After the explanations from Section Chief Hui-Ling Wang of the Promotion Division of the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, we learned about the establishment and efforts of Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company. Moreover, we also learned that that the Company has been committed to the inheritance and innovation of Bangzi opera in recent years and has launched brilliant newly adapted Bangzi opera and toured everywhere. The Company has gradually modernized and localized Bangzi opera without losing the conventional charm of traditional opera.

【Establishment of Bangzi Opera Company】

Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company was formerly known as the “Chungchou Bangzi Opera Company.” Starting from 1953, it has taken root in Zuoying, Kaohsiung and was named “Flying Horse Bangzi Opera Troupe.” With the change of times, On January 1, 1996, it was transferred to the Bangzi Opera Troupe of Guoguang Opera Troupe. On March 6, 2008, the company changed its name to Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company. After the establishment of the Ministry of Culture on May 20, 2012, it was renamed the National Center for Traditional Arts under the Ministry of Culture. Its full name is the National Center for Traditional Arts Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company. The company continues to work hard to promote Chinese culture, pass on Bangzi Opera, and actively expand its international stage. Bangzi Opera Troupe has taken root in Taiwan for 60 years. Its production combines traditional opera with modern theater elites. It has launched new plays, such as “Bao Gong’s Mistake,” “Three Strikes on San-Chun Tao,” “Moving towards the West of Yangguan,” “The Substitute Prince,” “The Clever Magistrate,” “The Substitute Prince Sequel,” “Seventh Rank Petty Official,” “Li-Chun Meng,” “Big Foot Queen” and “Chinese Princess Turandot,” which have also received high praise and response from the audience. The Company launches one or two major plays each year and is often invited to tour overseas.

【The Inheritance and Innovation of Bangzi Opera】

Taiwan Bangzi Opera, led by the “Bangzi Opera Queen” Hai-Ling Wang, has been working hard in Taiwan for many years. The new generation of actors has flourished, and the newly adapted repertoire has achieved fruitful results. Bangzi Opera has been in Taiwan for 70 years. The Company has been working hard to improve the art of opera, pass on the tradition of opera and attract audiences from all walks of life. In terms of international performances, the Company has been invited to tour overseas several times, and has performed Bangzi operat in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mainland China. The Company actively organizes cross-strait cultural exchange joint performances and forums and has won the Mainland Affairs Council Cross-Strait Cultural Exchange Excellence Award five times.

Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company is characterized by its abundant artistic creation energy. Every year, it produces new annual plays, tries cross-border cooperation and develops diversity in theatrical aspects. The Company integrates the essence of traditional and modern opera, presents the essence of the cultural exchange and collision between China and the West and combines traditional opera with the elite of modern theater to strive for innovation and change. Moreover, it has launched countless popular plays so far. One of its operas “Cixi and Zhenfei” won the 2008 Golden Bell Award for “Best Traditional Drama Program.” These wonderful plays have appeared in campuses, communities and towns in Taiwan, overseas, as well as in mainland China, with domestic and foreign art performance invitations. Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company is working relentlessly to pass on the new trends of Bangzi opera, hoping to create a broader new field of Bangzi Opera art and continue to connect with the international stage.

【Experiencing the Ancient and Modern Charm of Bangzi Opera】

In order to cater to the trend of the times, the Company creates new plays based on traditional operas, combines modern theater concepts, and uses a new editing and directing method to bring audience brand new visual and auditory performances. The Company produces brand new operas every year, integrates tradition and modernity, captures the essence of China and the West, tries cross-border cooperation and launches countless popular operas, including traditional operas: “Mu Guiying,” “New Romance of the Spear,” “Story of the Scented Sachet,” “Luoyang Bridge,” “Yue-Ying Wang Beats Yao-Jin Cheng with a Stick,” “Flirting Scholar,” etc.; children’s operas: “Pa-Chieh Chu Makes Trouble in the Silk Cave,” “Dragon Palace Romance,” “Is Money Moving Away?!,” “I Heard that the Nian Beast is Coming,” and adolescent Bangzi Opera: “Street Fighter Sanguo.”

【Witnessing Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company’s Pursuit of Excellence】

With the concept of “Inheritance, Protection and Innovation,” Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company constantly changes and innovates its repertoire, from traditional operas, Taiwanese local operas, experimental operas, children’s operas and the fusion of East and West Bangzi & Shakespear Opera (a fusion of Bangzi Opera and Shakespeare’s plays), etc., to present everything from traditional to modern theater on stage to the audience. Currently, the Company is committed to the sustainable operation of traditional opera, adhering to artistic quality, constantly bringing forth new ideas, attracting more audiences to appreciate, and recreating opera with its own characteristics, so that the performing arts of Bangzi Opera can be revived.

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