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Living in a world
divided in half
By Chang Kuo-tsai 張國財
Taiwan has a surface area of 36,000km2, on which 23 million people live.
Difficult, perhaps, to imagine then that this modestly sized country
incorporates two very different worlds. One is a world of leisure and enjoyment,
the other a world of poverty and want.
Living in the first, one can enjoy a huge fireworks display to mark the
centenary of the Republic of China (ROC) not so long after wandering around the
Taipei International Flora Expo, and then from the fireworks display to the
Dreamers (夢想家) extravaganza, and the inspirational, visual feast that was. And
the cost? No need to worry about that. The NT$13.6 billion (US$449.67 million)
spent on the expo, the NT$100 million up in smoke in one 20-minute fireworks
show, the NT$215 million spent on four hours’ worth of performances spread over
two nights for Dreamers, all came out of the public’s pocket. It was courtesy of
the taxpayer. Were private individuals even asked to cough up?
Of course, influential people got VIP tickets sent off to them, promotional
tickets, no problem. And of course, for the rest of us, with a bit of cash in
our pockets and leisure time on our hands, we can get in for NT$300, maybe
NT$500.
Then there is life in the world of want of the average farmers — banana, guava,
garlic and pear farmers — who when not toiling under the hot summer sun, are
plagued with constant concerns about falling prices and other risks.
Do they have the spare cash and time to pile into a car and drive to Taipei and
catch the expo, or over to Greater Taichung to watch Dreamers? Can they take
time out from their worries like those poor folk in the cities forced to take
unpaid leave, or the jobless sitting at home, catching some respite from their
woes by watching one of these shows?
Rather than allocating public resources and public funds to the hardworking
majority or the more vulnerable groups in society, this money is being spent
instead on entertaining people with money and leisure time on their hands,
giving them more and more marvelous ways to dispose of both. Really, what is the
world coming to?
Actually, if the wider public exists in two worlds in Taiwan, the phenomenon is
perhaps even more pronounced in the art world. The general consensus, perhaps a
stereotype, but often true, is of the poverty-ridden artist, living
hand-to-mouth. Perhaps their lot comes from some original sin, but their lot it
is, and they just have to grin and bear what is coming to them.
Anyway, the very fact of their poverty spurs them on and inspires their work.
Their circumstance is both the sustenance and the source of their art. And,
being artists, they would never stoop so low as to whine about this. No, the
reality is actually quite different, surprisingly enough, and the art world is
just as polarized as the rest of society.
There are also the Yo-yo Mas (馬友友) of this world, which is how you can get a
production like Dreamers commanding NT$39 million for the “creativity design
project” and NT$60.79 million for “production and performance planning;” NT$550
million for director Stan Lai’s (賴聲川) input in the opening and closing
ceremonies of the Summer Deaflympics in Taipei in September 2009 and another
NT$150 million for Ismene Ting (丁乃箏), an actress and director who happens to be
Lai’s sister-in-law, to work on the flora expo.
The government is throwing money at these things. Whoever said there is no money
in art? And whatever happened to the idea of poor tortured souls starving for
their art?
From the above figures, it seems all too obvious that there is no shortage of
funds in the art world; it literally seems to have money to burn.
The problem with the art world today is not a lack of cash, it is a lack of an
even playing field; it is not a problem of talent or fair competition, it is a
problem of monopolizing resources, of nepotism and inbreeding; it is not a
problem of art for art’s sake, it is a problem of art for politics’ sake.
Any mention of the money pits of the Deaflympics, the flora expo or Dreamers
leads one to Lai and his circle. Any talk of the string of fireworks displays
and Taiwanese operas leads you straight to Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang (蔡國強) and
the Ming Hwa Yuan (Tien) Taiwanese Opera Company (明華園天字戲劇團).
These Yo-yo Mas are all associated with “being creative,” and “being creative”
is associated with NT dollars measured in the tens of millions, the hundreds of
millions. That is how the money is spent.
For the vast majority of artists who live below the stratospheric heights of Ma
and his ilk, well, sorry, if you go and ask for public funds and get told where
to go; you have only yourselves to blame. You can ask, and shall not receive. Is
this the art world you know?
Taiwan, how did it come to this? Who allowed things to get this bad?
Chang Kuo-tsai retired from National Hsinchu University of Education as an
associate professor.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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