Cloud Gate's Wanderer Project Announces 20th Cohort for 60-Day Journeys

The Cloud Gate Dance Theatre Foundation's "Wanderers Project," a major cultural and arts event, officially announced its 20th final list of recipients today. Following a rigorous selection process, four outstanding young individuals from different fields stood out this year: documentary photographer Feng Mozheng, wildlife veterinarian Shi Wei, young traditional opera actor Tsai Yu-lun, and theater practitioner Wang Pin-guo. These four idealistic and proactive young people will soon depart for their chosen destinations to embark on a journey of deep exploration and self-discovery lasting at least sixty days. Over the years, this project has continuously supported Taiwan's new generation of talent, inspiring creators' life experiences and artistic energy through long-distance grand tours and immersion in different cultures, while injecting a steady stream of vitality into Taiwan's cultural ecosystem.

Looking back at the historical context of the Wanderers Project, it is a grant program initiated in 2008 by Lin Hwai-min, the founder of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, who personally donated a portion of his royalties. Over the years, the core spirit of the project has remained unchanged: encouraging young creators and professionals under the age of thirty with high potential to bravely step away from their daily routines and comfort zones, heading to other Asian countries for travel in the form of backpacking or walking. The project not only provides travel subsidies, but more importantly, gives young people an opportunity to face unknown environments, challenge their own limits, and re-examine their professional positioning and life values through deep dialogue with different cultures and people. For twenty years, the Wanderers Project has become a benchmark dream incubator in the hearts of Taiwan's young art workers, with many past awardees shining brightly in their respective professional fields after experiencing this baptism.

The four young recipients selected this year come from diverse backgrounds and are highly representative, covering documentary photography, nature conservation, traditional opera, and contemporary theater. First is documentary photographer Feng Mozheng, who has long focused on social and humanistic issues, capturing the true face of the era through her lens. Being selected this year, she will take her camera abroad to deepen the breadth and depth of her visual storytelling. Second is wildlife veterinarian Shi Wei, who bridges natural sciences and practical field environments. He will extend his professional perspective into a broader ecosystem, attempting to find new answers in the coexistence between humans, animals, and nature. Next is young traditional opera actor Tsai Yu-lun, who is dedicated to the inheritance and innovation of traditional aesthetics and shoulders the mission of the contemporary translation of traditional art. This journey is expected to bring completely new cultural stimuli to his physical movements and performance connotation. Finally, there is theater practitioner Wang Pin-guo, active in contemporary spaces, who will seek creative inspiration and the possibilities of cross-disciplinary performance in foreign theaters and living scenes.

The sixty-day journey about to be undertaken by these four youths is a profound rite of passage for them personally, and holds long-term indicative significance for Taiwan's overall arts and professional communities. In today's fast-paced, information-laden era that demands instant gratification, the "slow movement" and "deep residency" advocated by the Wanderers Project appear particularly precious. Participants must live independently in environments without established itineraries or comfortable accommodations, facing language barriers, cultural shocks, and the test of loneliness. Such substantive field research and collision of lives often break frameworks, prompting creators to transform these precious nutrients into works with local care and a global vision upon returning to Taiwan, thereby giving back to the domestic arts environment and the general public.

With the announcement of the 20th cohort, the Wanderers Project also welcomes a historically significant milestone. Over the past twenty years, countless young people have stepped abroad with the support of this project, measuring the world with their feet and recording the times with their eyes. The Cloud Gate Foundation stated that in the future, it will continue to gather goodwill and resources from all sectors of society to accompany more ambitious youths on journeys to explore the unknown. The departure of these four new "wanderers" represents not only the practice of personal dreams, but also symbolizes the continuation of the Taiwanese youth generation's curiosity and courage toward the world. All sectors are eagerly awaiting how these young people, after returning home, will transform more than sixty days of foreign customs and spiritual agitation into abundant fruits nourishing Taiwan's cultural soil.