Ignoring Traditional Culture

The following "letter to the editor" was published on Friday, Jun 19, 2009, on Page 8 of the Taipei Times (sister-paper of the Liberty Times).

http://www.taipeitimes.com:80/News/editorials/archives/2009/06/19/2003446522

Friday, Jun 19, 2009, Page 8

Ignoring traditional culture

I have to say that, while your competition’s bold all-caps headlines are eye catching, I’ve remained loyal to the Taipei Times for your generally balanced take on Taiwan’s developments.

This opinion is also set forth in your own 10-year anniversary ads, where you claim to be “the nation’s most reliable and comprehensive” newspaper, with “the inside scoop on the arts,” and on those “whose contributions to society deserve to be recorded.”

Apparently, Taiwan’s musicians and producers in the field of traditional arts and culture do not meet your criteria, as the nation’s prime music awards ceremony for traditional arts and culture earned nary a drop of your ink.

Or perhaps you were unaware that the Government Information Office has divided the 20th annual Golden Melody Awards into two ceremonies — an upcoming one for pop, and the other for traditional arts and culture, which came and went on June 6, at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.

In my opinion, this splitting of the awards was newsworthy in itself.

Why was traditional arts and culture segregated from what most would describe as the main event? Is it because traditional arts and culture are deemed to be of little interest? Or were there other motivations?

Whatever the case, we should care. And more importantly, you should have reported this.

A stroll through your pages on any given day reveals a growing concern that Taiwanese culture is being sidelined in favor of mainstream — and mainland (Chinese) — interests. So how could this development, and this event, have gone unnoticed?

Taiwan’s cultures are struggling to survive, with many facing the risk of becoming extinct. Hokklo (also known as Taiwanese) and Hakka cultures are in decline, and UNESCO rates every Aboriginal language in Taiwan as either in danger of extinction or already extinct.

With music at the heart of tradition culture, a failure to support traditional and cultural music can only aggravate the problem.

As a three-time nominee at this year’s awards (for best arranger, cross-over album and producer), I would have appreciated not only coverage of the awards, but a solid critique, as well. Many felt the performances did not do justice to Taiwan’s traditional cultures, and only by critiquing such events can we hope to improve on them in the future.

But by not reporting at all, you only serve to confirm the likely justification for segregating and marginalizing traditional arts and culture — that nobody really cares.

Indeed, if the Taipei Times — our great bastion of local culture — doesn’t deem traditional and cultural music to be newsworthy, then who should? And I suppose, from a reporting perspective, pop has so much more to offer.

Your very own “Pop Stop” column was right on top of this year’s POP-ular Golden Melody news, reporting that Jay Chou (周杰倫) has eight nominations, while Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) has secured two nominations.

Reading on, I learned that for his birthday, Wang purchased a used car, which the Environmental Protection Administration says “spews out 35 times more in pollutants than a new car.”

Now that is newsworthy.

Reading a little further, I learned that Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) “showed off her sexy moves” in a concert with Singaporean Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿), who dressed up as “a lobster-red creature from outer space” and “promised to fix Tsai up with some male action.”

On the other hand, those bold caps headlines are starting to look a little more appealing.

MATTHEW LIEN