Women Break Into Once Male-Dominated 'Guardian Generals' Dance
Women in Traditional Arts
REPORTER:
The traditional “Guardian General’s” temple dance, long dominated by men, is getting a trickle of female performers dedicated to furthering the art form and breaking barriers. Lily LaMattina reports.
Your hands. Your hands aren’t right. Again.
From the dark, Lin Han-yi calls out instructions to a student learning the moves of an artform that long excluded women like her. Part martial art, part dance, it’s been a fixture of many temple fairs in Taiwan for a century now—where performers in fierce face paint and grand costumes impersonate spirit generals.
Lin had been determined to break the gender barrier from a young age—and with her background as a trained dancer, has found it, physically at least, to be easy.
Lin Han-yi (PERFORMER):
When I was five, my mother took me on a pilgrimage.
I saw the [theater] troupe enter the temple
there were eight generals and guardian generals.
I hid to one side and watched and I thought
“How cool. I want to dance too.”
I thought, “One day I’ll definitely dance as a guardian general.”
And dance she still does. Tradition might frown upon it: The generals and gods are seen as masculine, represented by the principle of “yang”, not suitable for women, who belong to the opposing principle of “yin”. But times have changed and she’s now one of a growing number of women making a tradition that once left them out into something of their own.
Chen Chi had a similar experience growing up, with a bit of a twist: Her own father used to perform as a guardian general. She’s one of a team of young women who’ve joined Lin’s troupe.
Chen Chi (PERFORMER):
I want to express myself.
And there happens to be this platform and it’s so cool.
That’s why I learned.
But she had to start learning in secret. Being a woman wasn’t the issue: Women performers are unusual, but that gender barrier, like many others, is breaking down. Instead, it was the reputation of the art form itself — an association with hooliganism and crime. It took a while for Chen’s father to come around.
Chen Yu-yen (CHEN CHI’S FATHER):
When we were dancing
whenever we weren’t arguing, we were fighting.
Just causing trouble.
We’ve lived it, so we don’t really want our kids learning.
Lin’s troupe, with its growing number of women dancers isn’t just helping claim an artform for themselves but also lifting its reputation from “a bit suspect” to “a piece of heritage worth re-examining.” And, as for the reaction at the temple events where they perform...
Chen Chi-tsai (TEMPLE COMMITTEE HEAD):
Watching it all today, it was excellent.
Very novel.
Lo Yueh-o (TEMPLE VISITOR):
I’d never seen women performing so well before.
And every one was beautiful.
I really admire how well their faces were painted.
Lin now hopes to elevate the art form even further by performing abroad — a woman acting as cultural ambassador for a form of movement where women are just now starting to have an impact.
Howard Chang, John Van Trieste and Lily LaMattina for TaiwanPlus.
