文───臺南市政府文化局長葉澤山
│採訪整理────龔卓軍 │翻譯────吳泠涓

臺灣近現代文化與美術史系譜的重整與再探

臺南市政府文化局從今年開始，會以兩年的時間來做準備，將在2017年初的蕭壠文化園區，籌辦一場「當代藝術與信仰藝術展」。府城的傳統信仰一向是潛在的當代藝術資源，儀式、戲曲、陣頭、彩繪、剪黏、交趾燒已有好幾百年以上的傳承。然而，這部分的潛在資源，如何轉化至當代藝術之中，是一個值得深思的問題。
臺南市改制為直轄市前的首任文化局長蕭瓊瑞任內，就曾經在2001年舉辦了「府城媽祖文化節」活動，後亦稱為「媽祖迎壽華會」。每年春天，由北而南，在遶境活動中，由五光十色的藝閣、旗幟、陣頭，串起了正統鹿耳門聖母廟、公塭萬安宮、新寮鎮安宮、鹿耳門天后宮、安平開臺天后宮、文靈宮、開基天后宮、祀典大天后宮、媽祖樓天后宮、金安宮、海安宮、溫陵媽廟、檨仔林朝興宮、銀同祖廟、烏橋新南宮、鹽埕天后宮等宮廟，結合在地信仰文化，促進城市行銷。
另一方面，近年來，在市長賴清德的支持下，由我擔任總策畫、黃文博老師負責執行策畫的「大臺南文化叢書：地景文化／信仰文化／公路文化」各十冊的田野調查文化書寫，亦分別在2013、2015年發表出版。不過，特別值得當代藝術界注意的成果，應該是臺南市政府與臺南市文化基金會支持、臺南市美術館籌備委員會編寫的「歷史．榮光．名作系列：美術家傳記叢書」兩套二十四本傳記，分別在2012、2014年陸續出版，不僅為過去一系列傳統廟宇建築與畫師調查研究的成果，融入現代美術的思想，進行傳記的再書寫，指向臺灣近現代美術史系譜的重整，也為未來臺南美術館的先期研究工作，奠定了強而有力的基礎。

傳統信仰擴大連結到當代藝術的「交陪」

《交陪藝術誌》這份小雜誌（Zine，後文簡稱《交陪》），就在這個背景下，應運而生。一般用語中的「交陪」，本為應酬、交際來往的意思，希臘哲人亞里斯多德（Aristoteles）在《尼可馬赫倫理學》（Ethica Nicomachea）中對於「友誼」，也有「共同向善、共同取利、共同享樂」三種層次的畫分，就這三個層次來看，臺南的廟會節慶中扮演重要角色的「交陪境」、「交誼境」與「友境」，無疑是某種立基於民間共同的信仰，由民間社會自發形成的廟境組織，在媽祖與王爺共同信仰的精神前提下，聯境、聯庄變成了一、兩百年來一種特殊的民間社會組織動力。透過遶境的動態聯結，這些交陪境在作醮時互邀對話，使廟宇修建與香火延續的建構有了著落，自然形成了一種想像共同體。
如果以即將在2017年初蕭壠文化園區舉辦的「當代藝術與信仰藝術展」為目標，《交陪》的宗旨，便座落在以下四條軸線交錯而生的結點之上：活絡的民間在地信仰節慶、蓬勃的近現代民間信仰文化藝術、近現代臺灣美術史的反省、當代藝術展覽策畫的重新書寫。看起來這麼複雜的脈絡，使這個工作確實充滿了挑戰，但若以臺南在地文化與藝術的發展歷程來看，這道窄門卻散發著誘人的藝術幽光。為什麼要稱之為「藝術幽光」呢？因為，雖然臺南的民間信仰與文化異常活絡，可是，它們在現當代藝術的界域中，在現當代的畫廊和美術館對「藝術」的定義中，卻極少受到論述的青睞，所以才說它隱隱地發著幽光，以日常生活的浸潤方式，作用於在地藝術文化的自我創發過程中。
《交陪》策展與編輯團隊企圖在這四條軸線交錯而生的結點上，清點「交陪」的美術史意涵，並嘗試勾勒出一道「交陪」的當代藝術與當代美學力量線。或許，這一道力量線看似只不過是論述上的草擬，但是，從瓦爾堡（Aby Warburg）、岡倉天心、葛林伯格（Clement Greenberg）、貝爾汀（Hans Belting）與畢莎普（Claire Bishop）這些史論者的書寫與影響歷程來看，沒有美學論述上的草擬，就不可能會有新的藝術眼光的蘊生乍現。
目前，《交陪》策展與編輯團隊已經訪問了彩繪修復師蔡舜任，擅長公共藝術、裝置藝術的藝術家梁任宏，從傳統廟畫與電影看板轉到當代跨領域的繪畫、物件與表演的李俊陽，在蕭壠文化園區做過展覽，擔任藝陣館海報的設計師，作品在東京、京都展覽過的藝術家何佳興。在研究方面，也訪問了蕭瓊瑞教授、黃文博老師。
聽說，訪談過程發生一些有趣的事。第一是在西門路碰到創建於1681年的沙淘宮改建，裡面都是潘麗水畫稿的石刻，後來團隊跟廟方溝通，把這些石刻版畫拓印下來，全部大概有六十個圖版。後來沙淘宮他們還把拆下來的其中幾塊石刻版交給團隊來保管，現在有四塊，也許將來展出會有特殊的佈置。另外，整個團隊也參加了上半年很多香科、王船醮等王爺慶典儀式。
基本上，編輯團隊想把傳統信仰中的「交陪」概念，擴大連結到當代藝術。就當代的角度來說，「交陪」就是創造多點連結的可能，不論是一個展覽，或是當代的美術館、博物館，或者是像蕭壠這座新成立的兒童美術館，其實都在創造朝多方向連結的靈活連接埠，我認為，「交陪」不僅可以重新定義，也可以擴大到當代藝術界，透過書寫與展覽，給它一個多向度連結的意涵。
我個人的祖籍在鹽水，但是出生於佳里，王爺信仰在這一帶非常興盛，在我的記憶裡面，我對傳統信仰是什麼樣的記憶呢？雖然傳統信仰存在很多不同的層面，它有儀式、表演、遶境、燒王船這些部分，也有一些法師與道士的科儀、乩童的降鸞，同時，它也有一般寺廟裡面譬如門神彩繪、交趾燒、剪黏這些裝飾與水墨書法的部分，當然，空間與建築方面也很精彩。
然而，剛剛講的那些，都是我後來長大之後，開始接觸教育文化工作的時候才產生的知識性關注。小時候，我和一般小孩差不多，關注的其實是那些廟會周邊的東西，像廟會時搬演的歌仔戲、布袋戲，小孩子總愛在戲棚下穿梭，看看前臺後臺，眼睛不時盯著烤魷魚，宗教信仰的儀典部分，反而不會特別注意。不過，這其實就是耳濡目染的過程。
一直到我進入教育局服務，適逢政府推行鄉土教育、走出教室、向社區學習，這個政策走向影響了我的關注。當時，每所學校要以自己的學區進行調查研究，自編鄉土教材，直到那時候，我才特別關注到我們學區裡面有幾間廟、信奉那些神明、廟裡面有哪些交趾陶、彩繪、剪黏等等。之後，我又從教育局轉換到文化局服務，關注的重點又有些不一樣了。文化局涉及的是保存、傳習，所以要做紀錄、訪查，經歷這個過程，我才又更細部去觀察到，原來曾文溪流域的王爺信仰文化和鹽水溪流域不一樣，同樣是王爺信仰，曾文溪流域如將軍、北門地區迎五王，和許縣溪流域的保西代天府的迎三王就有差別。
不過，如果回到小孩子的感性經驗，或許可以跟當代藝術有更多的聯結和對話。譬如：《交陪》團隊告訴我，善化就有一個蘇俊穎木偶劇團。年輕的團主，他家就在善化慶安宮旁邊的菸酒店，從小他就跟著阿嬤看布袋戲，然後自己開始玩布袋戲。這可以給我們不少關於未來展覽的想像。我想，將來的展覽也可以有些展演和活動。如果有一些年輕的布袋戲控可以跟當代藝術家合作，一定會很有趣。從這樣一個概念出發，我們在想像的是，像歌仔戲與廟埕各式各樣的口說映演文化，對小孩子和一般人來說反而比較直接，或許當代藝術可以參考這樣的「交陪」形式。
另外，「交陪」這兩個字，強調是人為可以創造改變的部分，是意志與信念的發揚，是精神生活的形式，而不是要突顯宗教迷信的成分。譬如：《交陪》團隊在仁德的大甲慈濟宮，碰到一位畫師叫陳秋山，他在那邊畫了十二年。他也有一個很有趣的態度，就是雖然身為畫師，但他其實很反對迷信，他覺得科學都這麼昌明了，反而不如來重視藝術的表現，尋找介於傳統信仰與現當代藝術之間的轉換元素，我個人認為寺廟藝術有相當多材料可以在這方面轉換、發展。
譬如說蔡草如、陳玉峰，在我看來他們都是接了地氣的文人，而不只是彩繪師，不僅國學底子深厚，人文氣息的表現跟一些純粹匠師的作品頗有差異。同時，這種意識是自覺的，透過手藝，可以看見他們的人格。反觀當代，現在許多寺廟裡的剪黏、彩繪、建築構件，都變成工業化的規格品，真的大不如前。所以我會跟文化局的同仁說，現在的彩繪能夠修、能夠清潔的就盡量維持，千萬要避免劣質地重繪。像蔡舜任這樣的修復師，把嶄新的修復觀念、材料、做法，帶回臺南這個城市，我覺得會有很大的貢獻。就此而言，我反而覺得現在寺廟傳統工藝的藝術性一直在降低，需要外部的刺激，促使其重新思考自身的存在理由。像佳里的剪黏師傅保原師，只要是出自他手藝的部分，都做得眉眉角角，現在的整體環境離此境界很遠。
他們不是傳統所謂的學院派，但是他們有很強的學習動力，不斷去充實自己的內涵，當然包括學習一些西方現代的技法，潘春源就是一個很好的例子。其實，從日治時期這些畫師積極參加臺展與府展的情形來看，他們的傳承中，包含著學習精進的強烈自我要求。我有時候會想，如今，這些寺廟主事者的觀念真的非常重要。有些寺廟主事者慢慢開始有文化資產保存的概念，甚至認為寺廟裡的藝術和神明是要能互相彰顯、成為永恆的。所以仁德慈濟宮會請來像陳秋山這樣有現代美術觀的畫家來做廟畫。
我不確定這些畫師的現代性是否經過更細緻的探討，可以發掘出世界美術史上與眾不同的價值。但是，比如我在看葉王交趾陶的時候，會發現這些偶的眼睛，它們跟我是對看的，它們是無處不凝視著觀看者的。這種視線同樣也出現在潘麗水的門神彩繪的眼神裡。這些傳統藝師在創作的時候，已經想到未來的觀眾是站在怎麼樣的角度仰視作品，葉王甚至也考慮到鼻孔的角度，要黏什麼樣的方向，這些眉角，他的概念十分清晰，比例、視角、作品與觀眾身體間的相互協調，自由中有細微合理的調控與表現。雖然它們在藝術史上可能沒有專有名詞，但是傳統藝師可能已經具備完整的想法。這方面，真的要靠我們現在重新去論述、分析它們，重啟它們的當代意義。
就已經出版的材料來看，我覺得蕭瓊瑞老師、李奕興老師、徐明福老師、康鍩錫老師等人已經累積很多、很細緻的描述，也做了不少重要的出版與寫作。進一步的美學理論工作，若能慢慢從中梳理，再從比較美學與藝術史的問題去進行反思和論辯，或許會有出人意表的發現。如果這件事可以變成藝術界關心的問題的話，那麼，臺灣傳統藝術的發展，真的在未來會走出不一樣的路。尤其，年輕的藝術家如果願意回過頭來，意識到原來這是當代美學可供參照的特殊視點，我相信臺灣當代藝術家會走出不一樣的自我發展特色。

深耕及建構有形文化資產教育的迫切性

年輕世代願意在這方面出力，就可以給予傳統藝術新的詮釋和生命力。不然，我們現在一直在消費過去幾代藝匠、藝師、畫師與畫家的努力，未來十年、二十年後的人再看我們，會想說那時候的人沒有努力，並沒有留下什麼東西。這就好像我們現在所談的古蹟，已經開始做現代建築保存的登錄工作了。大家或許會說，現代建築只有差不多六、七十年的歷史而已，有什麼好當作古蹟的。但是，這正是我們不可取代的現代經驗。就此而言，有形文化資產其實對釐清「臺灣的現代性」很重要，對文化資產的當代詮釋與轉化，也非常重要。如果臺南本來是大家認為這些傳統藝術的發源地，我想，它的嶄新生命力，也應該是從這個地方重新長出來。
最後，不論是上面所說的展覽或重新詮釋，都具有教育上的重要意義。這些畫師目前面臨的問題，主要是因為傳統師徒制，導致這些技藝沒辦法進入現代的教育系統，如果現有的教育系統又忽視它們，或甚至是否認它們的價值的話，那麼，由於它們無法被傳承下去，加上市場因素或標案規格扭曲，必定讓品質細緻大器的藝術沒辦法生存。日本和歐洲反而有不少傳統技藝的專業學校，這些技藝若有機會在臺灣進入教育系統的話，在運作與教育過程中，第一個目標就是要讓整個社會認清它們的藝術價值和美學意義，也唯有成熟看待它們的藝術眼光和美學論述，才能保證教育傳承路徑的運作順利。但這要怎麼辦到呢？這就要靠有形資產的保存、藝術史的完整史觀和美學上的深度詮釋，三方面的配合，才有可能讓傳統藝術在正規的學制裡面，堂堂正正地彰顯它自身的存在價值，傳給第五代、第六代、第七代，直到永遠。

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FromReligious Neighborhoodsto the Contemporaneity of Temple Art
─────── Ze-shan Yeh Director of Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government

───Interviewed and compiled by Jow-jiun Gong Translated by Ling-chuan Wu

Re-organizing and Re-visiting Genealogy of Taiwan’s Modern Culture and History of Art

From 2015, Tainan Cultural Affair Bureau will spend two years to get prepared for an exhibition “The Exhibition of Contemporary Art and The Art of Belief” at Soulangh Cultural Park in the beginning of 2017. Traditional beliefs in Tainan have been the resources awaiting modern art to use. They are consisted of ceremonies, traditional Chinese opera, tīn-thâu (folk parade), colored painting, fragmented ceramic and koji pottery, all of which have a history of hundreds of years. Among these potential sources, how to transfer them into modern art is a question worth pondering.
Before the reorganization of counties upgraded as special municipalities of Tainan, the first director of Cultural Affair Bureau, Chong-ray Hsiao, once held an activity named “Matsu Culture Festival,” which was also known as “The Celebration of The Birth of Matsu” later in 2001. Every spring, from the north to the south of Tainan, the pilgrimage is composed of the Yi-Ko art parade, flags and folk parade. Orthodox Lu-Erh-Men Sheng Mu Temple, Wanan Temple Gongwenzai, Hsinliao Chang-an Temple , Luermen Matsu Temple, Anping Great Queen of Heaven Temple, Wenling Temple, Kaiji Matsu Temple, Tainan Grand Matsu Temple, Matsu Lou Temple, Jin-an Temple, Hae-An Temple, Wen Ling Matsu Temple, Shelin Chao-hsin Temple, Yin-tong Matsu Temple , Chih-nan Temple, Yan Chung Grand Matsu Temple and more temples will gather up for the event and combine it with local belief and culture, so as to market the city.
On the other hand, with the support of Mayor, Ching-te Lai, in recent years, “Tainan Culture Series: Landscape Culture/ Belief Culture/ Road Culture,” a collection of cultural writing based on fieldwork was published in 2013 and 2015. Each of the three topics was explored with ten volumes of articles. And I was the executive director and teacher Wen-bo Huang was the executive writer. Also, “Artists Biography—History, Glory and Masterpiece” being published in 2012 and 2014, is a collection composed of two series with a total of twenty-four books. It was supported by both Tainan City Government and Tainan Culture Foundation, and was edited and written by Tainan Art Museum Preparation Committee. This is not only a remarkable result of serial study of traditional temple buildings and painters but also the infusion of the thoughts of modern art into rewriting the biographies. As it points to the reconstruction of genealogy of Taiwan’s modern art, it also paves the way for preliminary study of future art museums in Tainan.

Traditional Religions Extending to Contemporary Art

The zine Art Associate (kau-puê) is born against this background. Under common circumstances, the original meaning of the phrase “kau-puê” should be social interaction and association. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, mentioned in Ethica Nikomachea that there are three levels of “friendship” which are “working together to be better, working together to gain advantages and working together to enjoy.” From the three aspects mentioned above, it is seen that “kau-puê,” “kau-gî” (交誼) and “iú” (友) play important parts in Tainan temple festivals. These are based on certain common folk beliefs. Through the spontaneously formed temple organizations as well as the common beliefs of Matsu and Wang Ye (royal lord), the cooperation among temples has become a unique social force for over one or two hundred years. With the dynamic connection in pilgrimage, temples “kau-puê” and invite one another for interaction so as to plan for temple building renovation and continuity of beliefs, which further forms an imagined community naturally.
If we consider it a goal to hold “The Exhibition of Contemporary Art and the Art of Belief” at Soulangh Cultural Park at the beginning of 2017, we shall have four interrelated themes in the zine Art Associate: first of all, to activate local beliefs and festivals; to enrich modern folk beliefs, and the culture and art derived from them; to review modern art history of Taiwan; and to re-condition the curation of contemporary art. Though it seems like a complicated and challenging task, as we go through the development of local culture and art of Tainan, this task is attractive with its artistic glimmer. And the reason why we would call it a “glimmer” is because that even though folk beliefs and cultures of Tainan are pretty active, rarely is it defined as art by galleries and museums of contemporary art. Nor is it welcomed when it comes to any related discourse. It is seen as a glimmer that exists in our daily life, which nurtures the development and creation of local art culture in an implicit way.
The editorial and exhibition team of kau-puê intends to identify where in the history of art is the practice kau-puê situated as well as to show the strength of contemporary art and contemporary aesthetics. Though it might be a start of such ambition, nevertheless, if we take a closer look at history commentators, such as Aby Warburg, Okakura Tenshin, Clement Greenberg, Hans Belting and Clair Bishop, who wrote and made a difference, we could tell that without the start of aesthetics discourse, it is impossible to form new visions in art.
Until this day, the editorial and exhibition team of kau-puê has interviewed several artists, including restorer Shun-jen Tsai, artist Jen-hung Liang that does public art and installation art, artist Jiun-yang Li who switched from traditional temple art and movie posters to cross-disciplinary contemporary paintings, objects and performances, at last, Timonium Lake, the artist who held an exhibition at Soulangh Cultural Park. He is the poster designer of Tainan Yizhen Gallery. His work has been exhibited in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan. As for research, we interviewed professor Chong-ray Hsiao and teacher Wen-bo Huang.
It is heard that during the interview, several interesting events took place. First, the team came across the reconstruction of Shatao temple on Xi-men road. The temple was built in 1681, and is filled with stone inscriptions made by the famous traditional artist Li-shui Pan. The team talked to the responsible person to make stone rubbings of all the works (about sixty pieces). After that, the temple handed several removed inscriptions for us to keep. Now since we have four of them, we might make them special decorations at the exhibition. In addition, the team participated in many recent ceremonies related to king boat burning.
Basically, the editorial team wants to extend the concept of “kau-puê” in traditional belief to the connection with contemporary art. In a contemporary sense, “kau-puê” is the possibility to connect nodes in various directions. Contemporary museums and art museums or the newly opened children’s art museum here at Soulangh Cultural Park can all serve as connecting portals. As far as I am concerned, the definition of “kau-puê” can be enriched and extended to contemporary art through writing and exhibition. which in turn, embodies its new definition of multiple connection.
My ancestors came from Yanshui, but I was born in Jiali, where the belief of Wang Ye is flourishing. As I think about traditional belief, what would I recall in the first place? Traditional belief exists in various aspects including ceremonies, performances, the king boat, and king boat burning. As for people related to the belief, we have masters and Daoist priests. Still there are more related parts with art, such as decorations like the colored portraits of door gods, koji pottery, fragmented ceramic or calligraphy. And do not forget about the space and buildings.
However, those that were mentioned above did not come into my mind as knowledge-based subjects until I started to get involved with cultural education affairs. As a child, what I cared about was interesting things surrounding temple fairs. For example, I was attracted by Taiwanese operas and puppet shows. Children like me would run around to look at the front and back stage with curiosity, and all we could see was the tasty roasted squids. I did not pay extra attention to religious ceremonies. We have been soaked into the culture since we were kids.
When I began my work at Education Bureau, the government was promoting local education that attracted my attention and influenced me. The policy included stepping out the classroom and learning from the community. During that time, each school was requested to do research as well as to make local teaching materials about their school districts. It was the time that I noticed how many temples there were in the area, what kind of gods we were believing in, what kind of koji pottery, colored paintings and fragmented ceramic we had in the temples, etc. Later when I started working in Cultural Affairs Bureau, the emphasis changed. What Cultural Affairs Bureau deals with are preservation, inheritance and education. Thanks to this experience, I started to take an even closer look and found that the belief of Wang Ye in the Tsengwen River basin differs from that in the Yanshuei River basin as the former welcomes five kings as in Jiangjun District and Beimen District while the monastery temple in the Syusian Creek basin welcomes three kings.
If we recall the perceptual experiences in our childhood, perhaps there will be more connections and communication between traditional belief and contemporary art. For example, the kau-puê team told me that there is a puppet show troupe called Jun-ying Su Puppet Show Troupe. Jun-ying Su, the young leader of the group, grew up in a grocery store next to Qingan Temple in Shanhua and has watched puppet shows with his grandmother since he was a child. Eventually, he started to play puppet shows himself. This inspired us in that if we host an exhibition in the future, we can organize some performances and activities. It would be fun if puppet show fans can work with contemporary artists. Using this concept as a starting point, we consider Taiwanese opera and the various folk oral performances would be more direct to show traditional art to both children and adults. Perhaps this kind of “kau-puê” can serve as a reference for contemporary art.
Besides, “kau-puê” emphasizes people’s ability to invent and change motivated by belief and will power. The concept values the forms of spiritual life rather than magnifying superstition inherent in religion. This could be seen as kau-puê team met a painter, Chiu-shan Chen, who has been working at Tachia Tsu-chi Temple in Rende for twelve years. His attitude toward traditional belief is pretty interesting. Being a professional painter, he is actually against superstition in view of the thriving development of science. In his point of view, he would rather put his eye on the expression of art and search for convertible factors between traditional belief and contemporary art. I personally think that there are numerous convertible materials in temple art.
Take Tsao-ju Tsai and Yu-feng Chen for example, in my opinion, they are not just painters but intellectuals. Their works stand out from those who simply work as craftsmen. With their self-awareness, their characters are revealed through their skills and art pieces. On the other hand, as we take a look at the modern society, we would find that many works of fragmented ceramic, paintings and building components have become standardized products manufactured industrially. They are not comparable to traditional crafts. That is why I would tell my colleagues that when it comes to paintings, if we could fix it, we fix it; if we could clean it, we should try our best to maintain its condition and avoid low-quality re-painting. For a conservator-researcher such as Shun-jen Tsai, he brings in good and new restoring concepts, materials, and methods, which I think will contribute greatly to Tainan. As I think about it, I have the feeling that the artistry of traditional temple craft is decreasing, and it needs outside stimulation to urge people to re-think why traditional religious art exists. If we look at the works of Master Bao-yuan Wang from Jiali, we could see that they are remarkably delicate comparing to others nowadays.
Though these artists are not academically trained, they have strong learning motivation that urges them to keep updating themselves such as leaning modern techniques from the west. Chun-yuan Pan would be a great example. In fact, painters in the Japanese colonial period actively participated in Taiwan and government exhibitions. This illustrates their strict self-discipline and how they aimed for excellence in learning. Sometimes I would think that in modern society, the leader of a temple plays a significant role. Some are beginning to develop the thoughts of preserving cultural heritage and even think that the art and gods in the temple should be able to manifest each other and to co-exist eternally. And that is the reason why Tachia Tsu-chi Temple in Rende would entrust a painter like Chiu-shan Chen, who possesses the concept of modern art to draw for the temple.
I am not sure if the modernity of these artists could lead to distinct value in the world history of art through detailed discussion. However, when I look at the koji pottery made by Wang Yeh, I found that the eyes of the statuettes actually stare at audience from every angle. It also happens with the colored paintings of door gods by Li-shui Pan. It is amazing that as these traditional artists do their creations, they have taken future audience into consideration. In Wang Yeh’s case, he is clear about details, including how he wants the nostril to be or what direction he would work on. The proportion, the perspective, and the coordination between the work and the viewer’s body would all be in great harmony as they were carefully designed. Even if there is no specific term for such technique in the history of art, traditional artists have already developed a complete sense about it. And it is our responsibility to re-discuss, re-analyze so as to renew the meaning of such art in the modern society.
As I go through published materials, I think teachers like Chong-ray Hsiao, Yih-hsing Lee, Min-fu Hsu, Tian-xi Kang have accumulated a lot of detailed description, and there are various important publications and writing. If aesthetics theories could be collated from these publications allowing people to further reflect and discourse from comparative aesthetics and art history, perhaps there would be an amazing discovery. If we can make it an issue in the art circle, then I believe we can really make a difference in the development of Taiwan’s traditional art. Particularly, if young artists become willing to turn to traditional art, they would realize that it can be a unique referring perspective for contemporary aesthetics. I have faith that Taiwanese contemporary artists will then be able to develop unique features.

Developing and Establishing Education
on Tangible Cultural Assets as an Urgent Act

If the younger generation is willing to make effort, they could give new interpretation and bring life to our traditional art instead of merely relying on what we have gained from the past. This will prevent what could happen after ten years, with our younger generation thinking that their ancestors did not make effort to keep traditional art. As we talk about historical sites now, we would register modern buildings for preservation while people may think if a building is only sixty or seventy years old, it should not be recognized as a historical site. However, this is an irreplaceable modern experience. Actually, tangible cultural assets as well as their modern interpretation and transformation are important in clarifying “the modernity of Taiwan.” If Tainan is considered to be the birthplace of traditional art mentioned above, I think this is the best place for it to be reborn.
Last but not least, both exhibitions and re-interpretation play an important role in our education. Speaking of the problems faced by these artists, due to the mentoring system, they are unable to enter modern educational system. Once the educational system ignores or denies traditional art, there is no chance for it to pass down. Additionally, issues such as market mechanism or bidding regulations will endanger the creation of delicate and spectacular art pieces. There are professional schools in Japan and Europe. If the professions are brought into school curriculum in Taiwan, the prior goal will be to make artistic value and aesthetic meaning of traditional art visible to the society. Also, only by fully developed artistic perspectives and aesthetic theories about traditional art can we make sure that the education and inheritance work properly. But how do we achieve this? It requires the preservation of tangible cultural assets, a comprehensive viewpoint in art history and advanced interpretation of aesthetics to make traditional art stand out and reveal its value in regular educational system. It is only by doing so can we pass down traditional art down to the fifth, sixth, seventh or even more generations to come.