Arts to the countryside
The Taichung Arts Festival adhered to the principle of “maintaining a natural state and touching the heart,” and highlighted the performances of local artists and their innovative creativity in both form and essence. The ten-day festival included more than 200 performances, including landscape arts, parades, dance, exhibits, music, street performers, markets and cultural events.
Wang also persuaded world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma to perform at the festival, causing a sensation and providing the perfect capstone to the series of performances. “In the beginning we lacked adequate funding and only 28% of Taichung residents were aware of the festival, but later the festival registered an 87% approval rating,” Wang says proudly. “It was a real shot in the arm!”
The next year’s Taichung Arts Festival was originally also planned for ten days, but in the end was extended to two-and-a-half months. Festivities covered the whole city: performances were even held in high-altitude Lishan and Guguan. Henceforth, the festival became a symbol of the city.
The decade-old Taichung Children’s Arts Festival has also expanded since Wang became the director of the Cultural Affairs Bureau. From its original location at the Calligraphy Greenway it now spans across Taichung’s municipal districts. Aside from fostering an approachable performance atmosphere, the festival hopes to promote cultural equality, expose children in the city’s outlying districts to artistic performances and bring the arts closer to the people.
Moreover, for the annual Taichung Jazz Festival, this year in its 14th iteration, the organizers have arranged for a special series of events called “Jazz City Awakening” to cultivate an exclusive connection between jazz music and Taichung and infuse jazz into daily life. Jazz strains will echo from spots all over the city, from the traffic lights and train stations to the coffee shops at the harbor, calling forth the spirit of jazz throughout Taichung and making it part of the city’s fabric.
Taichung’s old City Hall, built in the baroque style during the Japanese colonial period, is rich in historical significance. In the future it will house a museum that will help reconstruct the city’s cultural DNA.