Keywords

Introduction

This chapter analyzes the dynamics of musicals and their reception in the local context in Asia, and inspects the recent trends from translation and importation toward adaptation and creation in musical theater in Taiwan. From global to local , examining performance as labor and labor as performance, musical theater in Taiwan has for some time been importing Broadway musicals for different modes of performing to present various aesthetic styles. Few are faithful performances in English. Exploring musical theater in Taiwan in the theoretical frame of translocality and translation, this chapter focuses on Asian creative local musical, the new performance of the Hakka musical Xiangsi Nostalgia (《香絲 相思》 (June 5, 2016, Taipei) produced by Taipei National University of the Arts to stage at the National Theater. I argue that the performance is a high-end collaborative mental and physical labor. No matter what forms or styles, among adaptation and creation works, translation is a significant translocal undertaking in staging musical theater in Taiwan.

Translocality of Musical Theater

Moreover, Asian musical theater translates or adapts Broadway musicals to create its own Asian voice. From English to Chinese, Taiwanese, or Hakka language and culture translocation, since European forms of musical theater in early America in the early eighteenth century, the traditional forms of minstrelsy, vaudeville, burlesque, revue, and comic opera and operetta have been transformed into the Asian modernity through translocal cultural collisions, fusion, interaction, heterogeneous intercultural combination, and innovation.

In cultural mobility and diasporic hybridity , I think that in between tradition and modernity local people have mixed synchronic and diachronic feelings. This is particularly apparent in the lines between here and there, now and then, reality and illusion—and the realistic and the fictional landscapes the audiences see are blurred. The flows of people and information are related to translocality. As Arjun Appadurai claims: “The many displaced, deterritorialized , and transient populations that constitute today’s ethnoscapes are engaged in the construction of locality” (1996, p. 199). Examining the relationship between the dimensions of global cultural flows, further refracting these disjunctures are mediascapes and ideoscapes , “which are closely related landscapes of images” (p. 35). Ideas flow in landscapes and the images of the musicals can spread globally. The ideas within the musicals can be conveyed through translation.

Translation Theory

With time and space translation theories have evolved from linguistic validation, interpretation, cultural, word for word versus sense for sense, and so on, to translation criticism, technologies like machine translation, to localization. I’m interested in combining the localization of translation and translocality in terms of the musical theater in Taiwan. Localization of translation covers glocalization, internationalization and localization, language localization, and dub localization. Musical theater, with its drama combined with singing and dance , has less of a language barrier than Xiqu and Chinese opera. Comparatively, it is easier to adapt the musicals on universal themes into the local musical productions in Taiwan. In terms of glocalization, with its postcolonial influences from the Dutch, Spain, Japan, Mainland China, and the US, Taiwan prefers to absorb European classics and American Broadway musicals, and go further than mere translation to create its own productions with the addition of local culture and specific flavor.

In my view, there are four kinds of musicals in Taiwan—(1) translation, (2) original creation, (3) adaptation , and (4) authentic faithful presentation of the foreign language original. I will analyze each of the musical types in Taiwan and Hong Kong by using related examples.

Translocal Labor of Translation

First of all, translation of musicals from English or other foreign language into Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan. Appadurai’s translocal concept is applied to the labor of translation in musical theater from one place to the other, from one language to the other, considering different cultures, national identity, and social background, the efforts of translations are understandable. For example, Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew is transformed into the musical Kiss Me Kate. Then, via translocal adaptation , the English musical Kiss Me Kate is translated with time and space difference into the Chinese musical Kiss Me Nana.

Most musicals staged in Taiwan rely on translation, with the majority being translated from English to Chinese. For instance, Kiss Me Nana (premiered 1997, restaged 1999) (Fig. 8.1)—produced by the Godot Theatre, with script adaptation and lyrics by Chen Le-Jung (陳樂融) and music composition by the talented tenor singer Tom Chang (張雨生, 1966–1997)—was translated from the Broadway musical Kiss Me Kate (1948), music and lyrics by Cole Porter.

Fig. 8.1
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Kiss Me Nana. New Millennium Version (1999–2000). (Courtesy of Godot Theatre)

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Although there are some differences between Kiss Me Kate and Kiss Me Nana, as Steven Suskin in Broadway Yearbook 1999–2000 comments, Kiss Me Kate is “All in all, capital entertainment” (2001, p. 85). I also think Kiss Me Nana provides audiences with capital entertainment.

Not just in Taiwan, but most musicals across Asia are translated from English into Chinese. For example, Rent (1996 official opening), with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson and loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème, was translated from English into Chinese and performed in Cantonese to become the Chinese version of Rent 《吉屋出租》 (premiered 2006) in Hong Kong. The role of Mimi was played by the famous female singer Karen Mok (莫文蔚), who was the first female popular singer to appear in a Broadway musical in Asia. This production also toured in Taiwan and Beijing.

Reception

Chunminmou’s performance review in Taipei claimed that Karen Mok who played the role of Mimi—a sexy pole dancer who has AIDS and a drug problem—danced adequately and sang well enough, even tried hard, but still cannot perform as well as the Broadway musical singers in this rock musical. Nevertheless, he feels that at least Mok did not ruin this musical.

Asian Original Creations

From Kiss Me Kate to Kiss Me Nana, and the Chinese version of Rent, the musical theater in Asia has demonstrated its ability to stage not just the Broadway musicals in English, but also in Asian languages (such as Cantonese, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Taiwanese aboriginal, Japanese, and Hakka ). Some of them are original and innovative local Asian inventions ; for instance, Snow Wolf Lake (1997) by the well-known popular Hong Kong singer Jacky H. Cheung (張學友), See the Sun (2000) on the Taiwanese aboriginal ethnicity issue, and the first Taiwanese musical April Rain (2007).

Plot, Reception, Impact

Snow Wolf Lake (in Cantonese, premiered 1997; in Mandarin, restaged 2004–2007) is the first well known original modern musical in Hong Kong. Jacky H. Cheung, the famous popular singer, working as artistic director and male lead, contributed a lot to making this musical artistic and successful. Snow Wolf Lake is about the love story between Gardener Hu Wolf and the rich lady whose family he works for, Peace Snow. It is based on the novel The Wolf’s Heart written by Chung Wei-Min. There are two acts in the performance, which lasts three hours. In the end of the tragedy, Hu embraces Snow’s dead body and they sink into the lake together leaving the audience sad.

The reception of Snow Wolf Lake has been great. This musical has been a huge box-office success. It is a big production, with a cast and crew of more than 300 people (for the continuous forty-two performances in Hong Kong in 1997) and audience numbers estimated to be more than 300,000. The music album of Snow Wolf Lake won the double Platinum Award in 1997. The theme song “Ageless Legend” was the best-seller that year.

The musical went on to successfully tour in Singapore, where it achieved great acclaim and broke the record for the number of performances staged and audience numbers. The Mandarin version of this musical was staged in 2004–2007 across Asia, in Beijing, Taipei, other cities in China, Singapore, and Malaysia, receiving excellent reviews and box-office sell outs. The success of Snow Wolf Lake (which is ingenuous in its combination popular music with operetta) has had a big impact on Chinese musicals in Asia. Many pop singers regard the musical as the other path to follow for their careers. Furthermore, with pop singers starring in musicals, more and more people have become interested in going to theater to enjoy the shows. Snow Wolf Lake, a big and excellent production, is still the most popular original Chinese musical so far.

I think the contributing factors to the success of this musical include having the famous pop singer Jacky H. Cheung as the male lead, nice songs, a sad and touching tragic love story, the miracle of the lovers coming back together to the “time wound” to see the past to try to heal it, the spectacular stage design, the sheer size of the production, and the new, brave spirit of creating the first original Chinese musical in Asia (Fig. 8.2).

Fig. 8.2
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The Taiwanese aborigine young man sings of his despair and hope in the musical See the Sun. (Courtesy of Godot Theatre)

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Theme, Reception, Comments

In Taiwan, See the Sun is the first original musical script performed by the Godot Theatre . The theme is Taiwanese aborigines’ survival in the modern urban city of Taipei. The story follows a Taiwanese aborigine brother and sister through their tough lives in the modern society of capitalism. They cannot make a living on the mountains as their aborigine ancestors did before. They have to come to the metropolitan city to try to earn their bread, despite being faced with exploitation and low wages. This musical also deals with the stereotypes and problems of the Taiwanese aborigines, such as drinking, prostitutes, unfair education chances, and mistreatment due to prejudice. It is original in its addition of Taiwanese aborigines’ ritual dance , myth, and singing, making it a unique local musical (Fig. 8.2).

April Rain 《四月望雨》 (2007), the first acclaimed Taiwanese musical, is about the love story of the Hakka composer Deng Yu-Hsien (鄧雨賢, 1906–1944), who rid himself of the burden of tradition to dedicate himself to the modern “dance era” during Japanese colonialization. This original musical creates brand new scores and lyrics using Deng’s most famous four songs—“Rainy Night Flower” (《雨夜花》), “Spring Breeze” (or “Whispering Hope”《望春風》), “Moon Night Sorrow” (《月夜愁》), and “Four Seasons Red” (《四季紅》). The four songs symbolize joy, sorrow, hope, and annihilation, which reflect society and milieu under Japanese colonialization in Taiwan at that time.

This original Taiwanese musical is performed mainly in Taiwanese, imbued with Mandarin and Hakka language, and a little Japanese. Deng was passionate about creating change for music in Taiwan during Japan’s colonialization and the cruel World War I. Deng was renowned as the “father of Taiwanese ballads.”

This Taiwanese musical, April Rain, was sponsored by Younglin Foundation and staged by All Music Theater. The artistic team is full of professionals, including artistic director and original script playwright Yang Chung-Heng, composer (Jan Tien-Hao), Taiwanese lyrics and dramaturge by Wang Yu-Hui, Hakka lyrics by Chung Yung-Feng. Direction and script adaptation is by Yang Shih-Ping.

This original Taiwanese musical has an abstract implicit emergent Taiwan cultural atmosphere, as Pei-Hsin comments: [it] presents Taiwanese people’s characteristic of “the roses which cannot be pressed flat.” Even through tremendous torture, we can still be reborn after spring rain. This musical depicts the story of dream, hope, annihilation, and rebirth. It intends to express the strong spirit of Taiwanese people, soft yet resilient, concerned with the world and love. April Rain expects that Taiwan, Formosa, beautiful island, can eventually become a peaceful and joyous island. (2011).

In 2007, immediately after the first Hakka musical My Daughter’s Wedding, April Rain received compliments from the critics and applause from local Taiwanese audiences. Appealing to the island’s national identity, the Taiwanese musical April Rain has great good box-office success (Fig. 8.3).

Fig. 8.3
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Composer Deng Yu-Hsien and the singer’s love story in April Rain. (Courtesy of All Music Theater)

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The creative Chinese musical script for Mulan received first prize in the Fucheng (Tainan City) Literature Awards. Directed by Lu Bo-Sen, playwright and actor Pao-Chang Tsai’s provocative musical was produced by Tainan Jen Theatre. Mulan was selected to be staged in 2009 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Department of Drama at National Taiwan University. This creative and provocative musical on gender issues was restaged at the National Theater in 2011.

The musical Mulan challenges gender and relationship stereotypes. The plot becomes complex when the male army generals are confused as to whether they have fallen in love with the man or the woman. The story also adds some contemporary social situations, such as introducing the element of the eldest daughter being pregnant outside of marriage, which means she cannot take her elderly father’s place in the army. The youngest son is homosexual and this might cause him a lot of trouble if he were to serve in his father’s place in the army. The creative additions of the funny plots, in superb mise-en-scène, modern singing, and dance make this original Mulan special. (Fig. 8.4).

Fig. 8.4
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The musical Mulan was inspired by and adapted from the animated film . (Courtesy of Director Lu Poshen, Tainan Jen Theatre, and Photographer Chen, Yu-Wei)

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Adaptation

Thirdly, some musicals are (major or minor) opera and film adaptations; for instance, Love Ends in Night Shanghai (2002, Taipei) adapted from Alexandre Dumas fils’ novel La Dame aux Camelias, Running Angel (2005) adapted from the film Sister Act (1992), and My Daughter’s Wedding (2007) adapted from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

The adaptation Love Ends in Night Shanghai changes the setting from Paris in France to Shanghai in China in the second decade of the early twentieth century. In the adaptation, the story is condensed to be about the transition year in which Courtesan Bai Yu-wei enjoyed life, fell in love, and went from living a luxurious life to a plain one. She is sacrificed for love. Eventually, she was so depressed that she passed away. Tsai Chin, the famous folk singer, playing the role of Courtesan Bai, sings well in her deep Alto voice.

Another example of adaptation is Hello Dolly! According to Mu Yu, director and choreography Gower Champion has done “an excellent piece of work in Hello Dolly! (1964) which won him a decisive success” (2012, p. 172). This musical is about the matchmaker Dolly’s love story. The Chinese version Hello, Dolly! (《我愛紅娘》) (2010, Taipei), adapted from the Broadway musical, is directed by Liang Chi-Ming’s Godot Theatre and performed in Manadrin.

Famous TV hostess Bai Bin-Bin stars as Dolly. Musician and lyricist Chen Kuo-Hwang mixes Japanese pop songs, American jazz dance , and a live big band, in collaboration with Ju Tzong-Ching’s Percussion Group. The dance style is a combination of samba, salsa, modern ballet, rectified Indian dance , tango, and so on. This musical combines the multi-art of theatrical art and TV talk show.

Authentic Faithful Presentation of the Foreign Language

Last but not least, some musicals faithful “authentic” presentations in French or English, staged in Taipei. For instance, Notre Dame de Paris (《鐘樓怪人》) is adapted from Victor Hugo’s novel and sung in French (premiered in Taipei 2005, restaged in Taipei 2013, April 2015, male lead Matt Laurent). Others include Romeo et Juliet (2016 Taipei), Le Petit Prince (《小王子》) (Asia tour 2007, 2016, Taipei), and French Musical GALA Concert (2016 Taipei).

European forms have influenced musical theater in Taiwan as well as in some other countries in Asia. European forms (such as the ballad opera , comic opera , pasticcio, minstrelsy, vaudeville, burlesque, revue, operetta) dominated musical in early colonial America. According to Richard Kislan in The Musical: A Look at the American Musical Theater: “Although importation declined when native talent emerged, the earliest work of the American artists was never less than European in form, style, and spirit” (1995, p. 11). Similarly, through importation of European musicals, Taiwan has learned to develop the various forms of musical theater and cultivate the talent to create original musicals based on the local culture.

Inviting famous musicals from France to perform at the Taipei Arena is very lucrative for the creative industry. It goes without saying that those authentic musicals from Europe, Canada, and the US are very popular in Taiwan. And these musicals inspire the emergence of native talent to produce innovative cross-boundary multi-arts in Taiwan.

Multi-art

Jolin and Pao’s PK (2015) is a collaboration between pop music and the theater. Jolin Tsai is a popular singer who has received many music prizes, including the Golden Melody Award (2007), and held many successful concerts, including at the Taipei Arena. Pao-Chang Tsai, a young theater director, playwright, and actor in his late thirties, is gradually emerging from the Experimental Little Theater to the Tainan Jen Theatre to the musical theater in Taiwan. This cross-boundary collaboration is initiated and performed at the National Theater in Taipei. The idea is that Jolin Tsai taught the male director and actor Pao-Chang Tsai how to dance in high-heeled shoes and sing the song “Play我呸.” In return, Pao-Chang Tsai taught the singer Jolin Tsai how to play the role of Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in order to perform the famous monologue in the balcony scene.Verse

Verse   JULIET.  O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?  Deny thy father and refuse thy name;  Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,  And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.  (Skip Romeo’s Aside line.)  ‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;  Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.  What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,  Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part  Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!  What’s in a name? that which we call a rose  By any other name would smell as sweet;  So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,  Retain that dear perfection which he owes  Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,  And for that name which is no part of thee  Take all myself.  (Act 2, Scene 2)

After translation, Tsai performed this monologue in Mandarin. The result is that both of them recognize the efforts and progress of each other. Pao-Chang Tsai, wearing a pair of red super high-heeled shoes, is camp, flamboyant, conceited, and arrogant, shakes his hips sexily while singing the alluring pop song. Jolin Tsai is in her thirties and has no prior acting experience. She is quite shy and charming as she portrays the young teenager Juliet pining for love. Although not exactly a musical, Jolin Tsai and Pao-Chang Tsai’s PK work is a new multi-art collaboration of music, dance , and drama in the modern pop form (Fig. 8.5).

Fig. 8.5
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Jolin Tsai and Pao-Chang Tsai’s PK (2015). (Courtesy of National Theatre)

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Hakka Musical “Xiangsi Nostalgia”

Nine years after the first Hakka musical, a second, Xiangsi (Lovesickness) Nostalgia (2016) was staged in Taiwan. (Fig. 8.6). As already discussed, My Daughter’s Wedding (2007), an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, was the first Hakka musical. Both were produced by Taipei National University of the Arts and sponsored by Hakka Affairs Council. Xiangsi Nostalgia is different in that the script by playwright Lin Chien-Hua is taken from a Taiwanese short story, “Tung Flowers,” written by local Hakka author Kung Wan-Tsao (龔萬灶). Issues of ethnicity, love, and class are examined through lovers’ misunderstandings set largely in the much simpler 1930s period. The woodcutter Master Hwang’s first apprentice, Lee Mu-shen (李木生) (played by Hsu Hao-Hsiang), loves a poetic Hakka girl, Liu Yu-chuan (滿妹, Manmei, “Miss Satisfied or Full”; played by Liu TingFang), whose family (彭城堂) lives on Tai number 3 freeway (Fig. 8.7).

Fig. 8.6
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The cast in the Hakka musical “Xiangsi Nostalgia” (《香絲 相思》) (2016, Taipei). (Courtesy of Hakka Affairs Council)

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Fig. 8.7
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The lovers in the Hakka musical “Xiangsi Nostalgia” (《香絲 相思》) (2016, Taipei). (Courtesy of Hakka Affairs Council)

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Xiangsi Nostalgia emphasizes Hakka music and song rather than dance or spectacle , contrasting with the earlier Hakka musical and making up for the previous musical’s auditory weakness. Xiqu (戲曲) director Lee Hsiao Ping (李小平) received the National Literature and Arts Award (2011) and is noted for his direction of the Guoguang Opera Company (國光劇團), which has staged several productions mixing traditional Chinese Peking opera and modern theater, such as Meng Xiaodong, Cleopatra and Her Crowns. Here he represented Hakka women’s longing for love in the 1930s. Miss Full loves Lee Mushen, yet misunderstandings and a mutual love that is never clearly discussed block their implicit love. Miss Full is left longing and full of sorrow, thinking herself abandoned after Lee’s death in an accident. She dies having never discovered the truth.

The play involves six scenes. Pingmei (Flat Girl, 平妹; played by Chien Yu-Lun), Liu’s adopted daughter, narrates and commemorates Manmei, Liu’s daughter, with whom she has a good relationship. Manmei is sensitive and pretty, and has memorized many Chinese poems, yet has a crippled leg. Pingmei, born to a poor family, has been adopted by the Liu family as a child to be a household helper and, when she grows up, to marry Liu’s son in the tradition of a child bride (童養媳, tung yang hsi). One rainy day, the woodcutter Master Hwang and his young apprentices, including Lee Mu-shen (李木生, literally “Wood Birth”), take shelter at Liu’s house.

There is no real climax in this lyrical Hakka musical, making the performance rhythm rather slow and flat, but giving emphasis to the Hakka singing. Only at the beginning of the final scene is there a revelation. In contrast to scene 5, in which Manmei with sorrow laments that she must wait for Lee, in the final scene 6 we learn that many years have passed and Pingmei’s teenager daughter accompanies the Liu family to Manmei’s burial place for the tomb-sweeping festival. Suddenly we realize that Manmei died of sorrow. At first the viewer assumes Lee abandoned her. However, a stranger, who is actually Lee’s nephew, appears, and the audience members learn Lee died in an accident long before Manmei’s death. Underneath Lee’s pillow, there was always the cherished poetry book that Manmei had lent him. When Manmei’s aged mother brings the book to Manmei’s tomb, saying, “Alas! Manmei, he does not forget you!” the audience members, who included the current Taiwanese president as well as myself, were deeply touched, and many were moved to tears. The powerful ending of the performance left a feeling of high artistic achievement.

An orchestra and chorus accompanied the live performance at the National Theater with Hwang Pei-Shu (黃珮舒), a strong Hakka singer, playing Yu-Niang (羽娘, Lady of Feathers, the symbol of the white crane = fate). With many Hakka images of white tung flowers, flowery clothes, and blue shirts, in Xiangsi Nostalgia artistic director Wu Jung-shun (吳榮順) tried to “let the audience members see, through this performance, the spirit of Hakka humanity, feelings and dialogue under Acacia, the Xiangsi” (相思, “I Miss You”) trees (= the same pronunciation of 香絲 in Hakka language). The poetics celebrated Hakka ancestors’ lesson of “cultivating on sunny days and reading on raining days” (晴耕雨讀) (Xiangsi Nostalgia 2016, p. 4).

Manmei, whose name in Chinese characters (滿妹) means “satisfied or full girl,” died of heartbreak without discovering that she was loved in return. Her name is ironic since she dies young and full of regret. The surprise reversal in the final scene saves this nostalgic Hakka musical. However, the plot did not seem reasonable. Lee’s master would have told Manmei’s father that the young man had died in the accident, allowing Manmei to know he did not desert her. Lee’s nephew’s sudden revelation, however, left viewers with a strong emotional impression.

There were two weddings in My Daughter’s Wedding, while Xiangsi Nostalgia had only one wedding for the living, working against the standard musical model of a happy ending. Lee, however, designed the closing scene to allow Manmei’s family and the young nephew to circle on the forestage (choreography by Tung I-Fen) beneath Manmei’s tomb in a slow-motion dance with music to comfort the souls of the dead. As director, he also added the symbolic wedding for the dead: Manmei and Lee Mu-shen appeared wearing traditional red bridal costumes (designed by Chen Wan-Li and Chen Chia-Min) and holding the red long ribbons representing union. The effective stage design was done by Wang Shih-Hsin, with lighting by Chien Li-Ren. The couple bowed beneath a red arch. Holding a wedding for the dead, which is still done among Hakka today, is a traditional custom called sacred marriage (冥婚). In this scene the atmosphere was transformed into a ritual uniting the couple in heaven.

In My Daughter’s Wedding , as I wrote in a previous performance review (Tuan 2011), the authors contemporized and localized the work, emphasizing dance and spectacle via “local color,” but the troupe was reprimanded for neglecting Hakka song. Xiangsi Xiangsi Nostalgia, by contrast, emphasized dialogue, singing with correct Hakka pronunciation. The musicians and the chorus in the orchestra pit added to the effect (Fig. 8.8).

Fig. 8.8
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Pingmei (平妹 Flat Girl)’s wedding in the Hakka Musical Xiangsi Nostalgia (2016, Taipei). (Courtesy of Hakka Affairs Council)

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This performance was lyrical rather than theatrical, with a much higher standard of Hakka songs, composed by Yen Ming-Hsiu, who included Hakka traditional mountain songs, small tunes (滿妹), and Pingban (平板) to meet the cultural policy of the Hakka Affairs Council. Although we had to wait nine years for this second Hakka musical, perhaps we can look forward to a third soon: with Tsai Yin-Wen’s election as Taiwan’s first female president and a Hakka ethnic sworn into office on 20 May 20, 2016, and her Democratic People Party (DPP)’s ruling the country, we look forward to her fulfilling her promise of supporting Hakka culture and upholding the DPP’s national policy of localization and internationalization.

Musical theater in Taiwan has developed from translating or importing Western musicals to creating local musicals. The legacy of the musical lives on across Europe, America, and now Asia: Taiwan is in the process defining the nature of the Taiwanese musical.

Critics’ and Scholars’ Comments

In the program for Xiangsi Nostalgia TNUA President Yang Chi-wen points out the “lovesickness; that, even across great distance, they miss each other continually. According to Yang:

Missing someone, a deep concern, is the most difficult obstacle for human beings to get over. Puzzled by feeling, tortured by feeling, they think of love, loss of love, and dream for love. (2016, p. 3)

The female protagonist Manmei died of missing the man she loved without knowing that she was loved in return. As mentioned in the previous section, her name Manmei, which in Chinese characters (滿妹) means “Satisfied Girl” or “Full Girl”, is actually ironic because she is not satisfied at all. Instead, she is crippled, does not live her life to the full, and dies young, full of regret.Verse

Verse  Love comes at a cost, as the ancient Chinese poet Liu Yung’s poem suggests:  The dress takes to loosen gradually and I am more and more emaciated,  No regretful plying at all, I am rather for her/him only distressed as I did.

Even a king would give up his kingdom for true love

With regard to the script, I think that the plot arrangement is flawed. It is not reasonable for Lee Mu-shen’s master not tell Manmei’s father that the male protagonist had died in an accident. If he had done, Manmei would know of his death and that she had not been deserted by him without any news or letters. Before the intermission, the performance was flat and slow without any major action. After intermission, however, when the stranger (Lee Mu-shen’s young nephew) appears to reveal the truth, the sudden realization and surprise altered the audience’s reaction to the whole performance from so-so to good.

Comparison of the Two Hakka Musicals

In a comparison of the two Hakka musicals, with regard to the labor of translating and adapting the script, the first Hakka Musical, My Daughter’s Wedding,

cut Shakespeare’s prologue and five scenes, simplifying the play to quicken the pace of the story as the narrative mixed up time and space. … The deconstruction of Shakespeare’s frame story and removal of the Elizabethan concept of the patriarchal power allowed for a reinterpretation of gender roles. Modern music and professional dance numbers attracted applause. References to Internet cafés, online games, motorcycle machismo, and contemporary military culture made the production up to date, while traditional Hakka elements is set, clothing, female advisement, and wedding customs increased local flavor. The mixture reflected contemporary life and made the work distinctly Taiwanese. (Tuan 2011, pp. 576–577)

Even though this recent second Hakka musical Xiangsi Nostalgia lacks the excellent dance and the spectacle of the first Hakka Musical My Daughter’s Wedding, Xiangsi Nostalgia avoids the negative comments the first Hakka musical got. For example, Xiangsi Nostalgia has merits in not using too many artificial cultural constructed Hakka images. And the second Hakka musical includes more dialogues, conversations, monologues, and singing in correct and pure Hakka pronunciation. The cast also collaborates well with the live orchestra and the choir who sing Hakka songs underneath the orchestra pit.

Conclusion

The legacy of the musical is apparent throughout Europe, America, and Asia. As David A. Crespy points out, “the example of 1960s pioneers drove theater across America to this day. Off-off-Broadway stages are found thousands of miles from New York—in Seattle, Minneapolis, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles—wherever there are artists hungry to produce fresh work” (2003, p. 13). Travelling across landscapes, the musical theater in Taiwan has carved a path from translocal labor of translation, in the process of adaptation and authenticity, to original multi-art creations.

As Steven Suskin believes, “Color is and should be inconsequential” (2001, p. 86). There is no race problem in Taiwan, but the musical theater in Taiwan reflects the concerns and issues of class, gender, and ethnicity. From the examples and the case study in this chapter, we can see that musical theater in Taiwan has transformed from translation to multi-arts with local cultural characteristics . As high-end art produced through collaborative mental and physical musical theater in Taiwan has developed from translating, importing Broadway musicals, and inviting European musicals in French to perform in Taiwan to creating her own local musicals.

Even though nothing lasts forever, with time and translocal space, no matter whether we are speaking in Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka, Japanese, or English, translation labor, multi-arts, and various aesthetic performing styles have bloomed into full beautiful flowers in the musical theater of Taiwan.