In 2021 a presentation titled “Taiwan Beats Showcase” brought Taiwanese bands and singers to the Austin, Texas-based South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival, which moved online in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. To record their sets for the show, musicians and singers got out of the studio and sought out performance spaces with local color—including high mountains, a temple, a shrimp fishing pond, and a traditional factory—to offer the global audience fresh new musical experiences.
The last few years have introduced the public to a new way to appreciate Taiwan’s rich and varied terrain. The hard work of government and private organizations has brought Taiwan its first nationally recognized “silent mountain trail”: the Cueifong Lake Circular Trail on Taipingshan. In 2020, it also saw Yangmingshan National Park designated the world’s first “urban quiet park.” In 2021, Taipei City’s “culture and quiet” earned it a place on Time magazine’s list of the “World’s Greatest Places.
Taiwan’s comics industry has historically had two golden ages, each creating numerous famous figures whose works have spanned media and even reached across borders. However, for any number of reasons, the industry has more recently been in the doldrums, with the environment particularly difficult in the past decade.
Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, the descendants of maritime people who settled far and wide, developed methods here in Taiwan for using plants for many purposes, including food, medicine, household utensils, and construction. For them, the mountain forests were like an enormous pantry where they could go for resources at any time, on condition that they took only what they needed, leaving the rest for future generations.
“The countries that build great zero-carbon companies and industries will be the ones that lead the global economy in the coming decades.”In his book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, this is how Bill Gates describes what net zero means for the future. And President Tsai Ing-wen has stated on many occasions that “achieving a transformation to net zero by 2050 is a goal for the entire world, and also for Taiwan.”
More and more art media are being invented in the modern world. Thanks to advances in digital technology, new media art has broken the restraints of the physical environment to find a place in virtual reality. No longer merely passive receivers, viewers are now able to immerse themselves in art and even interact with it. Artists today enjoy infinite new possibilities, making exciting forays into untraveled realms.
Yang Yang is a renowned solar power researcher. Born and raised in Taiwan, he graduated from National Cheng Kung University with a degree in physics before pursuing advanced studies in optoelectronic materials in the US, and is currently a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Taiwan’s GuoGuang Opera Company is 26 years old. Founded as a troupe devoted to traditional Chinese theater, GuoGuang has reinvented itself by working to construct a distinctively Taiwanese brand of Peking Opera. Moreover, it has established a foothold in the creative industries by exploring branding and intellectual property rights, and has been collaborating with international performing arts groups.
Lion dancer Wu Teng-hsing is only 40 years old, yet he has been performing professionally for 36 years. The fifth-generation head of the century-old Deyitang martial arts school and the last remaining heir to the tradition of the “Longfeng Lion Ensemble” form of lion dancing, Wu is also the youngest person in Taiwan to have been designated a preserver of intangible cultural assets in two categories.
“These facial tattoos signify courage! To be a good man, one must maintain a thirst for knowledge. Calm at heart and joyful on the hunt, I have inherited my father’s warrior spirit.... I spend my life learning the wisdom of the forest. I am a child of the Truku.”
—“The Hunter’s Song,” collected on the album Taroko Legends by Pi Teyru Ukah
