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Listening to the World Locally – The Homecoming Tour of Taiwanese Musicians

Publication date: 20 Aug 2024
Author: Lee Yi-ling, Wang Li-Chiao | Staff member at the Archives of Institute of Taiwan History

Ninety years ago, in August 1934, a group of young Taiwanese musicians embarked on the first Western music concert tour in Taiwan’s history. The Homecoming Concert Tour began with great fanfare during the scorching summer of the South Island, kicking off at the Taipei Medical School Auditorium. With a packed itinerary, the tour traveled southward, stopping at public assembly halls in Hsinchu, Taichung, Changhua, Chiayi, and Tainan, before culminating in a final performance at the Kaohsiung Youth Hall. Despite the demanding schedule, the musicians delivered exquisite piano melodies and harmonies to audiences across Taiwan, sparking widespread acclaim.

This article focuses on Taiwan’s first “Homecoming Concert Tour,” which was rapidly organized in just over a month. The program primarily featured Western musical compositions. During the scorching summer of the South Island, this grand musical feast unfolded with enthusiasm, traveling from north to south with seven performances. It offered audiences across Taiwan an auditory delight, broadened their horizons, and brought Western music closer to the local population. This tour marked the beginning of Taiwan’s musical diversity and led to Taiwan’s music being recognized on the Olympic stage, where Taiwanese music shone brightly on the global scene.

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"Kuo Hsueh-Hu Paintings and Papers" has Released
2023-01-12

Kuo Hsueh-Hu (1908-2012), one of Taiwan's first-generation gouache painters, was born in Dadaocheng, Taipei. During Japanese-ruled period, He was renowned as a Toyoga (Japanese painting) painter active in the official art exhibitions at the young age, and also a founding member of painting societies which aimed at promoting the research and creation of Toyoga in Taiwan. After World War II in 1946, Kuo participated in the founding of Taiwan Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition, and sought to get more opportunities for the sale of paintings by exhibitions overseas. From the 1960s onward, He moved to Japan and later to the United States, continuing to seek inspirations through travel sketches and create new works.

As a pioneer of Eastern gouache and the modern art movement in Taiwan, Kuo Hsueh-Hu's life experience and artistic creation are the precious cultural heritages of Taiwan art history. The digital archives of "Kuo Hsueh-Hu Paintings and Papers" is a collaboration between the ITH Archives and Kuo Hsueh-Hu Foundation. This record group is classified into several series of artworks as well as documentary materials, of which series V "Sketch Book" and series IX "Collection of Taiwan Fine Art Exhibition Catalogues" are finished compiling and open online now. Please visit the Taiwan Archival Information System to access "Kuo Hsueh-Hu Paintings and Papers."

   

 Sketches of Japanese landscape (1967) and peony (1973), painted by Kuo Hsueh-Hu.
(Identifier: T1089_05_0013、T1089_05_0016)


 The cover of The 4th Taiwan Fine Art Exhibition Catalogue (1930) and the page of Kuo Hsueh-Hu’s selected artwork “Festival on South Street.” (Identifier: T1089_09_01_0004)


 The cover of The 5th Futen Catalogue (1942) and the page of Kuo Hsueh-Hu’s selected artwork “Early Spring.”  (Identifier: T1089_09_02_0005)


 



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