Dance as life
In a little lane off Zhongshan North Road Section 2 sits an old Japanese-style residence topped by black roof tiles. It is the former home and studio of the pioneering dancer Tsai Jui-yueh (1921‒2005).
At the age of 16, Tsai went to Japan to study modern dance. While there, she became determined to return one day and promote modern dance in her native Taiwan. After the end of World War II, she boarded a ship bound for Taiwan, and while aboard she choreographed and performed Song of India and We Love Our Taiwan. These works brought the people of Taiwan in contact with modern dance for the first time ever.
But Taiwan was a treacherous place in those days. Her husband Lei Shiyu was deported to China for political reasons, and Tsai soon afterward was thrown into prison. After her release, she went back to earning a living as a dance instructor, and continually choreographed new dance pieces. By alluding in the performances to her own experiences, she was able to use her body to protest against the government’s human rights abuses. The authorities monitored her constantly, until at last she emigrated with her son, Lei Dapeng, to Australia.
In 1994, after the Taipei City Government ordered the demolition of Tsai’s dance studio, the cultural community rose up in protest, calling on the city government to preserve the site as a historic landmark. But just days after the Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Studio was declared a historic monument in 1999, it was deliberately set ablaze. Tsai, who had returned to Taiwan from Australia to devote herself once again to modern dance, was reduced to tears as she surveyed the charred remains of the studio: “I feel as if I had lost a daughter.”
But Tsai, a resilient survivor of great hardships, kept right on teaching students amidst the blackened ruins of her studio. Chan Tien-chen (a.k.a. Yogi), who performed in Song of India and was directed by Tsai, recalls how Tsai, who had limited mobility due to arthritis, would sit in a chair and trace out dance motions with her arms, evincing the same excitement and passion that a much younger Tsai had shown the world upon her return to Taiwan from Japan. On Tsai’s 80th birthday, Yogi (still quite young at the time) was deeply moved when the artist suddenly got the urge to dance and started turning in circles in the street. That’s precisely who Tsai was—a dancer who had endured much tragedy, yet wanted only to dance, and was prepared to enjoy it at any time or place.
The reconstruction of Tsai’s residence was unfortunately not completed until after she passed away in 2005. Friends and supporters named the rebuilt structure the Rose Historic Site in commemoration of one of her best known works, The Prison and the Rose.
In 2006, the Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Foundation held the Tsai Jui-Yueh International Dance Festival and the Tsai Jui-Yueh Cultural Forum for the first time. These events continue to go strong today, and were each held for the eleventh time in 2016. The foundation and the forum are very concerned about such causes as judicial reform, social justice, freedom, and democracy, and are big supporters of people in all fields who are fighting for the causes they believe in. The idea is to use dance to ensure that the Taiwan Tsai loved so deeply can become a better place.
The most powerfully moving works of art are invariably those born of bitter pain. When visiting the homes of the artists of yesteryear, we have an opportunity to revel in the beauty of their craft. At the same time the strength of their commitment to their beliefs and ideals can give a person courage to carry on. Therein lies the significance of the preservation of such sites.
Pu Hao-chih poses before a self-portrait painted by his father, who executed many outstanding works of art in this spacious atelier with its 7.5-meter-high ceiling. (photo by Jimmy Lin)
Pu Hao-chih, director of the TSP Sculpture Memorial Museum, works hard to promote art education. (courtesy of TSP Sculpture Memorial Museum)
Pu Tian-sheng lying down in front of some sculptures from his “Sports Series” that depict gymnasts in motion. These works put Pu’s technical mastery on full display. (courtesy of TSP Sculpture Memorial Museum)
The Pu family has produced three generations of sculptors. Shown here is Pu Hao-ming’s Female Rider. (courtesy of TSP Sculpture Memorial Museum)
The Pu family has produced three generations of sculptors. Shown here is Pu Yi-chun’s Little Dancer Series, No. 1. (courtesy of TSP Sculpture Memorial Museum)
The Pu family has produced three generations of sculptors. Shown here is Pu Tian-sheng’s In Fond Memory. (courtesy of TSP Sculpture Memorial Museum)
The former residence of Li Lin-chiu, located on a narrow lane off Xining North Road in Taipei, is open to the public. But Li had to sell the first floor years ago to pay off debts after he invested in an unsuccessful film, so visitors must climb a narrow wooden staircase to get a look at the home of one of Taiwan’s finest songwriters of the 20th century.
The original manuscript of “Mending a Broken Net.”
The trademark registration certificate for Li’s “Pining for the Spring Breeze,” dated 1937.
The table in front of his family’s ancestral shrine was where Li Lin-chiu wrote the lyrics to the pop classic “Pining for the Spring Breeze.”
Old photos and a graduation certificate offer insights into the life of Li Lin-chiu.
Li Xiujian sits across from a statue of his father Li Lin-chiu in Dadaocheng Park, as if the two were having a conversation. Li Xiujian has preserved his father’s old home so that people will always keep singing “Pining for the Spring Breeze.” (photo by Jimmy Lin)
This is what the Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Studio looked like before an arsonist put it to the torch. (photo by Yang Shizheng, courtesy of the Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Foundation)
The Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Studio is the first dance studio in Taiwan to be declared a historic landmark.
Tsai Jui-yueh was Taiwan’s first modern dance artist. She is shown here wearing a costume used in Song of India. (courtesy of Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Foundation)
Tsai Jui-yueh (right) met in Taiwan in 1998 with her old friend and former teacher Shi Jinglü. (Taiwan Panorama file photo)
A dance troupe from the Sa’owac indigenous community is shown here taking part in a ceremony at a press conference at the Tsai Jui-Yueh International Dance Festival.
Young dancers today continue to practice their art at the Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Studio, the “cradle of Taiwanese dance.”