The Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Festival (2022亞太傳統藝術節) marks its 20th anniversary this year, bringing performances and activities revolving around the theme of "20‧Wonderful (廿・精彩)" from Oct. 1 to 10 at the Yilan Park of the National Center for Traditional Arts (NCFTA).
Organized by NCFTA, 20 performance groups and 4 craftsmen are invited to present 65 performances, 20 craft creation demonstrations, 20 craftsmanship experiences and other activities. This year's program is divided into three categories: traditional, mutual integration, and co-creation.
At the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Culture Hsiao Tsung-huang (蕭宗煌) said that NCFTA selects the Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Festival as its annual main event since 2000, in hopes of driving cultural exchanges between Taiwan and other Asian countries so as to understand each other's preservation and development in terms of the traditional culture. He added that this year's activities are rich and diverse, including traditional music, dance, drama, folk parade, crafts, and more.
NCFTA Director Chen Yue-yi (陳悅宜) said over the past 20 years, more than 1,000 artists and 119 foreign groups from 32 countries have been invited to participate in the festival.
The participating groups include Xu-Yang CheKu Folk Opera Troupe (旭陽民俗車鼓劇團), Fevervine Dance Theatre (雞屎藤舞蹈劇場), New Image Theater Group (新象創作劇團), Lu Bo - Da Holy Umbrella (呂柏達娘傘團), among others. In addition, the invited craftsmen range from two national-level artisans bamboo-weaving weaver Chiu Chin-tuan (張憲平) and silk-wrapped flower artist Chen Hui-mei (陳惠美), as well as Sauniaw Tjuvelkevelj (少妮瑤‧久分勒分), the preserver of the Paiwan instruments: pakulalu (口笛) and lalingdjan (鼻笛), and glory embroider Lin Chieh-yu (林婕瑀).