The leader of the Eight Women Generals, carrying an instrument of torture, walks around in broad, measured strides, then executes a 180-degree split kick as she leads the other women generals carrying fans, bamboo staffs, and pennants. Then, in a Seven Stars formation, they slowly shake their heads, creating an intimidating presence. Accompanied by intense rock and roll music, the sight is majestic.

The women generals proceed with a Five Elements formation and then walk around in the Eight Trigrams formation, sometimes shaking their heads and stamping their feet, sometimes staring angrily with legs akimbo. Finally, all of them leap into the air in a powerful yet beautiful motion that draws lengthy applause from the audience. This was an Eight Women Generals performance staged by the Zhen Zong Troupe at the Wannian Folklore Festival in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District.

Upholding artistic traditions

Lin Mao-hsien, chairman of the Department of Taiwanese Languages and Literature at National Taichung University of Education, notes that traditional yizhen are an important part of temple celebrations and festivals. While the deities play the leading role in religious terms, the focus of ordinary citizens who want to enjoy themselves is on the yizhen performances, especially the zhentou arts troupes. These shows can be called “Taiwanese-­style” performance art and street theater.

In deity processions, the mission of the Eight Generals and the Lead Generals is to escort and protect the procession and to clear its way by subduing the forces of evil. As society has changed, a new generation of Eight Women Generals and Women Lead Generals has emerged, symbolizing gender equality.
 

The Neimen Song Jiang Battle Array

The Zhen Zong Troupe, which founded the Eight Women Generals, is based in Kaohsiung’s rural ­Neimen District, famous for its catering chefs and its Song Jiang Battle Array yizhen. Zhen Zong’s leader, Fang Tsung-yin, explains that Neimen already boasts more than two centuries of history with the Song Jiang yi­zhen. It started when local farmers formed a self-­defense force to protect their hometown, and drew on the siege formation used by the character Song Jiang in the novel The Water Margin as the basis for their training.

What began as a self-defense force that conducted martial drills and united the locality has long since been transformed into a folk arts performance troupe to enter­­tain the deities and attract tourists. At its peak Neimen had as many as 30 Song Jiang Battle Array troupes, so the district was nicknamed “Song Jiang Town.”

Today, although Neimen’s population has dwindled to less than 15,000 people, the district can still mobilize 15 Song Jiang yizhen for the birthday of the Bodhisattva Guanyin, celebrated each year at Zizhusi Temple on the 29th day of the second lunar month. Neimen is the main bastion of the Song Jiang Battle Array in Taiwan, and when major events like the Taiwan Lantern Festival are held in Kaohsiung the district is responsible for representing local culture on the opening day.

Blending in martial arts

However, most folk arts yizhen are amateur organizations. Their members have full-time jobs and only practice when they have an upcoming performance. They also face the problem of not having anyone to whom they can pass along their traditions. Unlike them, the Zhen Zong Troupe has a foundation of professional members.

Fang Tsung-yin relates that he was one of those rural people who left their hometown in search of economic opportunity elsewhere. However, 27 years ago, when his business was not doing so well, he cast divination blocks and asked a deity’s advice. After receiving the instructions “Do something for Neimen’s cultural life,” he decided to return to his hometown to teach martial arts and run his own Song Jiang Battle Array and lion dance troupes. He took over a Shaolin kung fu group formed by his father, and renamed it the Zhen Zong Culture and Art Performance Troupe.

Fang, who at one point was named a champion for six years running in the national martial arts competition organized by the Chinese Taipei Wushu Federation, uses martial arts training as the foundation for strengthening the troupe’s Five Elements and Eight Trigrams formations, adding energy to actions such as steps and kicks. He has also introduced elements from Northern Shaolin kung fu, especially leaping and rolling moves, which add excitement to the performances. This makes his company stand out from the usual amateur yizhen that perform at temple events, and as a result they get more invitations.

Fang once made a wish that he could bring high-­quality folk arts yizhen to every temple and every government-­sponsored cultural ceremony in Taiwan. Several years later, at its peak Zhen Zong was putting on more than 200 shows per year, sometimes performing up to 26 days a month and sending out up to 20 troupes per day. Some former members have also set up their own companies. All this leaves Fang sighing with satisfaction that he was recalled to his hometown by a divine force providing wondrous guidance from the unseen world.
 

The Eight Women Generals

Back in 2009 there were numerous news reports about members of Eight Generals troupes taking drugs or getting into brawls, so that many parents opposed having their children join yizhen.

In order to reverse the negative public perception of the Eight Generals as the “Eight Drunkards,” Fang Tsung-yin created the Eight Women Generals.

The troupe members who play the Eight Women Generals are all university-trained dancers. Their performance preserves the traditional role of the Eight Generals and their Five Elements and Eight Trigrams path-clearing formations, while incorporating dance and martial arts movements to give a sense of gentle­ness combined with strength. Eight Generals processions are traditionally accompanied by the sounds of wooden clappers, gongs, and drums. However, the Eight Women Generals use a rock-and-roll-style soundtrack from Huang Chun-hsiung’s puppet theater TV shows to add impact to their performances.

Traditionally there were more taboos and restrictions associated with the Eight Generals than with any other religious yizhen. For example, women were not allowed to take part and performers were forbidden from speaking, eating, or drinking once their face makeup was applied. Lin Mao-hsien suggests that the reason for excluding women from the Eight Generals was not gender discrimination, but was based on the notion of differences between the male force (yang) and the female force (yin). However, as society has evolved, many taboos have been overturned, and not only are there Eight Women Generals, but now women even act as baomazai (the scout or crier who walks ahead of pilgrimage processions) and perform the Dance of Zhong Kui to help guide ghosts back to the underworld at Ghost Festival.

However, to avoid trampling on traditional taboos, Zhen Zong’s Eight Women Generals apply makeup to only half of their faces. Fang emphasizes: “One half gives the appearance of a general, while the other half is the face of a woman. Moreover, they do not take part in temple processions, but only do ‘artistic’ yizhen performances.”

When the Eight Women Generals made their first appearance, at the Wannian Folklore Festival in Zuoying, they attracted a great deal of attention from the public and media for their gorgeous attire and beautiful accessories, and for their performance, which combined strength and beauty. But they were still criticized by traditionalist temple elders and netizens for violating the taboos against women’s participation.

Fang faced such criticism with aplomb. In 2010 he took the Eight Women Generals to Japan to perform on the streets of Yokohama’s Chinatown. While there they were invited by the NHK TV network to perform in the studio and became an overnight sensation. Next, the troupe took first prize in an yizhen competition in Neimen in 2011, which resulted in them receiving invitations to perform at many temples, making the leap from the streets to temple plazas. They also took their show overseas again, visiting Sydney, Brisbane, and Hawaii. This year their story has been turned into a television series by Taiwan’s CTS TV network.

Promoting yizhen

When Zhen Zong was invited to perform at a tourism industry show in Southeast Asia six years ago, Fang formed a Women Lead Generals troupe. The two “Lead Generals,” Zeng and Sun, were once demons who preyed on the living, but they yielded to the teachings of the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha and became guardians of this deity. They were instructed to observe good and evil, rewarding the good with longer lives and punishing the evil with shorter lives. The Women Lead Generals retain the tradi­tional gong and drum accompaniment and procession forma­tions. Their performances overseas have attracted many people from Southeast Asia to visit Taiwan, with some even traveling directly to Neimen.

Over the last two years Zhen Zong has had to suspend overseas performances because of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, they are faced with the challenge of passing down their art to younger generations. Fang says frankly: “Why would any young people these days want to be temple workers?” To improve the situation, he has come out with new-style remembrance lanterns and smokeless spirit-money burners, and has developed appealing cultural and creative products including women-­generals-­themed pinball machines and pickled vegetables.

Neimen boasts the three-­centuries-­old Zizhusi Temple, and a new recreational park and zoo are scheduled to open in late 2023. Meanwhile Zhen Zong has set to work on an yizhen theme park, which should also be completed in 2023. Visitors will be able to personally try out the movements and swordplay of performance troupes and apply the facial makeup of the Eight Generals. This will give yizhen a new role in attracting tourists and energizing the local culture and economy.

For more pictures, please click《Energizing Tradition: The Zhen Zong Performance Troupe》