Motivated by Taiwanese Culture:
Actively Harnessing the Power of Local Culture
Glove Puppetry was the Daily Bread to My Soul
Since the age of two, Chen Rongxiang would watch puppetry troupes come and go at the temple gate with his mother, who was also a lover of Taiwanese opera and glove puppetry. Chen studied at three elementary schools. Besides being located by the sea and in the countryside, there was one more thing all the schools had in common. During the holidays, there would always be glove puppetry performances to watch. For a child, transferring schools was not easy. You’d have to adapt to a new environment and meet new faces. But for Chen, when recalling those school days, it didn’t matter where he went. As long as there were glove puppets, it would always be a safe haven for him.
Chen, in fourth grade, had to transfer schools from Dongshi Township to Puzi City. He had to ride his bike for three to four kilometers to the new school. By then he was already a fanatic of puppetry. Oftentimes, right after school, instead of heading home, he would follow the sounds of gongs and drums to the puppet show venue. One time, he was so immersed in the performance, he still wasn’t home by 11PM. Frustrated, his father also followed the sound of gongs and drums to find his child. Chen laughed happily saying “For me, growing up in the countryside, that was the daily bread that nourished my soul. ”
When asked why glove puppetry was so fascinating, Chen replied, it’s not one component. It’s its entirety, the characters, the monologues, the storyline, including the backstage. Art and culture altogether is part of one’s daily life. All the components are interconnected.
The 1960s of Taiwan was when Golden Light Puppetry was most popular. Besides the open-air performances, glove puppetry shows were also moving into theaters. Chen mentioned that it felt as if every stage of his life was carefully intertwined with the changes that were happening to glove puppetry culture and the local theaters that housed these performances. During that time, the glove puppet shows were performed mainly in two theaters in Chiayi City. When Chen was studying middle school in Chiayi, his dormitory was right next to Xingzhong Theater on Wenhua Road. As a student who was studying far from home, the puppet shows enriched his life,
“I was very mesmerized by the plays that focused on loyalty, justice, love, and piety. Even though they were plays of gratitude, as offering to the gods. It also taught me a lot of life principles and wisdom. I was attracted by this combination of performances. I also adored many of the heroes and main characters.”
Even though it may be difficult to recall all the details and storylines of a play, the message it sent subtly influenced the values and perspective of teenagers who were in the audience. Chen easily gave an example, as if these heroes and characters were still vividly living in his memory. “There were two very famous characters, one was the Old Monk, who was extremely skilled in martial arts. But he would often forget his powers. Only when he was in battle would he recall them. This made many young people admire him very much. The other was Great Hero Jiangshan (大俠一江山)...”
Besides the conflicts between heroes and antagonists, the plays also incorporate themes of justice and social issues. Besides a love for glove puppetry and martial art novels, in his middle school years, he often rode his bike chasing election parades. Even until now, Chen is still very much devoted to caring for social issues. Many of his influences came from the plays he watched, the martial art novels he read, and the election campaigns he was a part of in his teenage years. A seed was planted inside him and that was how he met Li Hongxi, who was also from Chiayi and shared the same interests and passions as Chen.
Maximizing Outputs with Limited Resources
Chen got to know about Seden through his wife. At that time, his wife was in the same choir as the wife of Li Hongxi, founder of Seden. Both Chen and Li had a passion for glove puppetry and cared for social issues. They got along immediately, threaded together by a common goal.
The 1980s was when Taiwan’s native and local consciousness began to arise. The search for a core culture and spirit that represented the island and how to pass it on was a significant issue. Seden Glove Puppetry Foundation was born in 1985 in such a social climate. Li Hongxi, Chen Jinci, and Yang Weizhe, who were all National Taiwan University (NTU) professors at the time, sought to harness the power of society to create and preserve local culture.
The three professors took turns being the chairman of the board. Each taking over for two terms. Besides the chairman, there were also positions for a director and a chief executive officer. In the early stages, the director and chief executive officer were in charge of operations. The board was in charge of setting the annual theme, securing stable funding, and also support in promotional campaigns. There were many board members who all offered their expertise to focus on promoting glove puppetry.
“As long as it was beneficiary to the foundation, everyone offered their resources. Even though every board consisted of different people, everyone was more than willing to contribute. If we looked at how Seden developed, it wasn’t a sudden explosive movement. It developed through the years, little by little. Reflected through the continuous contribution and promotion of everyone involved. ”
In 1996, nearly ten years after the founding of Seden, Chen was elected as a board member for the Fourth Board of Directors. Almost 20 years later, he took over as chairman. Chen mentioned, the early stages of Seden were also the most difficult for glove puppetry development in Taiwan. Besides making efforts to preserve puppet collections, they also provided a stage for many performers and helped many puppet troupes to overcome this difficult time. Including collaborating with Huang Haidai and Xu Wang, which proved to be very successful.
In the process of preserving relics and antiques, the Foundation was racing against time to avoid mold and damage of the collection by worms. Starting from the Eighth Board of Directors, the board began considering creating a digital museum, to digitize all the antiques, documents, and relics. The total budget was NT$3 million. After three years, the project was unsuccessful as the image resolution and results were not up to standard.
Around the year 2000, the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA, now the Ministry of Culture) began promoting digitalization of content. Seden’s board advised to digitize all of their documents, relics, and collections. Under the full support of the board, Seden worked with Chiao Tung University (now Yang Ming Chiao Tung University) to apply to the National Science and Technology Council for the Digital Archives Project. In the end, they received funding for a two-year plan. By utilizing government funds, Seden was able to complete its first phase of digitization, along with the National Taiwan Museum and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) who gave technical support. This project was made possible by integrating resources from government, schools, and private sectors. The project was also featured on the CCA’s Cultural Collection website, where the public can download files to appreciate personally.
In 2020 and 2021, Seden digitized all its collections including puppets, performance stage designs, video tapes, audio tapes, books, and files. And donated them to the National Taiwan Museum and NYCU. Even though Seden today is not abundant in assets, it is abundant in resources, including resources in academia like NYCU and museums like National Taiwan Museum. Along with theater troupes and puppeteers that have worked with Seden over the years. This is the unique way of how Seden Foundation grew and operated in every stage of development, through constant discussion and experimentation.
The More International We Become, The More Rooted We Must Be
Through the digital archives, we could digitally preserve our unorganized audio tapes, video tapes, and lyrics and prevent them from physical damage. When talking about digitizing the collections, Chen thinks the main goal is “sharing”. "Whether it’s glove puppetry, the National Palace Museum’s collections, art museum collections, what they need the most is a system to manage, organize, preserve, and exhibit the items. With the digitization project, we could share all these artifacts with the world through the internet." It would be a pity to spend huge amounts of funds to build a magnificent museum, but only have a limited number of visitors.
By implementing modern and digital methods of organizing and categorizing, many relics and collections have been transformed into files and digital documents. They are categorized and preserved on the computer database, which makes it even more convenient to search, read, and use the files. Chen thinks that the Digital Museum is a place where culture can be massively passed on and interpreted. People nowadays have their own interpretation of the Mona Lisa but after a hundred years, people may interpret it from a different perspective. In other words, the Digital Museum is a place that encourages people to come up with their own unique interpretations and thus adding cultural value to society.
How do we incorporate traditional elements into technology and transform it into a curriculum that can be taught and applied in elementary and middle school? How do we transform exquisite traditional cultural elements into content that is adaptable to children? How do we design plays that children can interact with? How do we let children experience and draw them into local culture? These are all ideas and questions Chen has been proposing and pondering. It’s something to think about, especially those of us who live in the digital age and who hope to pass on culture to the next generation.
In response to “How do we promote glove puppetry culture to elementary school students?”, we can look back on Seden Foundation’s core values which is “to integrate with modern life”. Elementary school children today have drastically different lifestyles than those 50 years ago. Nowadays you don’t see open-air puppet stages at the temples or alleyways. Without opportunities to interact and encounter traditional culture, how do we reintroduce these elements back into the lives of the children? So that traditional cultural heritage can be passed on. In order for that to happen, they need to experience it at a young age.
Chen quoted the pianist Gwhyneth Chen “To be a pianist, you must practice all the pieces you will perform in the future at least 20 times before the age of 14 or 15. They will be stored within your body, you can play them without thinking. Pieces you practice after 15, even with extra hard work, it’s still difficult for them to be apart of your body.” For culture to take root, it requires people to begin learning at a young age. This is one of Seden’s core values.
“Take a tree for example. The higher it grows, the deeper the roots. Therefore, establishing a foundation at a young age is very important. Establish the basic core and consciousness towards your own culture first. When you connect it with the world, your horizon and perspectives will be broadened.” The status and future of Taiwan is often determined by international trends and policies. Seden is a foundation that promotes traditional culture. But this time, we as Taiwanese are actively doing something and contributing, motivated by pure love for our heritage. Thus, the more international we become, the more rooted we must also be.