Lin Hwai-min (林懷民, Lín Huáimín), choreographer and founder of Taiwan's world-renowned Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) group, last week delivered a speech in Chinese and Taiwanese Hokkien at National Taiwan University (NTU), to a packed auditorium on the first floor of the Liberal Education Classroom Building (博雅館). The speech, sponsored by the NTU Center for the Arts, was titled Physical Liberation: Images, Memories, and Portrait of the Families (肉身解嚴 ─ 圖像．記憶．家族合唱). He discussed the upcoming revival of his 1997 show, Portrait of the Families (家族合唱), history, and politics.
According to Time Magazine, "Taiwan's Lin Hwai-min has become one of Asia's most highly acclaimed choreographers, pioneering the genre of Chinese contemporary dance. His pieces incorporate striking imagery from diverse aspects of Chinese culture, including classic literature and Taiwanese history." ICLP students who have completed Learning Chinese with Newspapers 1 also know that he is a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, considered by some to be Asia's Nobel Prize.
In his speech, Lin talked about the upcoming revival of his show, Portrait of the Families (家族合唱). He used historical photos that were the inspiration for the show to share reflections on Taiwan, past and present. He opened with a discussion of how different nationalities, for example Japan and France, have different colors that are parts of themselves, and that these colors come not from the palettes of artists but from the palette of daily life. He then asked, what color should represent Taiwan? It was this question, which had confused him as a young man, that prompted him to choreograph Portrait of the Families.
Hearing no consensus from the audience in response to his question, he went on to show the audience several representative works of famous Taiwanese artists, and asked the audience to consider the question again. The artwork, he said, allows us to become familiar with the face (臉) of Taiwanese. He said in the past he believed this conception of Taiwanese nationality was blurry, due to the influence of politics. Lin said that as he was searching for the face of Taiwanese, he frenziedly started to gather the old photographs that became the inspiration for his upcoming show.
He then used photos to show how standards of beauty, particularly for women, have changed over time, and are creations of the media. He showed a black and white photo of a bookstore selling Beethoven posters, contrasting the market demand for that in the past with today's desire for posters of pop stars. He also showed a black and white photo that depicted a group of high school friends, with their Taiwanese names romanized based on Japanese pronunciation on their school jackets.
He also showed photos from 228 and the White Terror era, and said what is important about history is how people lived, and said that he hopes his upcoming show can serve to help heal the wounds Taiwanese people have received due to past political oppression. He also said that through creating Portrait of the Families, he healed himself. He said that although martial law was abolished in 1987, the impact of martial law on people's hearts dissipated much more slowly. As an artist, he said he created the show for Taiwan in the hopes that it can help achieve the liberation of people's hearts. Through this dance, he said, he was able to cast off the shadows of the past, and now feels unrestricted and able to freely create new works in the future without being influenced by unfortunate historical events of the past, and that Cloud Gate can go on to be a modern dance group that truly has the ability to influence worldwide standards. He said he hopes the revival can play until people who see it don't cry -- still have feelings, but don't cry.
Lin said governments in Taiwan, from the Japanese colonial era to modern times, have all tried to reshape history. He emphasized the importance of history, saying, we can't forget that Taiwan is an ever-changing place full of typhoons and earthquakes, and asked what can offer us a stable lens through which to view Taiwan. His answer? "I think it's history. I think it's history."
He concluded by urging students to engage in discussion with politicians during the upcoming election season. When politicians try to pump up a crowd and urge audience members to join them in shouting assent, he urged students to do the opposite. Roughly translated, he said, "Tell them no. Because it should be a dialogue."