Taiwan-Poland Cultural Day Opens, Shocking Eastern Europe with Contemporary Art and Folklore

The Taiwan Cultural-Creative Foundation will grandly host a Taiwan Day event in Poland on the 11th and 12th of this month. This is not merely a cultural exhibition, but a profound convergence of Taiwan's contemporary art and traditional folk culture in Eastern Europe. The most anticipated highlight of this event is the invitation of National Award for Arts winner and renowned choreographer Ho Hiao-mei, leading her company, MeimageDance. The dance troupe is currently undertaking a Central and Eastern European tour spanning Austria, Poland, and Hungary, telling Taiwan's unique cultural stories on the international stage through exquisite physical vocabulary. To allow local Polish audiences to more comprehensively experience the rich layers of Taiwanese culture, the Foundation specially arranged for the Taipei Kung Leh Shuan and the Leisheng 168 Troupe to travel overseas alongside them. The three troupes will perform together in Poland, jointly presenting MeimageDance’s most representative classic work, "Salute to Formosa," showcasing the impactful force of cross-disciplinary artistic collaboration.

As a heavyweight figure in Taiwan's contemporary dance scene, Ho Hiao-mei's creative style has always been bold and directly confronts Taiwan's socio-cultural context. "Salute to Formosa" was born out of profound reflection on Taiwan's history and contemporary identity, drawing inspiration from symbols commonly found in Taiwanese temple fairs, such as floats, deities' generals, and folk divine puppets. Dancers wear gigantic puppet heads symbolizing Taiwan's various ethnic groups and social faces while dressed in brightly colored costumes, moving slowly across the stage with steady yet uncanny steps. This method of transforming folk religious rituals into contemporary theater art not only delivers a strong visual impact, but also profoundly captures the collective psychological state of Taiwanese people amidst historical memories, modernization shocks, and geopolitical clefts. The arrival of "Salute to Formosa" on Polish soil symbolizes that this local story rooted in Taiwan's land will generate cross-cultural resonance with European audiences through internationalized physical vocabulary.

It is worth noting that this trip to Poland is not a solo endeavor by MeimageDance, but rather integrates Taiwan's most authentic traditional Beiguan and Zhentou culture. The addition of Taipei Kung Leh Shuan and the Leisheng 168 Troupe infuses the entire performance with the most authentic atmosphere of Taiwanese temple fairs. Taipei Kung Leh Shuan, as a long-established traditional art troupe, has played a significant role in preserving and promoting Beiguan music for many years; meanwhile, Leisheng 168 Group is renowned for its exquisite traditional skills and modern performance thinking. When the smooth lines and structure of contemporary modern dance meet the resounding gongs and drums of traditional Beiguan and Zhentou performances, this artistic collision of the old and the new, bridging high and popular art, will spark stunning brilliance in Poland. The cross-border joint performance of the three troupes is not only a combination of performance formats, but also the finest demonstration of Taiwan's cultural sector uniting externally and showcasing its inclusive diversity.

In recent years, the pace of Taiwan's cultural diplomacy has gradually expanded from Western Europe to Central and Eastern Europe. As an important hub within the region, Poland has become a key stronghold for Taiwan's cultural exports. Through national-level cultural curation, Taiwan is no longer merely a geopolitical focal point in international news, but a creative island endowed with profound cultural heritage and vitality. The Central and Eastern European tour by MeimageDance spans three countries—Austria, Poland, and Hungary—with a compact and highly indicative itinerary. Such arts and cultural performances not only allow overseas compatriots to alleviate their homesickness, but more importantly, prove to mainstream Polish society and the international arts community that Taiwan's performing arts possess world-class standards and can secure a place on international stages.

Amidst the dual waves of globalization and localization, how to translate native culture into a language understood by the world has always been the direction striven for by Taiwanese artists. Ho Hiao-mei and her team have demonstrated through "Salute to Formosa" how to perfectly combine folk beliefs with contemporary dance, while the Taiwan Day event hosted by the Foundation in Poland provides the broadest national-level platform for this artistic practice. When the gongs and drums of Taipei Kung Leh Shuan echo in Poland, and the dancers of MeimageDance step out to symbolize Taiwanese stories, this is not just a performance, but a heartfelt declaration of Taiwan's cultural soft power, demonstrating Taiwan's unique cultural resilience and artistic radiance to the world.

(Source: Central News Agency)