From legislature to radio to bookstore
Wang, who is 53 years old, graduated from the Department of Chinese at National Chengchi University. After that, she got involved in politics when she went to help an older schoolmate of hers run for office. It’s hard to imagine that this bookshop owner, who wears no makeup and goes around barefoot, actually served three consecutive terms as a county assembly member starting in 1986, held office as a national legislator in 2000–2002, and founded the Association for Women’s Political Participation.
She drew away from the world of politics in 2003 and set up a feminist radio station, “Sister Radio,” in her hometown of Huwei. The station began broadcasting on March 8, International Women’s Day. On the door were hung two large red lips, representing the courage to speak. In the conservative world of central and southern Taiwan, the station naturally caused quite a stir.
A few years ago, Wang discovered that the so-called “bookstores” in Huwei in fact sold virtually no books at all; they dealt mainly in stationery and school supplies. Adding to this the fact that many outsiders ridiculed Yunlin as a “cultural desert,” Wang got a little peeved, and from there she got idea to found an independent bookstore.
“Yunlin is by no means a cultural desert. We not only have traditional hand-puppet theater, which most people know about, we also have all kinds of local customs connected to the sugar industry and agriculture. The main problem is that local people cannot see how precious local culture is,” Wang argues. The history of Huwei Township goes back nearly 100 years, so it has a rich cultural heritage, but the people lack the self-confidence to go about preserving local customs.
Through activities and seminars, the Huwei Salon hopes to get local people to devote more attention to their own cultural roots, and from there to eradicate their low cultural self-esteem. Through things like book launches for local authors and series of lectures given in Taiwanese, the salon aims to reconstruct a cultural life that fits into and belongs to Huwei.
This year, the salon got together with the Van Body Theatre to hold several “body workshops.” Participants went through physical training to reacquaint themselves with their own bodies and the land beneath their feet. And Helen Wang has her sights set even farther. She hopes she will be able to have resident dance and theater companies, and that these will develop body consciousness among local people and from there cultivate Huwei’s own theater group.
Returning to her hometown to buttress its cultural self-esteem, Helen Wang has seen her dreams gradually come to fruition as the Huwei Salon has grown over time.