Q: The Ya Yin Ensemble is supported by the Hsu Yuan-chih Cultural Foundation and the Council for Cultural Planning and Development. Could you tell us how the ensemble obtained that support?

A: I think it reflects the recognition and encouragement that everyone, including the Council for Cultural Planning and Development and the Hsu Yuan-chih Cultural Foundation, has accorded the ensemble during the ten years since it was founded.

Over the past ten years Ya Yin has constantly used a spirit of creativity to carry Chinese opera into the modern theater. We've never sat on our laurels just because we have an audience. Tickets were hard to come by even ten years ago, and now all the seats are sold out a full ten days before a performance. This proves that Ya Yin is a guarantee of quality and not just a flash in the pan.

In fact, I've always held to the spirit of trying to meet the demands I make on myself first rather than seeking support from others. If you look for support right at the start, no one knows much about you and you have to spend a lot of time writing a lot of letters without necessarily getting any results. Chinese people all understand the importance of self-reliance. If you look to rely on others all the time, they'll get tired of it some day.

For those of us in the arts, I think the most important thing is our own effort. Once you've achieved recognition, any support you get feels like an honor. Corporations overseas support arts groups they think will raise their corporate image. It's a matter of mutual benefit.

So I think it was only through ten years of relying on hard work that we managed to win this grant, which will enable us to do some greater things.

Q: How do you plan to use the grant? What significance does it have for you, if you've already achieved "self-reliance"?

A: The most important thing, I think, is that it has enabled us to set up a Chinese drama center to train a new generation of young performers.

Even after ten years, we still don't have a fixed company of actors. They're all retired or borrowed from other companies, and it's very hard coordinating borrowed actors. Everyone wanted us to put on more shows last time, but the actors had to perform in their own companies, and I couldn't borrow anyone! It's very important to cultivate the younger generation and let them take over and carry on.

Theater companies never used to attract young audiences, and I always thought about how to build up the audience without considering the other side of it. It's only now that Ya Yin has accomplished the first step, ten years later, that I've dared start on the second level and cultivate a younger generation of performers.

Q: Has the center selected any students yet? How do you plan to train them?

A: More than 180 applied, and we took just ten. Our demands were very strict. They not only have to have a good foundation in Chinese opera, but conduct and character are also very important. Art can be cultivated but unless they have what it takes inside, they won't be able to express all the levels of their art on stage. I hope that three years from now they will all become permanent members of Ya Yin.

The students we've accepted already have a foundation in Chinese opera, and I think we should strengthen their Western curriculum, which I'm asking the teachers to arrange. The focus this year and the next will be on instruction. When it's over, I plan to ask our scriptwriters to write a new play for them, to give them a chance to think and display their creativity. Chinese opera is all the same old stories, so if they just perform some of the scripts they learned before at opera school they can easily become careless.

Q: The flourishing state of Ya Yin looks good for the arts on Taiwan, but quite a few performing arts groups have closed down recently. What's the problem? Should government and business give more support?

A: To tell the truth, those of us involved in the arts on Taiwan can feel pretty lonely at times. I was tired myself for a while and thought about stopping. But just then we won an award in the performing arts from the business community. It was like a drink of fresh water and gave me strength again. We're human too and still need encouragement.

If businessmen aren't very enthusiastic about supporting the arts, you can't blame them, because they haven't had much chance to come into contact with art and understand it!

Do the mass media pay any attention? Do government agencies care? It's an issue that involves the general mores of society as a whole.

When Chairman Kuo of the Council for Cultural Planning and Development sent out a thousand letters to the business world recently [encouraging them to support the arts] that was at least a start, and there'll be more response from business if they continue in that direction each year.

In fact, the support and attention that business and government afford art groups exerts a very large influence on the mores of society as a whole.

Law and order is a problem these days, and I think it's because the subtle influence of Chinese opera hasn't been utilized. The soap operas on TV are all mush or violence, and when young people watch that every day it's no wonder they're despondent and demoralized.

But Chinese opera is different. The last show we put on, for instance, left everyone in tears onstage and off. No one would feel it was preachy or dogmatic, but it left you with something to think about. Art has just that power. That's where it's different from pop entertainment.

I think our society should pay more attention to the arts. We see well-run groups like Cloud Gate and Lan Ling stop, and we don't know when they may come back again. They tell me they're tired. Well, I feel tired sometimes too, but I've been tough and determined ever since I was small and have always gone on.

[Picture Caption]

The Ya Yin Ensemble, noted for its progressive stage designs, performed in Los Angeles at the Academy Awards ceremony is held. (photo courtesy of Kuo Hsiao-chuang)

"Once you've achieved recognition, any support you get feels like an honor," Kuo Hsiao-chuang says.

"Unable to resist" the enthusiastic expectations of the public, Kuo Hsiao-chuang has decided to bring out new plays again this year no matter how hectic the work may be. (photo courtesy of Government Information Office)

"Once you've achieved recognition, any support you get feels like an honor," Kuo Hsiao-chuang says.

"Unable to resist" the enthusiastic expectations of the public, Kuo Hsiao-chuang has decided to bring out new plays again this year no matter how hectic the work may be. （photo courtesy of Government Information Office）