People’s Theater in Taiwan | A Flooded History

People’s Theater in Taiwan
A Flooded History1
HAN Jia-ling
Translated by Kris CHI
Proofread by Shu-Chuan LIN

Preface

Since the mid-1980s, when Taiwanese society entered the historical phases before the lifting of martial law, various issues related to politics, society, environment and economy have surged. The shared faith of we young generation in socialism and Chen Ying-zhen’s unique charisma made Ren Jian Magazine not only a publication which delivered on-site reports concerning the reality but also a center of political economic theory in “Brother Chen’s style” for people to gather and plan movement. Ren Jian Magazine as a place for action not only gathered people engaged in Taiwanese social movement but also assembled the progressive force and left-wing energy overseas.

As a representative of Taiwanese left-wing culture and arts, Chen kept exploring how culture and arts could serve the social reality, and people’s theater is the critical theory and practice of left-wing cultural movement. I am honored to be one of the participants at the time. With the hope that successors can get to know and study the forgotten development of Taiwanese left-wing theater in the 1980s, as the recorder, I recall the history through providing valuable historical materials.

Inheritance from Taiwanese’s History of Resistance and Exploration for the Nature of Taiwanese Left-wing Culture

People’s theater in Taiwan had come into the energy of the left-wing in the Japanese colonial time. Starting from the social dilemma people faced in reality, it invited the people to get into the theater as participants to reveal the people’s history of resistance, which had long been covered by the institution.

Documentary Theater: A Form to Represent the Flooded History of the People

Roar! Hanaoka! was directed by Ishitobi Jin, a Japanese humanitarian writer, and performed on 7 July 1986 at Taipei Hero House. The play looked back at the Hanaoka Mine Incident, a historical event related to the exploitation of Chinese laborers in 1945 and it was the first performance of documentary theater in Taiwanese theatrical history.

On 30 June 1985, 40 years after the incident, The Memorial Festival of the 40th Anniversary of the Hanaoka Mine Incident was performed in Ōdate City in Akita Prefecture of Japan, where the incident happened. This event attracted Wang Molin, who was still studying theater in Japan then. He at the beginning was merely a member of the audience watching the performance of documentary theater, then becoming a participant of the play. During his participation, Wang recognized that documentary theater was a “simple but powerful” way of performance that was full of “inspiration.” “Although the so-called dramatic climax was thus reduced, it relatively brought wider space and stable power for rational thinking” (Wang 1986).

Returning from Japan in 1986, Wang joined Ren Jian Magazine accidentally. Due to his recommendation, Chen Ying-zhen aka “Da Chen” evinced a great interest in documentary theater. Therefore, Chen actively invited Gao Xin-jiang, his good friend as well as the chief editor of the supplement of China Times at the time, to work together and to make the appearance of Roar! Hanaoka! in Taiwan possible.

This performance let us see that through the formality of documentary theater, people’s theater can represent the history of the people. People as the subject of the historical facts—people’s words, video, and other materials—could display the most ordinary face of history.

Knowing the Anticolonial History of Taiwanese People: A Historical Testimony of the 60th Anniversary of Taiwanese People’s Party

Taiwanese People’s Party celebrated its 60th anniversary in 1987. It was the earliest political party founded in Taiwan, and the history of the party was also the history of Taiwanese people who resisted the Japanese colonial government. Thus, the right to narrate this part of history was highly concerned by the pro-independence and pro-unification parties. Both the factions from China Tide and Democratic Progressive Party held memorial events. The memorial event of the former—“the 60th Anniversary of Taiwanese People’s Party”—was organized by the China Tide Association in the auditorium of Taipei Municipal Jinhua Junior High School on 10 July 1987. Besides the regular procedure for a ceremony, i.e., speeches, the vivid documentary theater was used to present the 60-year history of the Taiwanese People’s Party. Moreover, Ren Jian Theatre and China Tide Chorus also performed at the venue, which was the first time the left-wing cultural groups showed up in such a ceremony.

With the encouragement of Da Chen, Wang Mo-lin, the director of the little theater, recruited his friends from Ren Jian Magazine to form an amateur theatrical crew, Ren Jian Theatre, to produce the first Taiwanese historical documentary theater. Though I was not a formal employee of Ren Jian Magazine, as a supernumerary, a degree holder in the Institute of History, and a history lecturer in the university, I was incited by people around me. As the proverb goes, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” I felt it incumbent on accepting the work as a playwright of this historical documentary drama.

We did not imitate the complete formality, though this documentary drama was inspired by Roar! Hanaoka!. Besides using the form of documentary theater to present history, Wang Mo-lin, the director, also added some livelier elements from other types of theater.

After the performance, Wang especially invited the anti-Japanese predecessors at the venue to be on the stage: Chen Qi-chang (the Taiwanese People’s Party), Wang Wen-ming, Wu Jin-di (the Peasants Union), Zhou He-yuan (the Taiwanese Cultural Association), Pan Chen-huo (the Taiwanese Cultural Association), Xu Yue-li (the Taiwan Workers’ League), Liu Ming (the Taiwan Justice Association). The younger representatives such as Film Wang, Wang Yong, Zhong Qiao, and I, presented flowers to pay tribute to the patriotic anti-Japanese fighters. This gesture symbolized that the younger generations would be the ones passing on the history of bravely fighting against Japanese authority. On the wall of the auditorium of Taipei Municipal Jinhua Junior High School, the poster reinforced the image: We should “take back the pride of Taiwanese people! Pass down the tradition of resistance movements!”

Reorganizing the Flooded History of Taiwanese Left-wing Movements

During the austere time of the White Terror caused by Kuomintang in the 1950s, thousands of progressive young men seeking class liberation and walking onto the revolutionary path were shot. Those who survived were confined in jail for a long time. This violent and cruel oppression cut down and submerged the real history of brave Taiwanese fighting against colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. It would not be written in the textbooks, and even would not be told and passed to the children of those comrades. Only through collecting and sorting out the related historical materials could Taiwanese people gradually learn and realize the real history belonging to them.1

Flag of Taiwan Peasants Union, drawn by Hong Shui-liu. Photo courtesy of Han Jia-ling.

During the process of conducting my research on Jiang Wei-shui and sorting out the literature for the documentary play, A Historical Testimony of the 60th Anniversary of Taiwanese People’s Party, I discovered that the Taiwan Peasants Union seemed to be a keyword that appeared frequently. The Taiwan Peasants Union (TPU afterward) was the most influential and powerful public organization with the largest number of participators. However, besides The History of Taiwan Governor Police Records, the report produced by the Japanese to monitor the Taiwanese, there was not a complete article in Mandarin studying TPU. This phenomenon triggered my curiosity and opened up the opportunity for me to study TPU in 1987. After doing more research, I gradually realized that TPU was a grassroots organization claiming its Marxist ideal, which was directly related to the red color symbolizing the communist party. Before the lifting of martial law, studying it was a taboo in Taiwan. Thus, no one would know, intend to and dare to touch this sensitive topic.

Representing the Historic Site

The end of 1988 was the 61st anniversary of the first general congress of TPU, and it was also the time when Taiwan was facing American agricultural commodity dumping. The peasant movement was actively launched in Taiwan. The most wellknown ones should be the protest organized by farmers against American dumping on 16 March and the 520 Peasant Movement in 1988. Thus, we felt obligated to pass down Taiwanese farmers’ history of resistance and to ensure Taiwanese people realize the silenced history.2

As the director of the documentary play, I concluded the previous experience of participating in A Historical Testimony of the 60th Anniversary of Taiwanese People’s Party, and documentary plays related to workers3 with Da Chen, Wang Mo-lin, and other coworkers in Ren Jian Magazine. After a few discussions, we decided to choose an essential connecting point of the history of TPU as the starting point, i.e., the first general congress of TPU held in 1927. This general congress led the purely economic protest to left-wing Marxism. The historic scene was described by Taiwan People News: “The directors of 23 branches of Taiwan Peasants Union held red flags, walking into the venue. Suddenly, red flags filled the venue, which was spectacular. With a roar of applause shaking the house, the directors holding flags walking onto the stage to accept the cheers of people” (“General Congress” 1927). This scene symbolized the rise and solidarity of Taiwanese farmers. After 61 years, we chose this turning point with historical significance—the first general congress and represented this grand historic scene with the historical script.

The site of the commemoration was in Changhua, where the Erlin Peasant Movement took place. The auditorium of Ping He Elementary School was borrowed for the event. On the day, the predecessors such as Chen Kun-lun (the TPU Central Standing Committee), Su Qing-jiang (the TPU Central Standing Committee), Zhuang Shou (the member of Taiwanese Communist Party), Hong Shui-liu (the member of TPU), Wu Jin-di (the member of TPU), Jian Jing (the son of Jian Ji, the Chair of TPU Central Standing Committee), Huang Zhengdao (the son of Huang Xin-guo, the Chair of TPU Central Standing Committee), and Zhao Qing-yun (the nephew of Zhao Gang, the TPU Central Standing Committee member) all came in person. The representation of the first general congress of TPU was what we had hoped after 61 years on the 61st anniversary. First, Three Hosei Weighing 48 KG4 , a documentary play, distinctly presented the economic exploitation Japanese imperialism put on Taiwanese peasants. Furthermore, The Erlin Incident was a play of documentary theater about the first resistant activity of Taiwanese peasants to demonstrate the resistance of Taiwanese against Japanese colonial rule. Lastly, the reappearance of red flags flying in the first general congress this time was our intention to present to the Taiwanese leftwing movements at the time and the venue.

Summary

To revisit the history, we produced two documentary dramas—A Historical Testimony of the 60th Anniversary of Taiwanese People’s Party and A Commemoration of the 61st Anniversary of the First General Congress of the Taiwan Peasants Union. Although they respectively set off from 1987 and 1988, the triggering scenes of the social issues were still in 1927, about 60 years ago. It was a site of historical memory. People’s documentary theater intended to display the history of the people, which was formed and contextualized by real issues, instead of the fragmented history. From Roar! Hanaoka! the first play of documentary theater appearing in Taiwan to A Historical Testimony of the 60th Anniversary of Taiwanese People’s Party and A Commemoration of the 61st Anniversary of the First General Congress of the Taiwan Peasants Union, we genuinely felt how strong the agency of the people’s historical memories was. “Although oppressed into the dark underground by the state violence, as long as they were offered a stage, memories accepting the summon could form a sense of reality based on the aesthetic experience. The impression made the history a continuum without gaps, and the connection to the reality was like to find out a familiar object that could create the echo and conversations after years.” It is what people’s theater is—through artistic performance to connect the public with an authentic relation.

Combined with Labour and Peasant Movement, People’s Theater Forming the Historical Discourse Belonging to the People

After the lifting of martial law, various political and social issues popped up in Taiwanese society. We were high-spirited and expecting to seize this surge in society to walk into the people’s world to demonstrate our enthusiasm for “revolution.” A variety of discussions and attempts were regularly proposed and realized. The office of Ren Jian Magazine and Wang Mo-lin’s Japanese-style dormitory on Hangzhou S. Road became our gathering place. These discussions usually happened overnight, and the Japanese-style dorm with tatami became the best spot for us to burn the midnight oil.

During 1986 and 1987, the political control had loosened. Among artistic activities in Taiwan, the avant-garde Little Theater Movement was the most active as well as the trendiest one. After October performed in November 1987, Film Wang assembled pan-left-wing artists in the office of Ren Jian Magazine to call a private reviewing meeting about the Taiwanese Little Theater Movement. Thoroughly reflecting the problems of the two-year practice, this meeting targeted the topic of how the little theater could connect the general public in society.5

The result made after the performance of October showed that the documentary theater produced previously could be the nutrients to provide a broader context for developing people’s theater. In response to the harsh criticism of Film, Mo-lin further explored how to connect the dynamic energy of Taiwanese theater to the pulse of Taiwanese society. Merely three months after the review, Film Wang and Wang Mo-lin began their exploration of left-wing theater such as “Action Theater” and “Workers’ Theater.” The practice of the former provided the Taiwanese street protest with the paradigm of combining theater with marches, becoming an indispensable landscape of the protest movement. The latter sharing a similar fate with the labor movement was simply a beautiful hope of left-wing intellectuals. However, these passionate years also left the trace for the younger generations to examine the vigorous pursuit of the left-wing intellectuals in Taiwan.

Dispel Orchid Island’s Evil Spirit6 : The One Leading the Street Protests in Taiwan

On 20 February 1988, Film Wang and Wang Mo-lin cooperated with Guo Jianping (aka Shaman Fengayan) and Shin Nu-lai (aka Syman Rapongan), the young Tao people from Lanyu Youth Association in making Dispel Orchid Island’s Evil Spirit. The drama could be regarded as the first work of action theater in Taiwan and the beginning of the anti-nuclear movement in Taiwan as well (20 February 1988 at Lanyu).

That morning, it was drizzling. The yellow headband was tied with the antinuclear texts, we then joined a team of Tao protestors with traditional warriors’ outfits including Vinaovaod (the rattan hat), Kalokal (the rattan armor), Takurus (the dagger), and the long spear. Formally dressed up, the Tao people showed their determination to protect the homeland from being polluted by nuclear waste. The protest performance was conducted during the demonstration. The huge puppet symbolizing the evil spirit walked in front of the team. Other protest teams setting off from tribes in the north and south sides gathered in front of the gate of the nuclear waste repository. While the protestors walked to the destination, bottle rockets were fired, which made the scene eye-catching and resonant. This work of action theater was named as a “demonstration with high quality” by the Taiwanese press.

Action theater Dispel Orchid Island’s Evil Spirit (1988).
Photo courtesy of Han Jia-ling.

Before planning Dispel Orchid Island’s Evil Spirit as a play of action theater, we had considered the possibility of performing the documentary drama with the tribal leaders and young people in the Tao language (“Celebrate the New Year” 1988). However, the protest was held outdoors, the slides could not be showed, and the music effects at the square could not be guaranteed, so the formality of the performance was changed. The reason why we considered using the formality of documentary theater was that this form of performance had accumulated a certain amount of experience in the exploration of Taiwanese left-wing theater. Nevertheless, adopting the form of action theater this time, we had nothing to refer to, either of its formality or experience. The process was like what Wang Molin later commented on: “It is like crossing the river by feeling for stones; we could not find the formality and did not know what to do.”

This performance was very different from the documentary theater we had done before. There was no fixed stage and script, and whoever in the protesting team was the actors in this work of action theater. The content combined the evil spirit in traditional Tao rituals with nuclear waste in the reality. Performing the anti-nuclear struggle in the form of drama drew people’s attention and created an effect on reflecting social issues.

As the conclusion made by Wang Mo-lin, the chief planner of this action, on the ideal of this performance of action theater afterward—“the society was our stage, people were our actors, and social events were our blueprints” (“Debut of Action Theater” 1998) action theater opened up the experiment and exploration of combining Taiwanese social movement with theatrical performance. This action drama became the paradigm of action theater taking place in street protest due to the booming social movements in Taiwan and led to the trend of action theater. Many movements later on appropriated the form and concept of action theater, for example, the anti-deforestation movement in March 1988, the peasants’ demonstration against American agricultural products dumping on 16 March, the peasant movement on 20 May, the Shell-less Snail Movement in August 1989 when thousands of people slept on the street, and Wild Lily Student Movement in March 1990. Making a huge puppet as a symbol as well as setting off bottle rockets during the protests was the formality brought from Dispel Orchid Island’s Evil Spirit. Afterward, action theater became the inevitable cultural activity in Taiwanese street movements.

Founding of Labour Party7 Giving Birth to Workers’ Theater

The lifting of martial law created great opportunities for the anti-government energy to gather. China Tide as a longstanding left-wing force also seized the chance to organize the Labour Party actively, contributing to the growth of the autonomy of the labor class in Taiwan. As the left-wing representative based in Los Angeles, Film Wang returned to Taiwan to found the party, devoting himself to promoting the Third Cinema. Applying the idea of Third Cinema to the theater, Film Wang and Wang Mo-lin promoted Taiwanese little theater as the practice of Third Theater intensively concerning the issues related to laborers and peasants in the real Taiwanese society. They worked together, making the first anti-nuclear action theater at Lanyu (20 February 1988). Only a week after the event, as active party members organizing and developing the party, they were encouraged by the founding of the Labour Party, actively promoting the exploration of workers’ theater in Taiwan.

It was a time moving so fast that we started to try things before we fully discussed and hammered out the content and aesthetics of workers’ theater. Film Wang was the first one who proposed the idea of workers’ theater. In the meeting of reviewing the development of the little theater in Taiwan (November 1987), Film Wang had proposed the concept of “handing workers the theater tools,” hoping to establish a theater whose subjects were workers.8 As a theater director, Wang Mo-lin passionately published “Declaration on Laborers’ Culture” in the culture section of the first issue of Labour News, the organizational papers of the party, claiming the birth of workers’ theater. He wished the party could spare no effort to build a “new cultural ideology serving the working class.”9

As for the experiment of workers’ theater, we could not wait to give it a try at the party named “A Night for Workers” to celebrate the establishment of the Labour Party.10 In line with the stand of workers’ theater—to reflect on “the true life of working people,” the theme of the party is to be surrounded by the life of working people. The band of Labour Party sang songs such as “United We Stand” and “All Peasants and Workers are a Family.” Poems reflecting the life of peasants and workers were recited. The Cloud, a spoken play, told a story about the female workers’ brave struggle. The highlight was the documentary drama titled Yan Kunquan: Worker, which displayed the endeavor Taiwanese workers had made.

The documentary drama about the labour dispute between Yan Kun-quan and Nan Ya Plastic was the prototype of the workers’ theater. What Film Wang suggested—“handing workers the theater tools”—required time to accumulate the cultural cultivation and the newly founded Labour Party could not realise the concept of making workers the main subject of the theater. Thus, Wang Molin could only define workers’ theater as “a testimony of the true life of working people at this time.”11

We gained experience from the documentary dramas produced previously such as Roar! Hanaoka! and A Historical Testimony of the 60th Anniversary of Taiwanese People’s Party. Moreover, we do realize that with this form of theater, instead of memorizing lines and relying on body language, actors recited the script on-site to lead the movement of the plot. That is to say, it did not necessarily require professional actors and everyone could be a participant in a drama right off the bat. As lecturers at school, Bao-yuan and I had never been on the stage, but with the encouragement of Da Chen, Film Wang, and Director Mo-lin, we gave our first theatrical performance in life. Other performers of this drama included Lu Si-yue, Film Wang, Wang Yong, etc.

Yan Kun-quan: A Worker started with the stage light off. Then the song “An Orphan Girl’s Wish” was played. It was a song to show the feelings of those village girls migrating to cities during the 1960s and 1970s when Taiwan’s economy flourished. At the center of the stage was the black-and-white slide show, which was composed of the photos the reporters of Ren Jian Magazine had taken to record the life of Taiwanese peasants, workers, female workers, and textile workers. With the narrator and sound effects, these photos presented the real-life condition of the Taiwanese working class. Through a massive number of photos lively taken on-site and testimonies, the theatrical performance of documentary theater was constructed, raising the first curtain of real and moving workers’ documentary drama.

Compared to Roar! Hanaoka! and A Historical Testimony of the 60th Anniversary of Taiwanese People’s Party, which mainly reflected history, the core of Yan Kunquan: A Worker was the reality in Taiwan; it mirrored the social issues happening in Taiwan at that time. As the performance of documentary theater utilized a considerable number of in-depth photos shot on-site and testimonies to compose the theatrical performance, it could accurately reflect the reality. In the movements, reacting to the social issues in time would mobilize the media more effectively and add the political appeal to serve the movements.

The Cloud, a Spoken Play with Dramatic Recitation: Chen Ying-zhen’s Interpretation of the Topic Related to Workers

The Cloud was a novel written by Chen Ying-zhen in 1980. The story was about the attempt of Zhang Wei-jie and a group of young female workers who organized the workers’ union to counter against a transnational corporation and fight for the rights of laborers. Da Chen performed this spoken play in person. In the opening remark, he stated that the performance was dedicated to the establishment of the Labour Party. He especially picked the last section of The Cloud to recite as his dedication. “Flowers Swaying in the Air” was also the most exciting part of the novel. It described the scene that to strive for their right, the workers mobilized everyone to vote in the storeroom but on the voting day the factory management representatives hindered the autonomous voting of the union and the female workers fought back bravely.

In February 1988 when Chiang Ching-kuo just passed away not even for a month, the two unions of Far Eastern Textile and Taoyuan Bus Company provoked the uprising, asking for the year-end bonus and reasonable working conditions. A series of strikes broke out for the first time in history. On 10 February 1988, the union of Far Eastern Textile had gotten the capitalists’ promise of the yearend bonus, winning the strike. They were overwhelmed by the victory right after the lifting of martial law, not knowing that the capitalists were seriously waiting for the timing to fight back. When Da Chen chose to present the story about workers’ failure in their struggle, I was not sure if he had been somber enough to see the strong force of the capitalist system, giving those who were immersed in the happiness of victory a wake-up call.

Summary

A variety of political issues and social movements took off rapidly after the lifting of martial law; the social energy oppressed for decades surged as a runaway horse. As the people who had read books of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, we finally had the chance to put our energy into practice. Exploring the meeting point between left-wing theater and the peasants as well as workers had always been the topics, we as the left-wing artists could not evade. It was also the conclusion for the exploration out of our ceaseless effort, practice, and action.

Because the demonstration was strictly forbidden before the lifting of martial law, people lacked the experience of organizing the street protests, so the antinuclear action theater at Lanyu took the lead, becoming the model of street protests in Taiwan. It also was the successful mark of left-wing artists’ combination of theater and social issues.

However, we clearly understood that it was a tiny step in the investigation of issues related to workers and peasants. The Workers Troupe was grouped in a hurry and just commenced to make some attempts at workers’ theater. Nevertheless, the Labour Party chose to regard the on-site movements as the main task and did not emphasize the effect of cultural practice in the labor movement. Later, due to the divide of the party, the formation and exploration of workers’ theater were suspended. The objective condition of executing further practice was stopped so workers’ theater could only be deserted on the corner of history.

Building the Left-wing Historiography, and Exposing as well as Critiquing the System Constructed by the Cold War and Martial Law after the War

Taiwan’s culture was constructed by martial law, a construction fostered by the structure of the Cold War and the Chinese Civil War. In this structure built by the Cold War and anti-communist martial law, America had been the learning model, be it the economic or cultural aspect, for the development of Taiwan though it was away from the nature of the land, the life and the people here. The belief in socialism was first purged by terrible means, which made Taiwan the frontline of the anti-communist base during the Cold War and developed a highly dependent system to America. Moreover, the Chinese Civil War brought martial law and a variety of restrictions, depriving people of their autonomy and cutting off as well as mutilating the people’s culture.

After cooperating with Ishitobi Jin, a participant of progressive Japanese theater, we sincerely sensed that we were estranged from our history due to the influence of the Cold War. Just like Japanese people, Taiwanese became the victims of the Cold War. During the Cold War, Taiwan was teamed with South Korea and Japan by America to resist the communist force from invading, which made it hard for Taiwan not only to be independent of Japan economically but also to criticize the history of Japanese militarism. That was why in the textbooks the history of that period became a missing part.

Thus, after discussing with us, Da Chen decided to keep up the effect of Roar! Hanaoka! to launch other documentary dramas. Enmei Tennō: The Life-prolonged Japanese Monarchy was about holding the Emperor of Japan accountable for the war and Song of the Covered Wagon was about the 1950s purge of the left-wing.

Enmei Tennō: The Life-prolonged Japanese Monarchy: A documentary Drama Holding the Emperor of Japan Accountable for the War

Enmei Tennō: The Life-prolonged Japanese Monarchy started from Japan’s responsibility for the war crime, discussing “the relationship of the Japanese monarchy system and Asian historical development.” Ishitobi Jin, a Japanese writer with a conscience, had devoted himself to “Theater of Fact.” By this form, he pondered “from the perspective of historical fact the reason why after the war Japanese only asked the western countries to be responsible for what they had done to Japan but never considered to shoulder the war crime they attribute to Asia in general” (Wang 1988b).

From the perspective of the people, Ishitobi’s criticism of the Japanese monarchy system and militarism created this drama. Through this drama, Ishitobi provided his reflection on the intertwining history of the relationship between postwar Japan and Asia. He sincerely pointed out “Taiwanese people, as well as Japanese people, were alienated from their people’s history. It was the sacrifice in the Cold War structure.”

Da Chen not only translated the script for Enmei Tennō: The Life-prolonged Japanese Monarchy (Ishitobi 1988) but also played a role in this drama. Da Chen’s voice was solid and expressive, suitable for reciting the documentary drama. It took a long time to rehearse, from morning to evening, often to midnight, but Da Chen was still engaged in it persistently. During the rehearsal, he would continuously discuss the meanings the script intended to express with us. The script was the creation of Ishitobi, and our friends from Japan also joined the crew. As for the cast, four people from different generations and professional fields as the representatives of Taiwanese participated in the performance to learn about and to explore this history: Da Chen, Li Huan-Xiong, and Lin Yue-hui from Rive-Gauche Theatre Group, and I, a Taiwanese history researcher. By crossing the politicized modern history of China and Japan, again we worked together to look for the starting point which divided our people.

The performance not only let the audience know this history but also turned the performers into the people who conversed with both reality and history through their reading and reciting materials related to this history. As a lecturer and professional researcher on modern history, I had participated in the production of documentary theater, and a series of memorial events; the process was like receiving a set of challenges to my understanding. The experience helped me to skip the simplified historiography of anti-Japanese/counter-Japanese colonialism and to re-approach the way to face the history of the people’s divide in Taiwan in the Cold War structure.

A Drama with the Historical Testimony: Raising the Flag of Socialism and Reinvestigating the White Terror in the 1950s

In March 1989, the Labor Party (here refers to Laodongdang) was founded. The party came up with a slogan for the election of the year: “This sad Taiwanese society needs a socialist party to balance it” and elected four candidates from the Socialist Alliance and the Labour Party. They claimed to make a genuinely democratic and equal society in Taiwan with socialism. It was the first time in the 40 years “socialism” publicly appeared as a political agenda in Taiwan. On 24 October the Labor Party held a campaign rally for Wang Jin-ping, its representative candidate running for Taipei City Mayor, at the auditorium of Datong District Office, Taipei City. In the activity of revisiting the White Terror in the 1950s, both Chen Ying-zhen and Prof. Wang Xiao-bo gave speeches which were respectively entitled “Bring Justice for a Flooded History” and “Socialism and Taiwan: On the White Terror in the 1950s.” At the same time, Ren Jian People’s Theatre organized by Chen Ying-zhen, Wang Mo-lin, Lan Bo-zhou, Zhong Qiao, Fan Zhen-guo, and Han Jia-ling presented a documentary drama called Song of the Covered Wagon. Lan Bo-zhou as the playwright and Wang Mo-lin as the director set the background of Song of the Covered Wagon in the 1950s, revisiting the purge of the left-wing. The protagonist Zhong Hao-dong was the principal of National Keelung Senior High School in the 1950s when the purges of the communist party prevailed in Taiwan. Zhong fell as one of the victims and calmly accepted the execution. In the performance, Fan Chen-kuo played the KMT executioner, holding a gun to execute Wang Mo-lin, who played the role of Zhong Hao-dong. Wang chose to blindfold his eyes with red clothes whose color symbolized the sacrificed members of the left-wing during the White Terror.

Summary

The 1980s was a controversial period. The source of the controversies was overall related to how Taiwanese history was understood. Different historiographies, of course, involved different ideologies. Thus, if history was not viewed in a dialectical way, the single-faced history would be produced, especially the anti-communist historiography in the Cold War structure where the left wing’s emphasis on the people and effort of going against capitalism, imperialism, colonialism was muted. Thus, on the occasion of the Shōwa Tennō’s death, we, the Taiwanese left-wing also needed to hold the Emperor liable for the war crime, which allows, not only Taiwanese but also people in Asia to see the fact that this Fascism war had not ended. We are now still affected by the Cold War, and we need to set off from this point to make our investigation into the war crime of militarism. Besides Enmei Tennō: The Life-prolonged Japanese Monarchy, we need to extend our inquiry into the history of how the anti-communist regime persecuted the Taiwanese left-wing movement after the war. To bring back the history to the people is the function of people’s theater.

From the Inner to the Outer: Develop the Cultural Battlefront of the Progressive Force

Since 1986, the staff of Ren Jian Magazine had explored the possibility of the left-wing theater in Taiwan and facilitated its movement to unite the cultural battlefront. Although the effort for popularizing workers’ theater was not enough, the development of documentary theater and action theater was concrete. The achievement from the two combined the left-wing cultural theories with its practice, pointing out a road from the inner to the outer. Besides the circle of Ren Jian Magazine, it touched upon more people with extensive influence.

The Descendants of the Man Shooting Down the Suns: The Documentary Drama Representing the Wushe Uprising

The Wushe Uprising happened under Japanese colonial rule, and 1990 was the 60th anniversary of the violent crackdown on Taiwanese indigenous people. The Wushe Uprising was the tragic epic of Taiwanese indigenous people’s resistance against Japanese rule. It was an important historical material for people to know the cruel exploitation and pillage of Japanese militarism from Taiwan. After producing the documentary dramas such as A Historical Testimony of the 60th Anniversary of Taiwanese People’s Party and In Memorial of the 61st Anniversary of the First General Congress of Taiwan Peasants Union, we understood the contagious effect of a historical testimony as a form of performance, which for us was also the most familiar form of people’s theater. Thus, on the 60th anniversary of the Wushe Uprising, we again took the advantage of documentary theater to facilitate the conversation between Taiwanese people and Taiwanese history.

There were two performances for The Descendants of the Man Shooting Down the Suns, the documentary drama of the Wushe Uprising. One was chosen to be performed at Audio-Visual Educational Center of National Taiwan University in Taipei on 26 October 1990, the eve of the Wushe Uprising after 60 years; the other was presented at the historical site before the Wushe Incident Monument at Nantou on 27 October 1990, the 60th anniversary of the Wushe Uprising.

The performance this time, though staged in the name of Taiwanese People’s Culture Studio, was not an inner activity by the members of Ren Jian Magazine. It opened for the members of NTU Fertile Eggs and avant-garde Rive-Gauche Theatre Group, who had participated in Roar! Hanaoka!. To make it more influential, we recruited more young theatrical participants to work with us. We hoped that this sort of cooperation would make participants in the avant-garde little theater know more about documentary theater. This form of theater belongs to the people, and it will enhance the cultural battlefront from the inner circle to the larger and public areas to accept the challenge in the reality.

The working staff of The Descendants of the Man Shooting Down the Suns included Chen Ying-zhen, Ming Li-guo and Guan Xiao-rong, the consultants; Zhu Gao-zheng, the patron; Zhong Qiao, the producer; Wang Molin, the planner; Lan Bo-zhou, the young writer of Ren Jian Magazine as the playwright; Li Huan-xiong, the director. As for me, though being a layman of theater, I was still appointed as a stage manager due to my previous participation in logistic support and general affairs. As a history researcher, my duty was to turn the historical photos of the Wushe Uprising into slides and to assist the young participants of avant-garde theater to be familiar with this history. Before the performance, Mo-lin, Huan-hsiung’s team, and I even visited Wushe to collect related information and interviewed the elders in the tribes. Qiu Ruo-long, the cartoonist, also made a well-designed poster for The Descendants of the Man Shooting Down the Suns in person.

Ironic Tribute: Taiwanese History in Three Hundred Years, a Political Drama Reflecting on Taiwanese History

Another example of creating space in the reality for the progressive cultural battlefront was the first tent theater in Taiwan. From 25 to 28 August 1989, Ironic Tribute: Taiwanese History in Three Hundred Years took place at a deserted sand field at Shezi, Shilin District. It was planned by Wang Mo-lin, directed by Tian Qi-yuan, and performed by the Critical Point Theater Phenomenon. A tent commonly used for the folk occasions such as weddings and funerals in Taiwanese society was temporarily pitched at the deserted sand field at Shilin as the stage; a man-made stage of people’s theater was fully built. The use of the tent was the influence from Japan where Wang Mo-lin had appreciated the tenet theater of Sakurai Daizō, a theatrical participant against the institution. After returning to Taiwan, Wang carried out this experiment of heterogeneous space with the Critical Point Theater Phenomenon.

The participants of the Critical Point Theater Phenomenon were a group of young people in their 20s. They worked on the performance of avant-garde little theater, suspecting the myth of “economic miracle” after the 1970s in Taiwan of gaining the economic benefit from sacrificing culture and the proper development of a healthy society. Thus, they wished to re-examine the history to rethink what the national identity was.

Wang Mo-lin contacted me in early 1989, hoping a history scholar like me could shoulder the heavy responsibility to connect the younger generations to history. Out of curiosity, I organized a weekly study group with those young students for six months. After six-month preparation, Critical Point Theater Phenomenon successfully performed Ironic Tribute: Taiwanese History in Three Hundred Years at the deserted sand field of Shezi.

A City of Sadness in Real Life: A Political Documentary Drama Worked Together by the Labor and Student Movements

Since his time as a high school teacher, Lu Si-yue had joined Lukang Residents’ Anti-DuPont Movement. Moreover, Lu took charge of the Taichung labor services center under China Tide and the Labor Party (Laodongdang) with Zhong Xiu-mei’s assistance. Besides labor and peasant movements, contacting the dissident clubs of university students in central areas of Taiwan was also the task of the center.

Deeply influenced by Ren Jian Magazine, Shi Wei-quan established Ren Jian Workshop at Tunghai University. In 1989, A City of Sadness received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and went viral in Taiwan. However, the way Hou Xiao-xian, the director, represented the White Terror in the 1950s was quite obscure, which inspired Ren Jian Workshop to produce A City of Sadness in Real Life. In the form of documentary theater, they prerecorded the materials and showed the slides on stage with the recording. Based on the oral history of the White Terror victims such as Lin Zhi-jie, which had been published in Ren Jian Magazine, the play also was accompanied by sound effects and recorded dialogues such as the sound of chains produced when a prisoner on death row was taken to the executing site in prison, the conversation between the judges and political prisoners, etc. It also inserted the film soundtrack of A City of Sadness as well as “R.I.P. Songs” which were played when the left-wing political prisoners were left to be executed.

As the major participants of the production, the college students actively involving in the social movement were organized by Lu Si-yue and trained by Wang Mo-lin. They extended the basic idea of Song of the Covered Wagon, producing A City of Sadness in Real Life as a documentary drama in “their own formality,” which referred to the prerecording radio drama, the slide show, and the sound effects.

A City of Sadness in Real Life was a successful performance, fully displaying the essence of min jian (civil society) and the people. The documentary theater did not require strict drama formality and professional talents. With some reminders, the people could make it on their own.

Summary

After Ren Jian Magazine ceased publication, the base of our activity was also transferred, from the inner circle to the utter ones. At the end of the 1980s, the left-wing culture battlefront which had been the concern of Chen Ying-zhen was formed. The participants included not only the staff of Ren Jian Magazine but also young people from the student clubs and the little theater. Along with the path of documentary theater and action theater, the diverse participation gave birth to different theatrical forms whose themes explored social or political issues.

The Descendants of the Man Shooting Down the Suns was produced by Taiwanese People’s Culture Studio, which was mainly made up of staff in Ren Jian Magazine, NTU Fertile Eggs, and avant-garde Rive-Gauche Theatre Group. Ironic Tribute: Taiwanese History in Three Hundred Years was the sharp reflection of Taiwanese history from the young participants from the Critical Point Theater Phenomenon. A City of Sadness in Real Life was the achievement of the selforganized college students from the progressive clubs in the middle part of Taiwan. The three performances mentioned above have demonstrated the effort of the Ren Jian Magazine with the leading figure, Da Chen, to open up the culture battlefront and to cultivate a progressive group of artists.

Chen Ying-zhen’s Contribution to People’s Theater in Taiwan

After Ren Jian Magazine ceased publication, Chen Ying-zhen through his Korean friends sent Zhong Qiao, a graduate from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, who had taken charge of a magazine editor, to “People’s Theater— Trainers’ Training Workshop” in Korea in 1990. After his return, Zhong shared his observation in Da Chen’s office in Ren Jian Publishing with Chen and other coworkers. Since 1986, Ren Jian Magazine had explored how to popularize theater and the practice of people’s theater in social movements, and we should gather the experience to create a platform that was similar to the people’s theater in Korea. After our discussion, the Taiwanese People’s Culture Studio was founded, and its base was in Ren Jian Publishing. The members at that time included Wang Molin, Lin Bao-yuan, Zhong Qiao, Guan Xiao-rong, Li Wen-ji, Lan Bo-zhou and others.12 We wished to form a society that could fight in cultural battles. However, different reasons failed this wish, and the team did not form eventually.

Recalling this history right at this moment, we can regard Taiwanese People’s Culture Studio, founded after Ren Jian Magazine ceasing to publish, as Chen Yingzhen’s turn to left-wing culture battlefront after Ren Jian Magazine. This, of course, has something to do with Da Chen’s observation of the new left-wing student movement in Korea in the 1980s. In my opinion, it is more like his response to his conclusion in the article titled “Toward a New Departure in Modernism” in Theater Magazine in the 1970s (Xu 1965) from his perspective in the 1990s.

In the late 1990s, it was widely spread that people’s theater was an imported form of theater in the Taiwanese theatrical circle. However, the fact is that since the early 1980s, the local people’s theater has been constructed through social practice and development, but this history is forgotten and various “foreign discourses” deprive it of its right to speak.

Before and after 1986, the year when the martial law was being lifted, Taiwanese society anxiously wanted to get rid of the 38-year-long oppression of martial law. Thus, democracy became the embodiment of a variety of desires for spiritual liberation. Society was full of the common irritation and blind impulses, which were intermingled with the demand of reforming the political system, hence becoming the confusing force.

The left-wing movement rising in the 1980s used to play a fierce and essential role among different social forces asking for reform. However, at present, this leftwing force gradually slows down.

Why the vigorous left-wing culture teams that once were active in various social movements could not produce new motivation at this new stage? The following factors are the explanation of mine:

(1) In the process of a movement, because those who are engaged in it will always need to handle the sudden problems, everyone is in overly excited phases, to be working on the tasks they are organizing. This status does not grant them the time to ponder calmly, to develop an effective strategy, and to conclude more concrete problems to converse with the reality.

(2) After the left-wing parties were founded, the center of social movements moved to the election. When the election creates a valid result of the democratic movement, the promotion of the cultural battlefront will be neglected.

(3) The dramatic change of Eastern Europe in 1989, a series of disintegration of the communist force from Poland to the Soviet Union, has seriously damaged the socialist movement worldwide. Especially when capitalism forcefully promotes the idea of globalization, neoliberalism becomes the mainstream belief, and individualism driven by consumption prevails, the reflection on the social reality emphasized by the left-wing movements is then replaced.

(4) The discourse of “the left versus the right” rising in the 1980s has been turned into another dichotomy, i.e., the fight between the pro-unification and pro-independence parties because of the transition of power since the 1990s. Culturally, a considerable number of populist materials have been produced; political correctness replaces the discussion on realism in Taiwanese society. The more opposite and dichotomous the pro-unification and pro-independence parties are, the vaguer the viewpoints of the left and the right get.

In the history of the Taiwan Little Theater Movement in the 1980s, the documentary theater, action theater, and people’s theater constructed a meaningful context that served as a linkage between the past and future in the promotion of the left-wing theater. Although the contemporary theater has stepped on its path to commercialization, bringing up the context of left-wing theater again and facing the complete transformation make the memories even more precious.

References

  • “Celebrate the New Year at Lanyu with a play: Anti-nuclear Documentary Theater is Ready 搬一齣戲到蘭嶼過年去反核報告劇準備就緒.” 1988.《民生報》 [Min Sheng Bao], February 15.
  • “Debut of Action Theater: An interview with Wang Mo-lin 行動劇場的處女秀，訪問墨林.” 1998. 《民眾日報》[Commons Daily], February 25.
  • “General Congress of Taiwan Peasants Union 台灣農民組合全島大會.” 1927. Taiwan People News, December 11.
  • Han, Jia Ling 韓嘉玲. 1988. 〈台灣農民組合（1925-1927年）〉 [Taiwan Peasants Union from 1925 to 1927]. In 《台灣史研究會論文集》 [Taiwan Historical Research], vol. 1, 235-282. Taipei: 台灣史研究會 [Taiwan Historical Research Society].
  • Han, Jia Ling 韓嘉玲. 1990. 〈簡吉與台灣農民組合〉 [Jian Ji and Taiwan Peasants Union]. In 《台灣史研究會論文集》 [Taiwan Historical Research], vol. 2, 189-212. Taipei: 台灣史研究會 [Taiwan Historical Research Society].
  • Han, Jia Ling 韓嘉玲. 2006. 《播種集：日據時期台灣農民運動人物誌》 [The Album of Sowing: People in Taiwan Peasant Movements]. Taipei: CGCH Foundation for Education.
  • Ishitobi, Jin. 1988. 〈延命天皇〉 [Enmei Tennō: The Life-prolonged Japanese Monarchy]. Translated by Ying-zhen Chen. Ren Jian Magazine (July): 169-177.
  • Wang, Mo-lin. 1986. “The Weeping found in Historical Fault Lines: My Participation of the Live Performance of a Documentary Theater Related to Hanaoka Incident.” Ren Jian Magazine (August): 24-33.
  • Wang, Mo-lin. 1988a. “Declaration on Labourers’ Culture.” Labour News, February 27.
  • Wang, Mo-lin. 1988b. “The Cyclone of Ishitobi Jin.” Ren Jian Magazine (August): 147-152.
  • Wang, Mo-lin. 1993. “From ‘Third Cinema’ to ‘Action Theater’: Film Wang’s Reflection on the Theater.” Isle Margin 7: 92-95.
  • Xu, Nan-cun [Chen Ying-zhen]. 1965. “Toward a New Departure in Modernism: Thoughts on the Recent Production of Waiting for Godot.” Theater Magazine, December 31.

 

  1. The first draft of this article was finished on 10 March 2017. It was titled “Historical Steps of People’s Theater in Taiwan” for “Whips and Lanterns: A Seminar on Chen Ying-zhen’s Literature and Thoughts,” held by Xiamen University in memory of Chen Ying-zhen (17-20 March 2017). Based on the draft, this article was revised after adding some supplements and finalized on 3 September 2018. Under the title “The Rise of People’s Theater with the Leftwing Culture in the 1980s,” it was published in Taiwan in Reflexion, vol. 36, December 2018. In the workshop “Where the People Are…” the submitted paper was revised on the basis of the published one.
    Translator’s note: At the request of the author, all the names in this article are spelled according to the Hanyu Pinyin system. In case of any confusion, please see the glossary for more information.
  1. My papers related to the Taiwan Peasants Union are as follows: Han (1988, 1990). Afterwards, I organised the recorded interviews and published them under the title of The Album of Sowing: People in Taiwan Peasant Movements (2006).
  2. On 4 December China Tide Association and the Taiwan Area Association for Political Victims Mutual Aid organized an activity titled “Passing Down the 60-year History of Taiwanese Peasant Movement: A Commemoration of the 61st Anniversary of the First General Congress of Taiwan Peasants Union.”
  3. The details related to the documentary dramas about workers will be shown in the next section.
  4. Sugar industry was the important cash crops for Japan to become one of the members of imperialism. Thus, since Japan occupied Taiwan, the sugar industry had been developed with full attention. The Government-General of Taiwan issued “Taiwan sugar business encouragement rules” offering sugar companies the privilege of gaining free land, techniques and funding. To monopolize the sugar industry and control the raw material, different means of protection were set. Among those, “The system of gathering sugar cane area origins” was denounced the most. Other unreasonable phenomena prevailed. For example, when it came to the buying price, the level and the weight of sugar cane were the unilateral decision of the companies; it turned out to be the exploitation of peasants in another way. “The Erlin Incident,” the first Taiwanese peasant movement, broke out under such circumstances. Sugar companies often used inaccurate scales to weigh the sugar cane. Thus, in Taiwanese villages, there was a joke called “Three Hosei Weighing 48 KG,” referring to the severe issue of corruption of the sugar companies. The phrase literally meant that even three Hosei (the position set during the Japanese colonial time to supervise Taiwanese under the Baojia system, similar to the chief of a village nowadays) standing on the scale used by the companies would only weigh 80 catties (48 kilograms).
  5. After Film Wang passed away, Wang Mo-lin (1993) wrote an article in memory of Film. Film’s viewpoint in the meeting can be seen in Wang’s article. Besides, the record of that meeting was later organized as a manuscript by Lin Bao-yuan. Here it is tentatively called “A Manuscript of Reviewing Little Theater Movement in Taiwan,” and the manuscript was provided by Wang and Lin.
  6. Translator’s note: the action was recorded and later made into a documentary titled Rip the Evil Out of Orchid Island (1988). In order to distinguish the action from the documentary, the action theater here used the title of Dispel Orchid Island’s Evil Spirit.
  7. Translator’s note: here the Labour Party (Gongdang) refers to the one founded in 1987. The Labor Party (Laodongdang) nowadays is the one separating from Gongdang and founded on 29 March 1989.
  8. See Note 5.
  9. See the fourth section of Labour’s culture in Wang (1988a).
  10. On 27 February 1988, Labour Party held a party named “A Night for Workers” at Tien Cultural Foundation in Taipei to celebrate the founding of the party.
  11. See the fourth section of Labour’s culture in Wang (1988a).
  12. Film Wang in Ren Jian Magazine was the one actively exploring the possibility of people’s theater. After the division of the Labour Party, he got less engaged in the social movement. Film passed away in 1992 due to illness. Lu Si-yue served as a journalist of Taiwan Times after March 1990; afterwards, he got promoted to be the leader of the political section so gradually retreated from the activities of China Tide system. Fan Zhen-guo had been busy at the party affairs since the establishment of the Labor Party (Laodongdang), leaving the culture battlefront. I was admitted to the PhD program of the Department of History in Peking University in the fall of 1990, preparing to pursue further study. In January 1991, I left for Beijing. Before departure, except for the preparation of The Descendants of the Man Shooting Down the Suns in the name of Taiwanese People’s Culture Studio, I participated in no further activities.