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New Taiwanese opera "Aphrodite" by Taiwanese and Japanese artists now available online

  • Date:2021-12-25
New Taiwanese opera 'Aphrodite' by Taiwanese and Japanese artists now available online

The new Taiwanese opera "Aphrodite (阿婆蘭)," co-presented and co-produced by Taiwanese and Japanese artists, is now available online on Public Television Service's YouTube page until Jan. 8, 2022.

Featured as part of Taiwan Now Contemporary Art Festival, the play brings together Japanese visual artist Miwa Yanagi, who is also a stage director, and three major Taiwanese opera troupes in south Taiwan – Shiu-kim Taiwanese Opera Troupe, Chun-mei Taiwanese Opera Troupe, and Ming Hwa Yuan Arts and Cultural Group.

Inspired by Taiwan's unique moth orchid, the play combines contemporary images, lighting, and mechanical installations of orchids, fusing contemporary aesthetics and techniques into Taiwanese traditional folk art. It tells the story of the intertwined fate of orchid fairies who have lived a carefree life in the secluded "Orchid Realm," until they came in contact with humans one day. The human desire for pure white and beautiful flowers has led to the artificial reproduction of endless giant white orchids, which eventually drown out the wild orchids in the Orchid Realm.

Director of Taipei Fine Arts Museum Wang Jun-jieh (王俊傑) commented that the play has done a great job in integrating contemporary and traditional art. He added that it is rare to see Chinese operas using flowers as a metaphor to convey a story.

Taiwan NOW, a cultural exchange event jointly created by more than 20 groups of multinational teams in cooperation with Taiwan and Japanese artists, debuted on Oct. 2 in Tokyo, offering a series of physical and virtual events in the two countries and on cloud conferences until the end of this year. "Aphrodite" is the grand finale of Taiwan NOW arts project.