This summer will see Taiwan Season return to Edinburgh to hold its symposium event “Connecting with Taiwan” for the third year in a row, as well as participating in the 75th anniversary edition of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In addition to hosting in-person discussions in Edinburgh, the forum will be screened online as part of a worldwide programme of over 3,000 events. Furthermore, in a landmark achievement for Taiwan Season, this year marks the first time that a symposium event will be hosted at Fringe Central.
“Connecting with Taiwan” 2022 will consist of three thought-provoking discussions held between the 15th and 16th of August. At the invitation of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK, independent UK-based curator Jih-Wen Yeh has taken the lead on organizing this year’s symposium. She explained that the ongoing restrictions on international travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have focused Taiwan Season’s attention on how the performing arts can respond to the great socio-political concerns of the current era, with talks entitled ‘Experimentation and Innovation: Crossing Boundaries in Digital and Performing Arts’, ‘Loud and Clear and in Sight: Female Visibility and Creative Voices in the Performing Arts’, and ‘Knowledge in Action: How Performance-Makers Address Climate Change’. Featuring producers, dancers, curators, directors, and researchers from the UK, Taiwan, and Denmark, these free discussions seek to provoke new insights and stimulate enriching conversation on the future of the arts.
On the 15th of August, Taiwan Season will host two events in collaboration with Dance Base, Scotland’s national centre for dance. At 11am, Lai Hsiang-Ling, former CEO of Contemporary Culture Laboratory (C-Lab) and currently a consultant for upcoming museum New Taipei Museum of Arts, will give a talk on her strategies for collaboration and touring in a post-pandemic world with Laura Kriefman, CEO of Barbican Theatre Plymouth, and the artistic directors of the Digital Arts Foundation and Anarchy Dance Theatre. Together, they will discuss how tech-savvy curators and directors should respond as art increasingly moves into a digital space.
On the 15th at 1:15 pm, "Loud and Clear and in Sight: Female Visibility and Creative Voices in the Performing Arts" will look back at Taiwan’s first edition of the Women of the World festival (WOW) at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying). Hosted virtually by Wei Wan-Jung, CEO of OISTAT, the global theatre practitioners network organisation, together with WOW founder Jude Kelly, representatives of the Weiwuying and independent dance artists from Taiwan, this panel will convene to share their perspectives on how women can work together to promote diversity in the arts.
The third session of the Forum, "Knowledge in Action: How Performance-Makers Address Climate Change", will be held in collaboration with Fringe Central at 1.30pm on the 16th of August, focusing on the pressing topic of using creativity to help achieve Net Zero in greenhouse gas emissions. Katie Queen, Artist Development Manager of the Festival Fringe, has noted Taiwan Season’s increasing contribution to the Fringe’s programme of talks and events, expressing her excitement to have Taiwan Season take part in this year’s ‘Fringe Connect’ professional exchange programme. The talk will be hosted by Romane Boyer of Green Arts, Creative Carbon Scotland, together with key staff from the National Theatre and Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwanese dance company Danceology, and Danish dance company Sisters Hope. Featuring case studies from around the world, this brainstorming session aims to give creative sustainability a truly global slant.
Director Chen Pin-Chuan of the Cultural Division of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK stated that, following the impact of the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the symposium has not only sought to keep up with global trends in the performing arts, but also to advocate for the international competitiveness of Taiwan’s arts and culture industries. Taiwan Season’s collaboration with the Festival Fringe sounds a ringing endorsement for this year’s programme. In addition, the discussions will continue to be streamed online to encourage global participation, reach out to broader audiences, and lead to more stimulating debates.
From now on, free tickets and online access to the “Connecting with Taiwan” Symposium will be available at the Edinburgh Fringe website below. Please click on Find Shows and search for “Taiwan Season”.
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe ticketing website: https://tickets.edfringe.com/
