
1897,[8]
in Taiwan the first performance occurred three years later,
when a Japanese businessman, Mr. Matuho, gave the first film
presentation in Taipei's Cross theatre on 21 June
1900.[9]
The first films were very short, usually one-reelers, but
since the Japanese were used to lengthy traditional theatre,
film programmes in Japan would combine many short subjects,
played successively without any pause, to form a longer
program.[10]
It can therefore be assumed that the first performances in
Taiwan, by and for the Japanese, would feature these lengthy
programs. Another typical custom in subtropical Taiwan was
to pour water on the screen during long programmes, in order
to prevent its catching fire from the hot light of the
projection booth.[11]
In Taiwan, the projector used was the Lumière
Cinématographe and the films shown were Hai
shui yu (Bathing women), Jun dui chu fa (Military march),
Gong ren xuan hua (Noise of the workers), Bu lai ke
xian sheng mao zi xi fa (Magic hat or The hat tricks
of Mr. Brike).[12]
The program played for a week and the audience was mainly
composed of Japanese women.[13] [8]
Donald Richie, Japanese cinema: an introduction
(Hong-Kong/New-York: Oxford, 1990), 1. [9]
Yeh, 53-55. [10]
Richie, 1. [11]
Joseph Anderson & Donald Richie, The Japanese film:
art and industry (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1959),
22-23. [12]
Or is it The hat tricks of Mr. Brake? Translating the
Chinese titles into English leads to rough approximates and
is a Herculean task despite the best effort of the research
team. [13]
Yeh, 53-55. After one week in
Taipei, the same program toured the island during the months
of July and August.[14]
But film screenings remained rare: the next only took place
the following year, in 1901. Until recently, this 1901
screening was thought to be the first in Taiwan's history:
Yeh lately found evidence of the 1900 performance, thus
setting the coming of the electric shadowplay a year earlier
than had previously been thought.[15] [14]
Yeh, 53. [15]
Yeh, 55. While film
exhibitions were still itinerant, European films poured in,
especially from the French Pathé empire.
Pathé's studio had as their motto: "Cinema is
tomorrow's newspaper, school and
theatre."[16]
Portraying fiction realistically, with the specific purpose
of teaching a moral lesson, was seen as both entertaining
and educational, as well as in conformity with Confucianist
teachings, which conceived culture as a learning experience.
Thus Pathé's motto (and the films that exemplified
it) fulfilled an Asian expectation, and the French trend of
social realist films was successful with Asian audiences:
Yin jiu yu jia ting (Drunkard and family), Ai di
cheng gong (Success of love) and comedies such as Shi
mao di nang lie (Fashion for tramps), Jiu si xiang di
jiao yu (Education of traditional doctrines) and Zi
fu di shi bai (Failure of
arrogance).[17]
Between 1904 and 1907, the Pathé films found wide
acceptance in Taiwan. [16]
Georges Sadoul, Histoire du cinéma mondial
(Paris: Flammarion, 1949), 52. [17]
Yeh, 65-66. By then, a few
ventures into colour films had happened, as silent films
were often tinted for mood. In western films the accepted
code for night scenes was blue, so the entire screen would
have a bluish hue as an indication that the sequence was
happening at night. The Japanese also tinted their films,
but their code was different: night scenes were coloured
orange. In the same way, spring was symbolised by a pink
tint, the right colour to emphasise cherry
blossoms.[18]
Taiwan saw both the eastern and western conventions for
tinted colour in film, so a blue tint in a film from the
West and an orange tint in a film from Japan both indicated
a night scene. [18]
Anderson & Richie, 33. Many of the
Japanese productions had been tinted for mood. But tinting
was not the exclusive method used to bring about colour.
Delicate hand painting was a highly developed skill in Japan
and such labour was cheap. Just as the French magician and
film maker, Georges Méliès, had hand-painted
some of his films,[19]
so some Japanese films distributed in Taiwan were painted,
each frame coloured individually. [19]
Sadoul, 30. Before long came
the British invention - Kinemacolor. This colour process,
invented by Charles Urban and Albert Smith, was designed to
photograph scenes with a special effect which resembled
natural colour: [20]
Anderson & Richi, 33. Ordinary
black-and-white film stock was used, so the colour effect,
relying on persistence of vision,[21]
required a change in film speed of both camera and
projector. For the two primary colours to combine properly,
the film had to pass through at twice the normal speed, so
twice as much stock was needed. This British invention was
used in the French studios and Kinemacolor came to Taiwan
through Pathé: Yeh lists eighteen colour films
distributed in Taiwan in 1908, all coming from France and
all relying on the Kinemacolor system.[22]
The Pathé Empire struck gold once again. The natural
Asian curiosity for new technology caused great enthusiasm
for colour films.[23] [21]
Just as our eyes bridge the gap between the frames of a film
when it is unrolling at proper speed thus interpreting it as
continuous action, our eyes also have the faculty to "keep a
colour in memory". The Kinemacolor effect was made possible
by the eye's faculty for compensating for missing
information. [22]
Yeh, 66. [23]
Yeh, 66. In June 1911,
Taiwan's first movie theatre opened in Taipei. Established
by a Japanese businessman, the Fang Nai Ting Theatre was
located in the Hsi-men Ting district which, nowadays,
is still a movie theatre district.[24]
A competitor came a few years later, in 1914, with the
opening of the Shin Gau Gan. Both establishments presented
Japanese and European features like Na Po Lun sheng li
zhi xi sheng (Victory of Napoleon), Zui yu fa
(Crime and punishment perhaps: Russia, 1906,
dir. Drankov) and Nuo wei di bu yu shi kuang (Fishing in
Norway).[25] [24]
Yeh, 80. [25]
Yeh, 81. In the 1910's,
Japanese audiences had access to permanent movie theatres
but Taiwanese distribution enterprises kept touring around
the island with their film programmes. The first film
commentator for Taiwanese audiences was Mr. Liaw-hwang, in
1903. The programme he toured with in central Taiwan was a
blend of American, European and Japanese films. He purchased
his films in Japan and he presented the electric shadowplay
in teahouses or in the anteroom of local
temples.[26] [26]
Yeh, 59. A decade after
the first permanent movie theatre was established in Taipei,
a movie theatre opened nearby, for Taiwanese audiences. The
language barrier made movie theatres exclusive to either
Taiwanese dialect[27]
audiences or Japanese: even though the films were silent,
the benshi master would comment in one language or
the other. Most Taiwanese did not speak Japanese and could
not possibly follow the Fang Nai Ting Theatre program. The
first movie theatre with a benshi master commenting
in Taiwanese opened in the 1920s. The World III Theatre (Shi
Jie San Guan) aimed exclusively at the Taiwanese audience
and was closely monitored by the Japanese
authorities.[28]
Its program featured few Japanese films, but more features
from the West, such as The gold rush (USA, 1925, dir.
Charlie Chaplin), Gu xing lei (Les
misérables, France, 1925, dir. Fescourt or 1912
dir. Capellani),[29]
An Andalusian dog (Spain, 1928, dir. Luis Bunuel) and
Battleship Potemkin (USSR, 1925, dir. Sergei
Eisenstein).[30]
In 1923, the World III Theatre programmed the first Chinese
film ever shown in Taiwan. Coming from Shanghai, the focal
point of China's film industry, Gu jing chong bo ji
(The revival of an old well, China, 1923, dir.
Dan Duyu) was, like all other foreign films, required to
bear Japanese subtitles in order to be distributed in
Taiwan.[31] [27]
The main dialect in Taiwan was the Hokkienese Minnanhua
dialect, locally called taiyu or Taiwanese. Nowadays
most people speak both Hokkienese and Mandarin because,
after World War II, the KMT regime forbade any teaching of
the Taiwanese dialect in the schools. I will therefore refer
to the local dialect as "Taiwanese". [28]
Yeh, 128. [29]
Yeh, 185. [30]
Yeh, 117. [31]
R. Chen, Encyclopedia, 47; Yeh, 131. By the
mid-twenties, motion picture distribution in Taiwan was
still based mainly on touring exhibition. There were three
movie theatres in Taipei (in the north), one in Tainan (in
the central district) and one in Kaohsiung (in the
south).[32]
Four of them had Japanese benshi masters and only the
World III theatre played silent films with a Taiwanese
benshi master. [32]
Yeh, 131. In the 1920s,
Taiwan desired to resume connections with China, and from
the first Shanghai-made film to arrive in Taiwan in 1923
until 1945, more than 300 Chinese films were distributed in
Taiwan.[33]
World War 1 (1914-1918) dislodged European films from the
Asian market, while American films were still pouring
in.[34]
In 1926, Paramount and Universal opened a distribution
office in Japan and, by 1928, all the majors (Paramount,
Universal, MGM, Warner Brothers, 20th Century
Fox, United Artist, Columbia and Walt Disney) had local
representatives. For the majors, Taiwan was a "junk" market:
they merely distributed frayed copies and B
productions.[35]
By 1930, Japanese films were still dominant in Taiwan, with
the Japanese comprising up to 70% of the film audience: for
each Chinese or American film shown in Taiwan, eight
Japanese films were viewed.[36] [33]
R. Chen, Encyclopedia, 49. [34]
Anderson & Richie, 35. [35]
R. Chen, Dispersion, 234-235. [36]
Yeh, 123 The first film
produced in Taiwan was a documentary in 1907, shot by the
Japanese and concerning Japan's rule over
Taiwan.[37]
An official film department was formed in 1914 when the
governor of Taiwan established a mobile film production unit
under the Culture and Education Bureau, with the aim of
spreading Japanese culture among the Taiwanese and teaching
them the Japanese language. The first program was a free
showing of a film depicting the Japanese governor's
investiture.[38] [37]
Yeh, 71. Chen (Encyclopedia) dates the same
event as 1901 but does not provide any source for
this. [38]
Yeh, 94-95. In 1923, the
government-run newspaper, Taiwan daily news press,
also opened a film department, following the example of
the Japanese news agency in Japan, which was shooting
newsreels and short fiction. The Taiwanese company shot a
short fiction initially called Kan niu han
(Cowherd), and praising the Japanese invasion
of Taiwan.[39]
The original title must have raised a controversy because
they then changed it to Lao tian wu qing (An
unfeeling God). [39]
Susuyan, 107. By 1911, the
average length of the films produced locally was increasing.
At first, few productions were more than one reel long, but
as two-, three- and four-reel pictures arrived from Europe,
the Japanese lengthened theirs too.[40]
By then, Japan had put together a strong film industry and
they were ready to start producing longer feature
films. [40]
Andersan & Richie, 33-34. The first feature
film shot in the colony was a film directed by Tanaka King
in 1922 as a production of the Japanese mobile film
production unit.[41]
The original title Da fo de tong kong has been
translated as either The pupil of the
Buddha[42]
or Eyes of the Buddha.[43]
It told the story of a Chinese official who tries to force a
Taiwanese girl to marry him, until a handsome young Japanese
man comes to the rescue. According to Lu, this feature film
is the first one made in Taiwan.[44]
Yet, Yeh's latest publication considers an earlier
production as the first feature, a story about
discrimination against aboriginals in Taiwan shot in
1919.[45]
This feature was shot partly in Taiwan and partly in Japan
and this is probably why Lu discounted it as the first
feature film made in Taiwan. [41]
Su-Shang Lu, A history of cinema and drama in
Taiwan{in Chinese} (Taipei: Orient Cultural Service,
1961), 6. [42]
Suyuan & Hu Jubin, Chinese silent film history
(Beijing: China Film Press, 1997), 107. [43]
R. Chen, Encyclopedia, 47 & Dispersion,
52. [44]
Lu, 6. [45]
Yeh, 100-101. The Shanghai
influence later lead to the establishment of the first
Taiwanese organisation aspiring to produce feature films.
The first production of the Taiwan Motion Picture Study
Society was a hero-saves-the-beauty movie. Shei zhi guo
(Whose fault is this, Taiwan, 1925, dir. Liu
Siyang) was a market failure. The following production,
Xie he (Bloodstain, Taiwan, 1929, dir. Zhang
Yunhe), was an enormous success. It told the story of a
heroine and her lover searching a mountain to exact revenge
upon her father's killer.[46]
These two films were Taiwanese productions, produced by
Taiwanese and with a Taiwanese cast, but relying on a
Japanese director, cameraman, lighting technician and
editor. [46]
R. Chen, Encyclopedia, 48. The same division
applied later on, with other Taiwanese production companies:
they had to depend on a Japanese crew. Japan was a
co-producer but the business bond was biased: the capital
came from Taiwan sources and all the professionals were
Japanese. So the films were produced in Taiwanese language,
but the entire creative power over the film was held by the
Japanese, reflecting the unequal association between the
Japanese coloniser and colonial Taiwan. In summary, the
late 1920's context, in both film exhibition and production,
was twofold in character: the Japanese had permanent movie
theatres and a strong film industry at home to back up their
film production in Taiwan, while Taiwanese film exhibition
was still mainly itinerant, with the exception of one
permanent movie theatre in Taipei, while the film production
industry was still dependent on Japan's specialised skills.
During Japanese rule, Taiwan never managed to set up an
independent film industry. In Japan, the
educational potential of films was recognised within the
Japanese tradition of pictorial and narrative arts. A tenet
of the traditional ideology is that "no form of art may be
separated from the written or spoken
word"[47]:
painting, dance and music all have to be accompanied by a
text which shall be read or heard, as the word gives a work
of art its authenticity. Early films - being silent - were
regarded as lacking a soul, which could be revealed by the
voice of the benshi. [47]
Richie, 7. Just as around
the globe the first film performances called for a live
commentator, an authoritative voice was all the more
necessary in Asia. Films coming from foreign country
required a commentary for audience comprehension: "If there
had been no explanation during, say, The Czar's arrival
in Paris, the audience would have had no way of knowing
that the ruler was the man inside the carriage and not one
in the superior position up on the roof."[48]
But overall, even when the films spoke for themselves, the
Japanese audience enjoyed being instructed. [48]
Anderson, 24. Japanese
commentators, however, differed from other silent era film
commentators, because within Japanese tradition a story must
have a narrator. The noh play has its chorus, the
bunraku doll-drama its joruri singer, and the
kabuki its gidayu chanter.[49]
The benshi narrator was a part of this Japanese
story-telling tradition, standing or sitting to the left of
the movie screen and interpreting the film to the
audience. [49]
Richie, 2-3. A standard film
program would begin with the entrance of the benshi
master, greeted by an ovation: he made an opening
statement about both himself and the movie and then the
projection could start. The benshi masters were
respected characters; they were sharp and entertaining. They
usually spoke many languages and they could explain all the
subtleties of the plot, as well as the locations, when it
was a foreign film. The benshi masters were the
cornerstone of film projections, providing the spoken word
which gave a soul to the motion picture. Benshi
worked best with films based on stage conventions, with the
actor distant from the camera and no editing except in a
simple connective sense. Minimalist narrative codes suited
the benshi more than the more overtly cinematic
aesthetic. When Japan began to produce films, the critics
declared that they were mere illustrations for the
benshi. Indeed, Japanese films kept cinematic
narrative devices to a minimum, giving the responsibility of
the narration to the benshi. In the cinema
field, expressionism is usually associated with Germany in
the 1920s, but, before the Germans, the Japanese had also
conceived the motion picture as a medium related to
painting, where symbolism could play a major role. The
expressionist quest for symbolic images blossomed within a
long-shot aesthetic, with the camera filming the characters
from far away so as to centre them in a
context,[50]
the environment acting as a metaphor for mood. In this kind
of image, composition carried more meaning than did simple
narrative message.[51] [50]
Richie, 12. [51]
Richie, 8. In the very
beginning of film history, the camera was always kept at a
distance. In the West, the convention developed of bringing
the camera closer to the actor. Film became then
progressively articulated through narrative devices such as
the medium shot, the flashback and the jump cut. Narrative
codes gave autonomy to the films, which could be understood
without the need of a commentator. In Japan, there
was no such quest to explore narrative devices, largely
because the benshi was in charge of the narration,
expressing the subtle nuances of expressionist films and
creating narrative and chronological links. As the soul of
the motion picture, the benshi master was very much
part of the performance and central to Japanese film
exhibition. But there was
also another reason for the Japanese reluctance to put the
camera closer to the action. The onnogata was still a
current practice in Japanese films: all the female roles
were played by men in the manner of the noh and the
kabuki plays.[52]
Closer shots were thus inconceivable, as they would ruin the
onnagata illusion. Later on, in the 1915s, the
shimpa school started to cast female actors, but by
then, Taiwanese audiences preferred the foreign films from
the West, which had real female actresses and even kissing
scenes.[53] [52]
Richie, 8. [53]
Yeh, 185. The first
Taiwanese benshi master was a musician and composer
named Wang Yung-feng, who had played on a regular basis for
the orchestra at the Fang Nai Ting Theatre in Taipei.
Working with the Japanese benshi every day, he
observed many benshi performances and thus learned
the trade. He was the first Taiwanese benshi master
hired at the World III Theatre in the 1920s, and
subsequently training many apprentices in his art. He was
also the composer of the music for the Chinese film Tao
hua qi xue ji (China, Peach
girl[54],
1921) in Shanghai. [55] [54]
The literal translation would be Tears of Peach
Flower or Peach Flower crying. [55]
Yeh, 185. Other famous
Taiwanese benshi masters were Lu Su-Shang and Zhan
Tian-Ma. Lu Su-shang, will not be primarily remembered for
his benshi performances, but mainly because he wrote
the inestimable History of cinema and drama in
Taiwan, the bible of Taiwanese film
history.[56]
The most famous of all was Zhan Tian-ma, whose story is told
in a recent Taiwanese biographical film, March of
happiness (Taiwan, 1999, dir: Lin
Sheng-shing).[57] [56]
R. Chen, Dispersion, 49. [57]
In narrating his life as a musician it unfortunately omits
to refer to him as a benshi. Benshi
masters were intellectuals: they spoke Japanese, had
often travelled to Japan and/or China, and were poets
writing their own libretto for each film. Since 1910, films
had been distributed with a script, but these poets of the
darkness would rather explore their personal style, so they
were not very faithful to the supplied
dialogue,[58]
and might even modify elements of the plot. Some
benshi were famous for comedy, others for tragedy,
and watching the same picture with a different benshi
master was always a new experience. [58]
Anderson & Richie, 24-25. Nevertheless,
when audiences came to see a foreign film, one aspect
remained the same: the names of the characters. The
benshi did not bother to use the original names of
the characters in the film. For any given foreign film, the
heroine was invariably called Mary; the hero was Jim and the
villain, Robert. The benshi baptized them as such. In
historical films, the hero might come riding in shining
armour, but the benshi introduced the chivalrous
knight to the audience as "Jim" just the
same.[59] [59]
Anderson & Richie, 24-25. The benshi
master gave an often redundant description of the action,
offered an explanation of motive and elucidated the setting
of the film, putting the picture into its foreign context.
As the electric shadowplay evolved into a narrative art,
fiction emerged and the benshi master then tendered a
moralistic commentary. Taiwanese benshi masters,
trained by the Japanese, emulated the storytelling and moral
instruction tradition of Japan. At first, the
Japanese benshi performances were usually accompanied
by piano, violin, cornet or shamisen (Japanese
stringed instrument).[60]
By the 1920s, a band of five people played in small movie
theatres, with an additional violin, a shamisen or a
sheng (Taiwanese wind instrument) in larger
locations.[61] [60]
Anderson, 267. [61]
Yeh, 185. The trade of the
benshi made film production more economical and
shortened the distribution delay which would have been
required for writing titles. However by the mid-twenties, in
Taiwan, the benshi were not a mere economy, but a
major attraction. The public rarely chose to see a specific
film star, or even a specific film: they wanted to be
entertained by their favourite benshi
master. The benshi
performances rapidly evolved into a star system, and
potentially a means to defeat competition. The competitors
were not only the other touring film exhibitors, but also -
amongst Taiwanese audiences - the traditional opera. The
benshi performances in the Taiwanese dialect brought
a local flavour to foreign films, allowing motion pictures
to be competitive even during the golden age of Taiwanese
opera. So, in much the same way as Hollywood promoted the
actors of the film or chose a famous actor to guarantee the
film's success at the box office, benshi masters were
elevated to star status. Their billing was above the star of
the picture and their names were shown in larger print than
the stars, the director or even the title of the movie. The
Japanese version of the film narrator had developed into a
weighty character.[62] [62]
Richie, 8. In 1927 the
coming of sound made film commentary superfluous. Japanese
narrative conventions had, by then, evolved toward a less
expressionist and more cinematic aesthetic. Nevertheless,
the star system kept the most famous benshi in the
limelight for a few more years. Unfortunately for the
benshi, in the 1930s Japan started to produce sound
films and the idea of economising by eliminating the payment
of the highly-remunerated benshi masters was
attractive to the movie theatre managers. In 1932, after the
benshi went on strike, the theatre managers granted
them a retirement bonus and the Japanese benshi
masters withdrew from the Taiwan-based movie
theatres. The Taiwanese
benshi, however, remained active. The coming of sound
in Taiwan did not alter the coloniser's language
specification: all films still had to be subtitled in
Japanese. So, while the Japanese benshi masters were
forced to retire, the Taiwanese poets of the silver screen
kept going, giving cues to famous stars, with the advantage
of knowing in advance what they would retort. As the benshi
masters were intellectuals, spoke Japanese and
maintained strong ideas about the Japanese coloniser, there
was a potential political dimension to their art. The
benshi being part of such an influential medium, the
cinema, the Japanese were conscious of their subversive
power, and took control of the management of the profession
in the mid-1920s, by granting licences dependent upon
passing an annual state police exam.[63]
The Japanese police closely monitored benshi
performances, and had the power to stop the film if they
sensed any subversive undertone, or to lay charges, which
could result in sentencing the benshi to
imprisonment. [63]
Yeh, 185. Along with the
management of the benshi performances came
censorship. Japanese officials established two definite
principles: a moral criterion and a public safety criterion.
The moral standard forbade kissing scenes, which had to be
deleted, though talk and hugs were morally acceptable. The
public safety standard proscribed any plot or images
potentially leading to the development of a Taiwanese sense
of community.[64]
Systematically, all images of China's national flag, or of
leaders such as Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1899-1925) or Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) were
censored.[65]
In 1929, of the 1550 films shown in Taiwan, three were
banned: two from Japan and one from America. The coming of
American films to Japan had led to an emerging desire for
democracy, and some Japanese productions expressed an
opposition to feudalistic Japan: such films were never
distributed in Taiwan. [64]
Yeh, 123. [65]
R. Chen, Encyclopedia, 49. Despite the
Japanese attempt to control film distribution through
censorship and licences for the benshi masters, the
Taiwanese still strongly identified with China and
programmed as many Chinese and American films as possible.
In the 1920s the Taiwanese desire to resume connection with
China intensified, even though China had provided little
education to the Taiwanese and Japan had educated the
Taiwanese and encouraged them to learn the Japanese
language. Back in 1901, Taiwanese students had started to
study in Japan, their number increasing rapidly to more than
300 in 1912 and more than 2,400 by 1922.[66]
Of course, education was a priority for the Japanese
programme of assimilation, but overseas students learned
more than they were taught in class: they also learned about
the Chinese and Russian revolutions where feudalism and
imperialism were contested. Another influence came from the
Taisho democracy in Japan itself, and overseas
students became aware of racial movements in the colonies of
various countries. The fullness of education cultivated
Taiwanese racial consciousness. [66]
According to the statistics issued by the Taiwan Governor's
office in W. Chen, "Modernization". Japan had also
isolated Taiwan from China and the Taiwanese simply resisted
that segregation. As Taiwanese consciousness grew stronger,
a movement rose advocating racial independence and the
liberation of colonial Taiwan. Overseas students became
activists, and their most important achievement was probably
the petition for the establishment of a Taiwan
Parliament.[67] [67]
W. Chen, "Modernization: petition for establishing Taiwan
parliament". The first
petition, requesting self-government for Taiwan, was
submitted to the Imperial Diet in Japan in 1921. But since
political associations were forbidden on Taiwanese soil, the
outcome was that the League for Carrying Out the Taiwan
Parliament Plan was banned. The League terminated its
activity in Taiwan and was immediately reorganised in Tokyo
under the same name, with the same purpose and the same
membership: there, it was approved by the minister of the
interior, and the activism continued. In 1923, the
Governor's Office in Taiwan mobilised the police force to
arrest the organisers of the Taiwan Cultural Association and
the League on the suspicion of violating the Peace Police
Law. Ninety-nine persons were summoned and their houses
searched: forty-one were retained in custody, and eighteen
of them were indicted in January 1924. In the first trial,
all were acquitted for "lack of evidence", however, in a
second trial in 1925, eight men were sentenced for three to
four months imprisonment.[68]
The activists and advocates of non-violent resistance
continued until 1934, by which time the petition had been
presented to the Imperial Diet fifteen
times.[69] [68]
W. Chen, "Modernization: Peace Police Law violation
incident". [69]
W. Chen, "Modernization: petition for establishing Taiwan
parliament". Japan drew great
benefits from Taiwan, which they were not disposed to lose.
Censorship, the assimilation program and legal procedures
had proven unsuccessful in convincing the colonised country
to give up the struggle for freedom. Japan consequently went
one step further: at the beginning of World War II, they
imposed the Japanisation policy. Back in the 1910s
to 1920s, the Japanese colonial government's policy allowed
the development of the Taiwanese cultural
tradition.[70]
Puppet shows and Taiwanese opera blossomed. However, after
the Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1937, those magnanimous
days were gone, as Japan needed many resources from Taiwan,
including the manpower to fight for the
Japanese.[71]
The Japanese colonial government in Taiwan tried to
"transform" the Taiwanese people into Japanese subjects of
the Crown by the policy of Japanisation (kouminka,
which literally means "becoming children of the
Emperor").[72]
This policy was based on three basic principles: [70]
Theresa Yung-ching Chen, Taiwanese opera as a popular
theater, M.A. Diss. Royal Holloway University, 1993,
16. [71]
T. Chen, 18. [72]
R. Chen, Dispersion, 32. (2)
religious revolution: no more folk belief and
celebration of local god/goddess was allowed;
[...] (3)
requirements for complete Japanisation in daily life,
including language, names, food, clothing, living
styles, festivals, and even the Japanese calendar.
Therefore, all folk activities were strictly banned;
that also means no more Taiwanese opera was
allowed.[73] Benshi
performances, too, were no longer permitted.
Japanisation lasted until the end of World War II when Japan
lost the colony to China.[74] [73]
T. Chen, 18. [74]
T. Chen, 19. During the period
of Japanisation (1937-1945) the benshi trade
disappeared, to briefly return after the war, but by then
Japanese rule had ended as well as Japanese language policy
and licence control, so anybody could claim himself a
benshi. Liberated movie-goers would rather attend a
performance with Taiwanese subtitles then a second-rate
benshi performance, so the ending of the war also
signalled the demise of the benshi art. The first film
exhibitions in Japan lead to the development of chained
drama. For a decade following 1908, chained drama was a
powerful commercial rival of both film exhibition and
conventional live theatre in Japan,[75]
but in Taiwan the concept did not spread until the golden
age of Taiwanese opera (1920s). [75]
Anderson, 267. Chained drama
developed concurrently with both Taiwanese opera and
benshi film performances. It was an amalgam of live
drama and film, blending one into the other by using short
films to complement a stage play. When live theatre
performances on the stage reached a point where they
required an elaborate exterior setting, a river for
instance, the stage backdrops would be replaced with a white
screen featuring a short film of the characters taking a
ferry or swimming across the river (rengasi). The
actors would step behind the screen lending their voices to
their characters and doing their best to lip synch their
lines (kowairo). Then, in the next scene, the story
would continue as a stage play. Thus, live performance was
"chained" to film as a mode of narration. These short films
were shot in one long take, with no camera movement. It was
pure theatre on film. Thus theatre was suddenly given the
power to step into exterior settings, while keeping its
traditional attributes. In 1928, the
Jiang Yun Shen opera troupe toured Taiwan with a chained
drama performance.[76]
There were two reasons for this late arrival: it was a means
to compete with the new sound technology and it was a
vehicle for propaganda. [76]
Yeh, 169. When chained
drama arrived in Taiwan, the sound era had begun with the
Vitaphone technology and the trendy Taiwan audiences could
see Don Juan (USA, 1927), The jazz singer
(USA, 1927, dir. Alan Crosland), The lights of New York
(USA, 1927),[77]
though still usually with the assistance of a
benshi. By 1928, touring film exhibition had adapted
to the Taiwanese lifestyle and found a niche in the lunar
festival celebrations, which traditionally welcomed puppet
shows and/or Chinese opera twice every lunar month.
Progressively, film exhibitions became another form of
entertainment during these ritual celebrations, making film
a competitor of drama. The Taiwanese had a tremendous
curiosity for new technologies, and once movie stars could
talk, it was not surprising that chained drama would appear
to compete with the new sound technology. By adding film
interludes to stage performances, chained drama was a
marketing challenge to the new film technology; the curious
audiences would be just as tempted to discover the mechanism
for chained drama as for the talkies. [77]
Yeh, 121. The second reason
motivating the coming of chained drama in the late twenties
is political. At that time, the Taiwanese elite, influenced
by the world-wide movement toward democracy, had started to
introduce modern political drama into the island as part of
their anti-colonial action.[78]
Because no overtly political association was allowed in the
colony, all the activist associations were cultural: film
and drama presentations, followed by conferences and/or
discussions, were the methods used to stir up criticism of
Japanese colonial rule and to arouse Taiwanese
nationalism. [78]
T. Chen, 17. Drama
performances rapidly evolved into two different factions: on
one side the modern politically engaged dramas, and, on the
other, traditional Taiwanese opera which kept representing
the conventional legends. In the Taiwanese newspapers, from
1928 to 1932, the new school of theatre harshly denounced
the apolitical stance of Taiwanese opera, even regarding it
as corrupting because its thematic was
apolitical. However, the
radical attitude of the modern political theatre was soon
undermined by the imposition of Japanisation. Chained drama,
Taiwanese opera, puppet shows, benshi performances
and any form of folk activities were forbidden. From then
on, the Taiwanese theatre troupe could only stage drama in
Japanese and this, until the end of World War II, gave
Taiwan back to Japan.[79] [79]
T. Chen, 18. In France and the
United States - the cradles of cinema - the new medium had
little prestige. Early on, in America, cinema became a cheap
entertainment while in France film was hardly considered an
art form by the artistic milieu: it was ironically called
"art d'ilote", an art for uneducated crowds. In
Japan, however, the new technology was granted a prestigious
place in society, and attending a silent film screening was
considered an intellectually respectable form of activity
for the literate population: "Dignity had been conferred on
the new entertainment by a showing at the Kabuki-za, graced
by the Crowned Prince" in 1897.[80]
Taiwan, mirroring Japan, also hallowed cinema, and as a
result the price of admittance to a movie theatre was
exorbitant.[81] [80]
Richie, 1. [81]
Yeh, 56. When movies were
first introduced to Taiwan, three types of opera existed,
and puppet shows were also very popular.[82]
Opera and puppet shows were both an essential part of
religious rituals, with performances usually taking place
either in front of temples for the celebration of a specific
god (such as Matsu, goddess of the sea or Lao-tien Yeh,
ruler of the universe), or else on each of the twenty-four
ritual celebrations of the lunar calendar. Opera
performances and puppet shows could happen side by side and
sometimes more than one troupe performed one straight after
the other, over several days. They performed on a stage in
the open air and admission was free, as the purpose was to
entertain the gods. As part of the ritual, a specific god or
goddess was invited to attend the performance, as well as
his or her heavenly friends. The ritual therefore implied a
communication between human beings and the gods, as well as
among audience members. Hence, these rituals also had the
social function of bringing the community together and
asserting a collective consciousness.[83] [82]
T. Chen, 13. [83]
T. Chen, 12. On some special
occasions, traditional opera would celebrate a wedding or a
birthday in a wealthy family or even seal the reconciliation
between two groups in a village. To resolve such a conflict,
the group who wished to amend itself would invite an opera
troupe to play. The performance would not take place in the
temple of the group who issued the invitation, but rather in
front of the temple of the offended group, as an apology for
the offence.[84]
Puppet shows and Taiwanese opera were an intrinsic part of
the religious and social rituals in Taiwan. [84]
T. Chen, 12. At the early
stage of Japanese occupation, Luan-tan was the most
popular type of opera. The Luan-tan opera was
performed in a classic dialect no longer spoken in either
Taiwan or China. But the Luan-tan opera's celebrity
was compromised when, during the Japanese occupation, a new
form of opera emerged. At first, people simply gathered to
hear Taiwanese folk songs in the north-eastern Yi-Lan county
where a farmer gifted in playing sheng and singing
ballads performed. Soon he became so much in demand that he
developed his skills to fit dramatic
storytelling,[85]
and that was how Taiwanese opera was born. It borrowed from
both Luan-tan and Beijing opera. From Luan-tan
opera it kept the stage style and body movement; from
Beijing opera it appropriated props, characters, music and
dramatic techniques. [85]
T. Chen 15. Local folk songs
played a major role in Taiwanese opera. The new trend had
the characteristic of using the local dialect instead of the
different classic dialects used in the traditional Chinese
operas. The Taiwanese opera soon attracted tremendous
audiences because its story line was easy to understand and
it accessed the cultural and national identity of the
colonised people.[86] [86]
T. Chen, 16. When the electric
shadowplay first arrived, the Taiwanese were not as eager to
see images from around the world as they were to attend the
newborn Taiwanese opera, which was a collective
entertainment rooted in the religious rituals of Taiwanese
agricultural society and so a part of every day
life.[87]
Film exhibition had to compete against an established
institution and find a public in a rural clientele who were
busy in the field during long days. The electric shadowplay
therefore adapted to the lifestyle of agricultural
communities and progressively became a form of entertainment
for gods and goddesses during the lunar festivals. The
Taiwanese actors were very famous so the movie theatre and
tour exhibitors brought fame to the benshi, by
adopting the benshi star system. In the 1920's the
benshi became popular and the first films from
Shanghai were presented, while amongst the Taiwanese a
desire to resume connection with their Chinese heritage had
young people searching into China's culture for their roots.
They went to Shanghai to learn the film trade and started to
wear Chinese fashion. Furthermore, in cultural activities,
such as modern theatre and chained drama, a movement of
anti-colonialism was spreading. [87]
T .Chen, 15-16. At first, the
Japanese had allowed Taiwanese opera to develop naturally
and it reached its golden age within twenty years
(1911-1930).[88]
But by the late 1930s, the policy of Japanisation was
controlling the lifestyle of Taiwan. The only theatre
allowed was performed in Japanese so, as a means of
survival, a few drama companies began to stage modern
Japanese drama. At first, they simply played in Japanese,
but later on they became more daring. Because it was a
strenuous task for the Japanese police to control each small
village temple, over time, underground performances of
Taiwanese opera took place defying the ruler's policy. Liao
Jun-zhi, then a famous actress, describes her
experience: [88]
T. Chen, 17. [89]
Cited in T. Chen, 18. Disobedience to
the Japanisation policy not only allowed the occasional
performance, but actually made it possible for Taiwanese
opera to survive. Without these few underground
performances, the tradition would most probably have been
forgotten. Taiwanese opera asserted the cultural identity of
the segregated country. Through popular opera, colonial
Taiwan managed to preserve its distinct culture during the
Japanisation movement, and to a greater extent, during the
fifty years of Japanese occupation. In Taiwan, the
first decades of film exhibition relied exclusively on the
Japanese coloniser. All the films distributed in Taiwan from
1901 to 1923 came through Japan; the first Chinese films
came relatively late. By the time the first Chinese films
became accessible a complete generation of Taiwanese
audiences had become accustomed to cinema within the
Japanese convention of the benshi. Japan and China
by different channels both managed to influence Taiwan:
Japan's influence was modern while China's was ancestral.
The impact of the Japanese coloniser's influence on culture
resided mainly in its modern practice of storytelling. As
explained above, in Japan, every different art medium
required endorsement of a text. Because of that no single
art form could distinguish itself, no art could free itself
from the bond of the other art forms. All of them were
hybrids and no absolute art existed. This conception of
different art forms blending into one another made it quite
natural for theatre to include films as it did with chained
dramas. In a similar way, films embraced theatre practice in
the person of the benshi. Both benshi
performances and chained drama were the outcome of a direct
influence from Japan's drama aesthetic. As for the
Chinese influence, it fulfilled a quest for identity. China
inspired Taiwan in a traditional way, through the creation
of a new form of opera in the Taiwanese dialect. The new
opera practice merged with the cultural identity of the
segregated colony and was to become a significant aspect of
the island's cultural heritage. However, Taiwanese opera
dwells in the margin of both ancient operatic tradition and
modern theatre. Being deprived of the long tradition
pertaining to Beijing opera, Taiwanese opera was never
revered, but was always considered a pale imitation of the
original form. Until very recently, Beijing opera was taught
in Taiwanese schools, but Taiwanese opera was considered
merely popular and so had no respect in the education
system. Taiwanese opera had too short a past to be
considered ancestral but, on the other hand, because
Taiwanese opera never participated in claiming anti-colonial
stances, it could not be labelled modern either. It
performed traditional legends, yet it was not ancestral ; it
was created at the dawn of modern time, yet it was not
modern. Taiwanese opera did not belong anywhere except
perhaps in the heart of the people. Though never
venerated, Taiwanese opera was so popular that it kept alive
colonial disobedience during the Japanisation era. These
occasional insubordinations allowed this type of opera to
survive, and nowadays it is still popular on television
where many soap operas emulate traditional Taiwanese opera:
it is so popular indeed that one television channel is
devoted to these broadcast operatic
programs. The coloniser
made it difficult for Taiwanese to express their identity
otherwise than with opera. In film making for instance, the
Taiwanese started to produce their own films early on, but
they could not do so without Japanese assistance. However,
in Taiwan there was a real fascination for the new
technologies. The popularity of the Kinemacolor system
exemplifies how new inventions enchanted local audiences.
But conversely, film technology was not accessible on the
island, so the need to assert Taiwan's native tradition
developed first within traditional opera and later on, the
Taiwanese went to Shanghai to learn about film
production. In the 1980s, the
New Taiwanese Cinema produced artistic films: this was the
first conscious attempt to build a serious film culture in
Taiwan,[90]
and the themes of the films opened up a discourse about a
history that had been concealed for a long time.
[91]
The prestigious awards the films obtained proved that there
was a creative film industry in Taiwan in spite of America,
Hong-Kong and Shanghai overwhelming film production. But,
although these films gained recognition in various film
festivals, they were not particularly popular in Taiwan.
[90]
The KMT government financed the New Taiwanese Cinema's first
productions. [91]
Sandwich Man (1983, dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tseng
Chuang-hsiang, Wan Ren) talks about Japanese and American
imperialism, whereas Strawman (1987, dir.Wang Tung)
and Puppetmaster (1993, dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien) both
talk about the Japanese colonisation era (Puppetmaster
even hints at the Japanisation policy when the hero has
to stop his puppet show performances and find another
trade). City of sadness (1989, dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien)
is a representation of the February 28th
Incident, which led to the imposition of martial law,
commonly referred to as the "White Terror" days. Most of the
remaining films of the trend are witnesses of Taiwan's rapid
transformation into an industrial society. Recently, film
production has changed: it still talks about Taiwanese
identity but is more tuned to the popular taste. For
instance, the amazingly popular production Sheng shi
shuan shuo (The legend of the sacred stone, 2000,
dir. Huang brothers) is a film in Taiwanese dialect, with
puppet characters instead of comedians.[92]www.pilimovie.com.tw
Puppet shows already have their own program on television
where they are achieving success. Their origin - like that
of Taiwanese opera - is in religion, a religion that has no
sacred text but only a few scriptures and plenty of
traditional legends to entertain the gods. The legend of
the sacred stone is a convergence of ancestral and
modern, bringing together traditional mythology and
present-day special effects possibilities of cinema.
Peripheral in nature, it dwells at the border of East and
West, challenging the boundaries of ancestral and modern,
the portions of colonial legacy and national cultural
identity. In Taiwan's
culture, the major persisting legacy of Japan is the
hierarchy of film and opera. Unlike China, where Beijing
opera is highly respected, in Taiwan the local opera is a
popular medium. Unlike the West, Taiwan has always given
high cultural prestige to cinema, while opera has been the
popular medium. Cinema was an elitist form of entertainment
whereas traditional puppet shows and Taiwanese opera
belonged to the people. The New Taiwanese Cinema walked
along that road, making artistic films and gaining
recognition from prestigious international film festivals.
However, at the moment, the tendency goes in reverse -
cinema aims for the popular, hoping to join Taiwanese
opera's place within the hearts of the Taiwanese people.
[92]
Visit their web site, with English version: http://www.pilimovie.com.tw
8355 words
Abstract
| Printer
version
1.Taiwan and the
world
2. The historic
context: the electric shadowplay
The
color effect was obtained by two synchronized color
filters rotating in front of both camera and
projector. By the rapid alternation of red and green
filters, coupled with the corresponding alternation of
individual frames photographed with equivalent filters
on the camera, a wide variety of colors was
possible.[20]
2.Traditional
Japanese theatre: the benshi
(1)
[...] Japanese and the Taiwanese were one and,
accordingly, joining the battle was an obligation of
Taiwanese people;
4. Traditional
Japanese theatre: the chained drama
5. Local
production: Taiwanese opera
During
our performance, when the Japanese police were
approaching, two of our messengers would pass the
message by whistles from one stop to another.
Immediately, on the stage, the role of a general
became a manager, traditional costumes changed into
modern ones - which were put under the former.
Dialogue also changed from Taiwanese to Japanese. All
these actions were done within one
minute![89]
Conclusion
