"The horse is coming!" Groom Chiu Yi-tsan, attired in a short black shirt, is fluidly pulling in the reins with both hands. Chiu Chao's Kuan Kung, riding the legendary swift horse Chih-tu-ma, eyes wide open, grabs the horse's head and swings it up and down. At the sound of the drum, the groom heaps into the air, does a leg split, and comes down sitting firmly on the ground. The drumming comes to an abrupt halt, and all you can hear in the frozen air is the sound of the groom breathing. Members of the troupe rush over to pull off the groom's left stilt. The drum suddenly breaks in again, and, with a clap of the hands, the groom pulls himself up onto one stilt, holding the reins.

With the audience calling out, "Bravo!" this excerpt "Kuan Kung Reining In His Horse" from the drama "Kuan Kung Protects His Sister-in-Law" won the first prize in the First Annual Taiwan Province Folk Arts Competition for the Chiu Family Stilt Troupe, from Chung-chow in Tainan.

Of all the Chen-t'ou in a procession, the one that takes the most skill is undoubtedly stilts. Some, like the "Bull Fight" or "Emperor Wen Wang Pulling the Cart," often can be performed without even a week of training. It takes ten days to two weeks just to learn how to stand up on stilts, and if you add in the actions, it usually takes more than two months to get proficient. "Even then it depends on the person. If you're a steady person inside, then you can stay steady on stilts. But if you're timid, then the more afraid you get the harder it gets to learn. Some people study for a month, and you still have to prop them up!" says Chiu Wen-chung, director of the Chiu Family Troupe. But no matter how courageo us one is, falling is part of the baptism that all beginners must passthrough. Even Chiu Yi-tsan, an old hand at 24 who has been studying since age 1 2, fell and injured his leg in a recent performance because a stilt snapped.

As stilts go, a long one runs about 150 centimeters, and a short one about 100, and one weighs between 4 and 6 kilos. During the activities, never mind high-degree-of-difficulty stuff like leg splits and standing on one stilt, just walking around all day is tough enough. So most of the guys quickly sit down to rest their legs whenever they come across one of the surrounding walls, because they can't just sit on the ground like everybody else.

"Stilts aren't unique to Taiwan, you can find them all across northern China," points out Tsai Hsin-hsin, secretary of the Chinese Folk Arts Foundation. As early as the Eastern Han, the Taoist classic Lieh-tsu records a certain Lan Tsu, who tied a pair of long wood splints to his legs and ran about while simultaneously juggling seven sharp swords. All succeeding dynasties have records of stilt performances. In Taiwan, according to artists, the earliest use of stilts (classified as a "miscellaneous skill") in temple processions was by the Chiu Family Stilt Troupe of the Chung-chow district of Hsueh chia township in Tainan County. Chiu Wen-chung, the second director of the troupe, recalls that as children they often cut off pieces of bamboo and tied them to their feet to play around. But the troupe was only formally organized in 1954.

At that time the Temple of Kindness and Fortune in Chung-chow called together villagers to organize a procession. Elder brother Chiu Shihtse put together his childhood experience with what he had seen at the stilt performance by a military team on national day, and proposed organizing a stilt troupe. The sons and brothers of the Chiu family were called together and established the first local village stilt troupe, and began to make a name for themselves at a procession at the Temple of Kindness and Fortune that same year. Thereafter they were invited to perform at temples all over, and as business got better, they evolved from a local into a professional troupe.

Currently all seven of the stilt troupes in the Chia-nan Plain are of apprentices of the Chiu family, or apprentices of their apprentices. For this reason they brought home a "National Heritage Award" in 1986. The troupes keep in touch routinely, and help each other out when manpower falls short. In any case, the performances are all cut the same way: It's always "Kuan Kung Protects His Sister-in-Law" in temples, "San-tzang Collects the Sacred Books" at funerals, and so on. The only relatively unique group is one in Keelung which does the Lion Dance on stilts, with two people teaming up to make the lion, jumping forward and back. Because the action requires coordination, and visibility is poor inside the lion get-up, this takes not only great skill but also the development of unspoken understand ing between partners.

The Chiu Family Troupe has about 100 shows on average in a year, with compensation ranging from NT$20-30,000 per show. Because there are many opportunities to perform, Chiu Wen-chung, who had been a maker of cotton quilts, has since added a new sign for stilts outside his quilt shop, and the first floor storefront now has stilt equipment and props as the main line. What had originally been a one-story house has, with everyone in the extended family doing double-duty, been built into a three-story home. The Chiu Family Stilt Troupe has picked themselves up to stand tall, and built themselves a home on a foundation of stilts.

[Picture Caption]

"Kuan Kung Protects His Sister-in-Law" is a common part of the repertoire of all stchen. (photo by Diago Chiu)

This stilt chen sign is a portrayal of the life of the "Chiu Family Stilt Troupe."

Chiu Family Stilt Troupe leader Chiu Wen-chung demonstrates lesson one: tying on the stilts.

With no way to sit down just anywhere, stilt performers "stand tall" even when at rest.

This stilt chen sign is a portrayal of the life of the "Chiu Family Stilt Troupe.".

Chiu Family Stilt Troupe leader Chiu Wen-chung demonstrates lesson one: tying on the stilts.

With no way to sit down just anywhere, stilt performers "stand tall" even when at rest.