UCLA’s Taiwanese American Union hosts annual culture event
Students preformed martial arts, sang and acted out skits during Saturday night’s Taiwanese culture show. (Tamaryn Kong/Daily Bruin)
By Julia Raven
April 7, 2014 1:46 a.m.
He left his family in Taiwan four years ago to attend boarding school in Connecticut and an American college.
Though he is still far from home, first-year statistics student Darren Ho said he has found ways to stay connected to the culture by joining the Taiwanese American Union and performing in its annual culture show Saturday night.
Ho acted in UCLA’s 14th annual Taiwanese Culture Night, which featured a play with an original script by directors Jeffrey Ouyang and Sam Chuang, a Wushu performance by a UCLA martial arts club and the Taiwanese American Union’s a capella group.
The event in the Freud Playhouse was both a celebration and exhibition of Taiwanese culture, said Sam Chuang, one of the directors of the show and a fourth-year computer science student.
Students performed the show in Mandarin with English subtitles displayed on a screen. Mandarin songs played as sets changed.
The central storyline for the show followed eight characters in college in Taiwan who must re-evaluate their aspirations when they face unexpected obstacles in their lives.
The performance opened with a mother dropping her daughter off for college, where she meets a group of friends she will spend the rest of college with. In the performance, characters go through several dramatic moments, such as unplanned pregnancies and betrayal by loved ones.
“(The show gave) students here a sense of what life is like for college students in other countries, especially Taiwan,” said Jeffrey Ouyang, a third-year computer science student. “It touches on themes such as growing up, getting into society and getting a job.”
Though group members designed the themes of the show to give the audience insight into Taiwanese culture, their messages are universal, Ouyang added.
“Our theme is about college life and maturing into adulthood,” Ouyang said. “People face a lot of challenges maturing. The things people do in college change who they are.”
The stage sets were simple – a few chairs or a couch or an image indicating a location, along with subtitles in the background.
The Taiwanese a cappella group participated in the show by singing songs that related to distinct plot moments. A song entitled “Betrayal” was incorporated into the storyline after one particularly intense scene.
The Wushu club opened the second half of the show. As the lights dimmed, red back lighting and powerful music accompanied the traditional martial arts performers.
Producer Debbie Kuang, a third-year psychology student, said she is proud of the show because it started as a small idea on how to introduce an audience to Taiwanese culture and turned into a real large-scale event.
“I like it personally because we are college students and we don’t know what we are going to face,” Kuang said. “The future may or may not work out the way we think, but it’s about how you work through your obstacles.”
The event cost about $10,000. The Taiwanese American Union raised money through sponsors such as Associated Students UCLA, the Undergraduate Students Association Council, the Center for Chinese Studies and Volcano Tea House, Kuang said.
“I feel that having (Taiwanese) Americans come together and produce and show their own culture has a deep meaning,” Kuang said. “This sense of identity is really strong … You become aware of your identity, and have the belief and the enthusiasm in your own culture to spread it out to others.”
The show attracted students from Taiwanese culture groups at USC, UC Irvine and Cal Poly Pomona.
Sarah Bok, a second-year political science student at UCLA, said she came to the show to support friends and learn more about Taiwanese culture.
Though she could not understand Mandarin and had to rely on subtitles, Bok said she thinks the relationship dynamics between the characters gave her insight into Taiwanese culture.
Ouyang said he thinks it is important for students to reach back to their roots and to explore different cultures through the show, especially because a part of being at UCLA includes being immersed in American culture.
“It has been a really fun experience and we have enjoyed the process. Seeing it be performed is a warming experience for us,” Ouyang said. “We are all missing out on some sort of cultural experience here, (so the show was) good for all students.”
