Taiwanese identity and the performing arts: the development of programming at the National Performing Arts Centre
Lai, Meng-Yu (2020) Taiwanese identity and the performing arts: the development of programming at the National Performing Arts Centre. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Abstract
This thesis explores the correlation between changes in Taiwanese identity and presentations of the performing arts at Taiwan’s National Performing Arts Centre, formerly the National Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Centre, an institution that operates at arm’s-length from the Government. It also investigates the way the Centre operates in relation to national cultural policy. The evolution of Taiwanese identity and government cultural policy between 1949 and 2017 is analysed with a special focus on 1987-2017 to see whether any changes are reflected in the Centre’s programmes. Senior politicians, artists and arts administrators were interviewed about the way government cultural policy is formulated and how programming at the Centre has responded. All confirm that changes in cultural policy are only related to the work of the Centre through a general understanding of the zeitgeist, rather than ministerial demands. Government policy is worded so generally that it does not dictate how the Centre should operate, so although programming has changed along with cultural policy, it is not because of it. Analysis of the Centre’s programming shows that it reflects the way the performing arts in Taiwan have developed along with its identity from traditional Chinese to multicultural Taiwanese. The Centre responds to national identity and also helps to create it. Thus, programming mirrors the development of the way both cultural policy and Taiwanese identity has changed. The Centre is responsible to a government-appointed Board, rather than to the Government itself, but this does not mean that it is free of government control. The Centre values its freedom of operation but is sensitive to the unwritten limits to its activity and to its dependency on continued government subsidy.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Sep 2021 15:11 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2023 14:49 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/46103 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00046103 |
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