Can the village speak? Leftist Assignment Theater and documentary theater in Taiwan

ABSTRACTThis essay examines the genre of documentary theater with a particular focus on environment issues by the theater group “Assignment Theater” (chaishi juchang). Chung Chiao, the founding leader of Assignment Theater, was inspired by Taiwanese leftist writer Chen Ying-zhen and began his collaboration with People’s theater groups in many Asian countries since the 1990s post-Cold war period. Chung investigates histories, social issues and current circumstances through testimonial performances and documentary dramas with villagers, aiming to develop esthetic and critical reflections on social and cultural issues. In 2016, Chung directed and produced a work of documentary theater entitled Return to Hometown: A Story of Taixi Village by focusing on how villagers were suffering from severe air pollution, marginalization, and the complexity of their experiences since the launch of the Formosa Plastics Corp’s (FPC) sixth naphtha cracker complex in 1998. The essay starts with a critical question raised by Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak” in the hope of re-locating the question in Return to Hometown. It continues to explore how Assignment Theater positions itself in the historical context of the leftist movement in post-war Taiwan by paying attention to the people. By re-examining the above, the essay discusses the ways in which environmental discourses, the village people, documentary theater, and the imagined subject of Taiwan nationality, etc. are interwoven.KEYWORDS: Assignment TheaterChung Chiaodocumentary theaterpeople’s theaterleftist movementTaiwan theaterthe people Special termsTableDownload CSVDisplay TableNotes1 The original definition in Chinese goes as follows: “民眾劇場，屬於人民、由人民創作、為人民發聲的劇場。”2 For more information about “Assignment Theater,” please see: https://taiwantop.ncafroc.org.tw/group_detail/800.3 A documentary theater is a performance based on facts, as documented in materials such as records, films, newspapers, official reports, and transcripts of trials. See The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre (Citation1972).4 The original manifesto in Chinese goes as follows: “孤魂即是生前孤獨死後無處可依的靈魂之稱，其悲慘哀痛猶如活在現代的無產階級，依此，組織孤魂聯盟，竭力於無產階級解放運動” (Wang Citation1989, 22).5 Also referred to as “Theatre of testimony,” introduced by Loren Kruger. It is a theater term by constituting theater as a “virtual public sphere” with an expression of performers’ or participants’ role as of “witness” to the political events in South Africa (Kruger Citation2019). It also refers to the theatre “conventionally associated with the anti-apartheid movement.” See https://esat.sun.ac.za/index.php/Testimonial_theatre.6 The Meinong Dam was initially planned to build, yet the Meinong People’s Association was formed by bringing together environmental, cultural, artist and social groups to organize a series of protests against the plan. For more information, please see Community Identity and Homeland Discourse: A Case Study of the Jiao-gong Band in the Meinung Anti-Dam Movement (Shao Citation2015).7 See “六輕計畫與經濟發展” [The Sixth Naphtha Cracker Project and Economic Development]. (Formosa Plastics Group Citation2021). https://www.fpg.com.tw/uploads/images/media-center/ebook-top/2021/2021%20six%20TC.pdf.Additional informationNotes on contributorsChun-yen WangWang Chun-yen is assistant professor of cultural and performance studies at National Taiwan University. He received his PhD in theater arts from Cornell University. He is the recipient of multiple accolades including the S-AN Aesthetics Award, Taiwan Merits Scholarships, and a Fulbright Scholarship. Wang’s research interest lies in contemporary Taiwanese theater, cultural translation, and the relationship between epistemology and esthetics. His essays have appeared in Chung-Wai Literary Quarterly, Taiwan: A Radical Quarterly in Social Studies, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, and others.