Betwixt and between creativity and heritage: remaking a traditional festival and creating festivals to remake traditions in a historic neighbourhood in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

This article endeavours to advance scholarship on the relationship among festivals, cultural heritage, sustainable development, and the connection between cultural heritage and creativity. The article positions festivals as sites to negotiate creativity and traditions and recognises that festivals are constantly evolving and transforming. Through studying three smaller-scale community-initiated festivals in the Taiwanese historic neighbourhood of Twatutia (Dadaocheng), the article demonstrates: (1) how ‘traditions’ can be remade and revitalised to adapt to a changing society through creative intervention and active collaboration with the cultural and creative industries; and (2) how local communities can create festivals as creative means to showcase, revitalise, and remake local traditions. Provided that (1) there is mutual trust and long-term collaboration between cultural and creative practitioners and preservers of cultural heritage and traditional traders and practitioners; and (2) the autonomy of creative practitioners is respected, the article argues that creative interventions, such as festivals, can contribute to revitalising, rejuvenating, and remaking local traditions and support organic and sustainable development of local cultures without rejecting external influences.

KEYWORDS:

• Festival
• intangible cultural heritage
• heritage remaking
• creative intervention
• cultural and creative industries
• Twatutia (Dadaocheng), Taipei, Taiwan

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Shu-mei Huang for her insightful comments on the article’s earlier draft and Ying-fen Chen for the conversations and discussions when the study was carried out. The author would also like to extend the gratitude to the two annoymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. For instance, some funeral companies in Taiwan use ‘wenchuang’ in their corporation name, with which I do not agree.

2. Some temple-related performances, including giant divine puppets and guard troupes (jiajiang家將), have been sponsored to perform in overseas Taiwan cultural exhibitions and festivals, as representatives of Taiwanese arts and culture (General Association of Chinese Culture 2022).

3. The dance performance can be viewed at: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1532035903502999

4. The enshrinement of patron deities in local temples and organisations is connected to a place’s agricultural, industrial, and commercial development. For instance, tea merchants relying on maritime trade enshrined Mazu (媽祖), the protector of seafarers, in their guild.

5. Chen Hsi-huang (陳錫煌), a state-recognised preserver of glove puppetry with family and professional roots in the area, was invited to demonstrate his puppetry art at TS 2019. There was also an open-air screening and post-screen talk of Father, a documentary about Chen. A local-based renowned tailor, Chen Chung-hsin (陳忠信), who also made costumes for Hou Hsiao-hsien’s award-winning movies, and his cheongsams (qipaos), have often been the AHF foci.

6. Another more successful story is ‘DaxiDaxi’ (大溪大禧), a collaboration between a local museum, designers, and the local community to preserve and remake the annual temple festival and related folk arts in the historic town of Daxi (大溪), around fifty kilometres from Taipei.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore [Research Fieldwork Grant]. The research was approved by the National University of Singapore Institutional Review Board (Approval Number: NUS 3204; NUS-IRB Reference Code: A-16-328).

Notes on contributors

Desmond Hok-Man Sham

Desmond Hok-Man Sham is an affiliated researcher at the International Center for Cultural Studies at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. He received his PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London. With expertise in East and Southeast Asia, his research has three foci: (1) the politics and potential of cultural heritage, memory, and museums, particularly those related to contested and ‘difficult’ pasts; (2) cultural heritage, cultural and creative industries, and sustainability; and (3) postcolonial/decolonial studies. Dr Sham will join the Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies at the University of Nottingham as an Assistant Professor in Cultural and Creative Industries in January 2024.