"There is no good and bad in culture, just difference," says Chiang Wu-chang, who is making the preparations for the Netherlands tour. He also explains that, in comparison with the skillful and elaborate performance of the puppet theater from Chuanchow in mainland China, which has been invited previously, Hsin Fu Hsuan's techniques are far behind, providing an extra reason for taking the sacred sha ritual on stage.

Making a show of expelling sha? Wang Li-chia, a student of Hsin Fu Hsuan leader Lin Tsan-cheng and holder of a doctorate from a French university, expresses her agreement: "The spirit of our puppetry lies heavily in expelling sha; especially when we go abroad to perform, we should be open minded about the expelling sha element. Only then will we be able to fully express our cultural customs."

This is why, in the theater in Amsterdam, apart from respecting the audience by not spilling the talismanic blood of chickens and ducks and letting off firecrackers inside the building, the rest of the ceremonial activities will be displayed in full to the foreign spectators.

This will certainly not be the first time that the puppet theater's expelling sha ceremony has been performed in public. When the Taiwan Theater Museum was built two years ago in Ilan an invitation was extended to Hsin Fu Hsuan to expel the sha of the new building. The assembled media witnessed a religious ceremony with a strong mystical flavor, and their following reports testified to the pulling power of such rituals. The following year the theater invited the Fu Lung Hsuan puppet theater to come and perform the ritual of the demon-catching god Chung Kuei to ensure their activities would proceed smoothly.

Both art and culture: Going back to origins, the theater started up as a place for religious ceremonies, and its music cannot be separated from religious activities. Its works only gradually came into the interests of the literati, and its independent development as a purely artistic mode of performance was a later affair. Puppet theater is at present a dramatic preservation of religious folk ritual which also provides many stage writers with the opportunity to go back to dramatic origins and see puppet masters interact with audiences. But can taking mysterious and taboo ceremonies onto the stage do harm to their original significance?

Professor Li Feng-mao, thinks this is not necessarily the case. Although the ceremony and drama of puppetry are closely linked and cannot be separated, he feels that once it is taken out of its original context and put on the stage it becomes "entertainment" and ceases to be ceremony. Its divine and profane natures can thus be separated.

Sung Chin-hsiou does not oppose the sha ceremony becoming entertainment but stresses that, "as soon as it is on the stage it becomes false." As for the local believers, when sha is being expelled, the puppet masters are not artists but ceremonial overseers with religious powers. So the significance of the two kinds of performance is markedly different.

Worries have also been produced by the numerous stage performances of the religious rituals of Taiwan's aboriginal mountain peoples in recent years. Outside their mountain land and with the masses taking part, can they really give a true expression of their mountain cultures so far removed from their original cultural context? How do they observe the rules of propriety in their hearts when their sacred rites become a kind of entertainment?

Anthropologist Hu Tai-li supports the idea of training professional dancers for stage entertainment while the true rituals remain in the tribes themselves. In the same way, Sung Chin-hsiu recommends that the expelling sha part of the ceremony can perhaps be replaced by broadcasting a recording of the true ritual, made in Taiwan, instead of misleading the audience.

As far as the audience is concerned, whatever is on stage, whether it be expelling sha or orthodox drama, it is entertainment. And the puppet masters? How do they feel about their role?

Breaking taboos? Because the opening of the Taiwan Theater Museum was a just cause, Lin Tsan- cheng was carrying out a genuine expelling sha ceremony for the new building. As for the trip to Holland, he will not call up the spirits or burn talismans during the ceremony. "You cannot casual ly call up the heavenly army and divine generals," explains the old master.

However, Hsu Wen-han, the fifth successive manager of the Fu Lung Hsuan puppet theatre, not only agrees with this kind of acting according to the circumstances, but also urgently points out, "We must definitely have public performances and break the taboos of puppet theater, getting rid of the fear people have of it. Only in this way will we stop the audiences getting ever smaller."

The expelling sha ceremony on stage can actually give a good display of the significance of native puppet theater. As for puppet theater becoming more rich and vivacious and attracting larger audiences, however, this is not only a matter of whether this particular kind of ceremony is performed or not.

[Picture Caption]

A puppet performance by Ilan's Hsin Fu Hsuan troupe in front of a depart ment store seems to reveal its dramatic aspect only.

The Hsin Fu Hsuan troupe have been invited to perform at the Third International Puppet Festival to the Netherlands at the beginning of this month, marking the first time Lin Tsan- cheng has taken the ceremony for exorcising evil spirits on stage.

The Hsin Fu Hsuan troupe have been invited to perform at the Third International Puppet Festival to the Netherlands at the beginning of this month, marking the first time Lin Tsan- cheng has taken the ceremony for exorcising evil spirits on stage.