Banging the Drum for Taiwan

Wonders at an old refinery

One feels a bit like Alice going down the rabbit hole as greenery envelops the path and the low rumble of drums floats in the air. Appearing before us are 22 sugar refinery buildings from the Japanese era that have been converted into performance spaces, restaurants, exhibit halls, and drum factories.

Following a reclaimed railway bed, we go deeper. A theater with nearly 1,000 seats has a stage built on top of a five-layer sugar press. A drama featuring percussion instruments proceeds festively on stage. In just half an hour, bass drums on stands, tritone drums, small tanggu drums, gongs, cymbals, and rainsticks each take their turn in the spotlight. The joyous music and beautiful movements of the performers are eye opening.

By the end of the performance, the audience, young and old, are cheering and clapping enthusiastically. The response gratifies Hsieh Shin, Ten Drum’s founder and director. “Performing arts fans only make up about 15% of the total population,” he explains. “Our regular schedule of two performances per day isn’t aimed at pulling in more of that core group. Rather, we’ve chosen to take a roundabout approach that ‘tricks’ the other 85% into coming in for a show.”

A global language

That “trick,” Hsieh explains, involves stepping out of the group’s comfort zone. Apart from their shows at home, they also go on tours abroad every year. And, reflecting his ambitions, since 2002 some ten hectares of cultural spaces connected to drumming have opened at the village. The repertory drumming program put on by Ten Drum is an excellent representative of Taiwan’s performing arts scene. When travelers arrive for a show​—​even those who don’t typically attend arts performances—they gladly take their seats and are “immediately enraptured by what they see and hear,” says Hsieh confidently.

The group’s repertory program has been in place for 15 years, with performances attracting more than 7 million people, including many foreign tourists. This success, Hsieh says, is a result of drumming’s cross-cultural character. “All countries have drum music, but each has special nuances that sets it apart.” Over thousands of years of history, drumming played an important role in the religious ceremonies and wartime communications of different classical civilizations, and it is this ancient legacy that enables people of all backgrounds to immediately under­stand and relate to drumming.

Although any nation’s drumming is closely connected to its own cultural history, it is by nature a form of music that easily resonates with people of all backgrounds.

Similar but different

Ten Drum’s ability to find common ground with foreigners and transcend cultural backgrounds is why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has selected Ten Drum to go on several tours abroad. For instance, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Taiwan’s and Vietnam’s respective missions, in November of 2022, shortly after Covid border controls were lifted, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Vietnam invited Ten Drum to perform in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as part of its 2022 Taiwan Culture and Tourism Promotion Fair.

Hsieh has spent much energy designing musical programs to capture audiences’ hearts and minds. He took the impressions he had gained of Vietnam on an earlier visit—of its simple farming villages that recalled the Taiwan of his youth—as a thread to connect eight pieces for a regular program and two encores. Drawing on rural ­legends, Taoist temples, and mountain forest landscapes, he created a program called Impression of Taiwan.

The program included “General Order,” which was inspired by the Eight Generals Taoist performance troupes unique to Southern Taiwan, and “The Door of Mem­ories,” which tells the story of Taiwan’s first self-­declared emperor, Zhu Yigui, along with “White Deer Running, Sun Moon Lake Shining,” based on a Thao tribal legend, and “The Mountain’s Summoning,” which offers impressions of Alishan’s lofty magnificence.

“Amused Rooster,” with its cleverly depicted anthro­po­morphized bickering roosters, was a number that Hsieh insisted on including. Found on the album Drum Music Land, which was nominated for a Grammy and an Independent Music Award, the composition imitates the calls of animals with musical instruments, both strongly evoking rural life and adding humor to the awe-inspiring grandeur of drum music. And it doesn’t just resonate with Asian audiences—it has brought the house down on tours of Europe and Africa as well.

(upper photo) Ten Drum’s founder, Hsieh Shih.(photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

The Ten Drum Cultural Village has invited artists from various nations to take up residencies there, broadening the horizons of group members while enabling the artists to become better acquainted with Taiwan. (courtesy of Ten Drum Art Percussion Group)

Making global connections

These original compositions reflect Hsieh’s unwavering creative intentions. He points out that the development of drum music in Taiwan has followed a similar path to that of percussion music in other Asian nations such as Korea and Japan. Although they were all influenced by Chinese drumming, through the process of localization they developed unique traits. Drawing inspiration from Taiwan’s Hokkien, Hakka and Aboriginal cultures, Hsieh’s works are very much informed by the authentic local culture of the island.

But Hsieh also actively looks to find new sources of inspiration abroad. He has invited top-tier international artists to come for residencies in the village. He hopes that the cultural exchange will “stimulate and broaden the horizons of the group’s members, making the village more international and allowing more foreigners to become acquainted with Taiwan.”

Take the group’s shows in Vietnam last year: The two compositions that the group performed—“The Battle of ­Talas” and “Thunderbolt”—both incorporate foreign cultural elements. “The Battle of Talas” describes a Tang-Dynasty battle and reflects its location on China’s western frontier, with the use of foreign hand drums and arabesque musical elements imparting an exotic air. The resounding and dynamic “Thunderbolt,” meanwhile, incorporates Western percussive elements. Through the low notes of big bass drums, it imitates the sound of fireworks. Both pieces open new possibilities for local drum music.

With its two regular daily performances, the village introduces drumming to the public at large, focusing on tourists and tour groups. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Winning fans for Taiwan

Ten Drum, which could be described as “in Taiwan but of the world,” is as skilled at listening to others as it is at giving them something to hear. Thus, when TECO Vietnam invited students and teachers from the Hanoi College of Art and the Bong Sen Traditional Music and Dance Theater to perform at the festival, and the Vietnam Youth Orchestra and other groups to take part in exchange activities, Yang Yu-wen, Ten Drum’s deputy director, who personally led its tour in Vietnam, welcomed these arrangements. Yang notes, “Singing and dancing are Vietnam’s strong suits in the performing arts. We brought our own drumming techniques, which we combined with global music to share with them.”

TECO Vietnam notes that as it was their first time putting on an outdoor activity of this scale, mishaps were inevitable, but fortunately the equipment setup issues were all resolved, and the passionate drumming received an enthusiastic response. Not only were several hundred Taiwanese expats in attendance, but the locals were especially reluctant to leave, constantly asking to take photos with members of the group. Overwhelmed by their popularity, Yang had no choice but to impose a limit on photos the following evening so that the group would have time to pack before leaving for their next destination.

“We succeeded in winning new fans!” Hsieh says. Since its founding, Ten Drum has been enriching Taiwan’s drum music as it responds to increasingly diverse cultural influences. To become a fan of Ten Drum is to have an amazing encounter with the beauty of Taiwanese ­culture.

photo by Lin Min-hsuan