| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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After consulting with other scholars, I concur with Hwang Mei-shu’s division of the Movement into three parts.7 The first era begins in the 1960s, using Li Man-quei’s organization. The second era is from the 1980s to the 1990s, beginning with the Experimental Theater Festival from 1980 to 1984 and Lan-ling’s He Zhu’s New Match in 1980. The third era begins with the establishment of the National Theater (Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall) and the founding of the Experimental Theater Festival by the Council on Cultural Planning and Development. In this festival, the Little Theaters put on productions in the smaller performance hall within the National Theater from the late 1990s. This cultural practice still continues.
This book presents the different views of these scholars on the division of the phases of the Little Theater Movement in Taiwan and provides recommendations for further research.
In Chapter Three, I also discuss the interactions between Taiwan and other countries in Asia as well as the United States. This chapter provides an in-depth analysis of several performances staged from 1993 to 2004. I demonstrate that the role of drama has changed from serving as a political tool of propaganda for the Japanese government from 1895 to 1945 and for the Nationalist government from 1945 to the 1960s, to becoming an educational medium in the 1990s, and finally to pure entertainment in the present day. I agree with Chung Mingder’s and Ivy I-Chu Chang’s conclusions that Taiwan drama and theaters are influenced by Western modern theater models.8 Therefore, I examine drama and theaters in Taiwan through Western theories such as Feminism, Interculturalism, Orientalism, Post-Colonialism, and Performance Studies.
In Chapter Three “Feminist Theaters in Taiwan,” I apply Feminism to the productions of four female directors: Chou Hui-Ling, Wei Ying-chuan, Dai Chun-fang, and Wu Xin-chou.9