Diesel trucks rumble through the main street of Hsichih all day long. When it rains there's mud everywhere, and on the occasional day when it's sunny, the air is full of dust.

Because of nearby Keelung harbor, Hsichih has been a thoroughfare for container trucks for many years. Little Chang, who runs a fast-food place at one end of the street, says, "I got used to it long ago!" but the words are no sooner out of his mouth than they're drowned in the roar of a passing truck.

With the second northern Freeway and Hsintai Route 5 soon to converge here, convenient transportation is making this satellite of greater Taipei an even more popular address, and houses and big office buildings are going up all over.

Until just recently, it seemed like the dust from the streets was settling in many people's hearts. Liao Chun-sung, the owner of a Chinese medicine shop, says the lottery craze has been rampant in recent years: "Do any of these younger people still remember all the ships that used to come here? And all the schools for musicians and performers? Opera music, northern-style music, southern-style music, you name it, we've had a glorious history!"

Times seem to be changing once again. Across from Chang's place, a yellow banner with red characters reading "Build the Town with Culture" is waving in the wind. That's the slogan that the new mayor, Liao Hsueh- kuang, has been pushing ever since he took office in March of last year. Hsichih's Fall Festival of the Traditional Arts opened just when "rebuilding local culture" was being highlighted at a national cultural conference last November.

Why do towns need to be built on culture? And why start with traditional culture? "People today have lots of money, but the norms of tradition are gradually breaking down," the mayor says. "They may drive a Mercedes, for instance, but they want to get out and start a fight whenever it gets a scratch. You can't change people's character unless you expose them to culture. Lifelong learning is my motto."

As for choosing traditional culture, that's because education in the schools has been thoroughly westernized, while regional per forming arts are fast disappearing. If those arts are to be saved, well, Hsichih was rich in culture in the past and has no lack of talented individuals ready to pass them on. That's when they came up with the call to "build the town with culture."

Setting aside funds that had been donated to it by construction companies for local development, the town administration expanded the annual cultural budget to more than NT$1 million, and commissioned planning to Wang Jui-yu and implementation to Pan Ying-hu, both of them ethnomusicologists and members of the Taipei Folk Music Society.

The Spring and Fall Festivals for the Traditional Arts, both huge projects, have been handled completely by the town itself and specially scheduled to coincide with the Taoyuan aboriginal harvest festival in the fall and the birthday celebrations for Matsu and Paoyi in the spring.

But above and beyond the festivals, the main thrust of the "build the town with culture" campaign lies in a program to teach traditional performing arts to students in elementary and junior high schools.

Lin Fen-hsiung, a professor of drama at Chinese Culture University, points out that actually quite a few schools have begun teaching traditional arts in recent years. Ther are puppet classes at Ping-teng Elementary in Taipei, Hou-pu Elementary in Panchiao, teaches children Peikuan music and the Taiwan Provincial Department of Education is even planning that every elementary and junior high school will eventually offer courses in traditional performing arts. "But you don't find many places like Hsichih, where all the schools in town--eight primary schools and two junior highs--take part," he says.

At present, regional music, opera and dance are introduced to children only during club activity time on Saturday. Despite the students' tender years, their teachers include some awesome names in the traditional arts, such as Hsu Wang, leader of the Hsiao Hsi Y?an Puppet Troupe, and his elder son Hsu Wang-liang; Pan Yu-chiao, the "queen of Peikuan opera," and her son-in-law Chiu Hui-ying; master puppeteer Chang Fu-li; or dragon dance conductor Yang Wen-hsiang. Many travel from Shulin and Tamsui, and Pan Yu-chiao takes the train all the way from Taichung. Asked about why they do it, Hsu and Pan agree that as long as the children are happy, they feel that some day they have a chance to pass on their skills, and that makes them happy as well.

But when the program first got started, there was quite a bit of opposition from parents. At the mention of traditional music, many of them thought at once of weddings and funerals, and some said, "We send our kids to school to study, not to learn how to bury people." But after favorable reports in the news, most of the parents take pride in the program and have turned into strong backers.

With just one class a week, despite all the cost and effort, won't the pace of study be too slow? "It would be nice to have them practice more, of course, but we are not aiming at passing on specialized skills so much as expanding the audience for the arts by cultivating people who can appreciate it," Wang Jui-yu says.

The schools may be busy as beavers taking part in the campaign, but how well has the average citizen done?

A survey conducted at the fall festival found that 65 percent of the town's residents were unaware of the schools' program. And Pan Ying-hu, in charge of running the festival, says that in the beginning at least 70 percent of the people didn't know there was going to be a festival. It was only after a heavy publicity blitz with loudspeakers and leaflets that they managed to have a full house on opening day. A local person says the people are still pretty uncouth, and more work will be needed to drag them away from the lottery habit.

But as Wang Jui-yu observed in the planning process, the spirit of pulling together and pitching in that used to be so evident in rural villages in the past is making a comeback.

Besides the arts festivals and the school program, the "build the town with culture" campaign also includes a plan to promote traditional performing arts by encouraging older artists to take to the stage again and by assisting them in recording and organizing scores and scripts. Whether or not a program being planned to pass on traditional performing arts to the younger generation becomes a reality will depend on receiving a grant from the Council for Cultural Planning and Development. It's worth noting that Yang Hsiu-ching and Yang Tzai-hsiung, a husband-and-wife team that has won a National Heritage Award for their achievements in Taiwanese shuo-ch'ang (a form of popular entertainment featuring singing and comic dialogue) and is considered a town treasure, have moved back to Hsichih after living elsewhere for many years.

The streets of Hsichih are as dusty as ever, and the traffic and construction work continues. But above all the noise and the hubbub, notes of music are floating, graceful dancers are swaying, and the air is full of hope.

[Picture Caption]

A Mr. Chang offered to demonstrate a stunt from the mainland called the "comet mallet" that opened eyes at the Hsichih Fall Festival.

Niu-tiu-ko, a type of percussion music native to Taiwan, had nearly faded into oblivion before it was given new meaning by these youngsters.

Under teacher Hsu Wang's guidance, puppets in hand, "Up and away!" they shout. (photo by Diago Chiu)

Niu-tiu-ko, a type of percussion music native to Taiwan, had nearly faded into oblivion before it was given new meaning by these youngsters.

Under teacher Hsu Wang's guidance, puppets in hand, "Up and away!" they shout. （photo by Diago Chiu）