Come through difficult times
As of 2011 the National Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center (the center hereafter) has been established for 24 years. The establishment of the National Theater & Concert Hall was a testament to the fact that while rapid economic and cultural development was achieved in Taiwan, difficulties were overcome and progress also made in the performing arts. 
Prior to the 1980s Taiwan’s economy had still to boom and people had only just become comfortably off, a situation that left art and cultural literacy in need of cultivation. In 1987 the National Theater & Concert Hall were established, at last giving Taiwan international-class performance venues; looking at Asia at the time it is fair to say that they had very few equals in the whole of Asia, with only venues in Japan comparable for scale and level of specialization. 

In the 1980s Taiwan’s economy began to grow rapidly and politics and society began to open up, creating the best conditions for the development of culture and art. Director Huang says that it has to be acknowledged that the government of the time showed great vision and decisiveness with regards to art and cultural matters. The 12 Major Infrastructure Projects of the early 1980s, for the first time, included cultural construction in national construction plans: cultural centers were established in every city and county and a national cultural center was established in the capital Taipei, usually called the “National Theater & Concert Hall” today, serving as the window and standard for culture for the whole island. In fact, for the promotion of performing arts and raising of the art and cultural literacy of the people a high quality performance venue is indispensable. Without a suitable venue, internationally renowned artistic groups like the Kirov Ballet Company and Berliner Philharmoniker would be unlikely to come to perform in Taiwan and the people would have no chance to see splendid performances or see masters in action.

The establishment of the National Theater & Concert Hall didn’t only give the people of Taiwan the chance to enjoy world class performing arts, it also allowed people working in the arts in Taiwan to learn from top international artists and, in doing so, expand their vision and create their own style. In the last quarter of a century the two venues have staged numerous performances and, with the springboard offered by these venues, many outstanding Taiwanese performing groups such as Cloud Gate, Legend Lin Dance Theater, Performance Workshop, Utheater, Ming Hwa Yuan etc have grown from small seedlings into towering trees.
Performance, art that is lost in a moment

Because of the form of expression some art is easier to preserve than others, such as a sculpture, a calligraphy painting, a book, if well looked after they can be appreciated even after a 1000 years. However, “Performance is lost in a moment, when the music stops and the action is completed, it disappears” said Director Huang of the short lifespan that is characteristic of performing arts.

Madam Huang only became Director of the Center in March of last year. 19 years ago, in 1995, she was deputy director, returning to teaching after her three-year term of office ended. In the third month after taking up the post she established the magazine “Performing Arts.” The National Theater & Concert Hall library was also established in that year, both the magazine and the library serving as important mechanism for recording performing arts.
As well as collecting various specialized books, music and images, the library systematically collects the programs, posters and audio and video recordings of performances at the National Theater & Concert Hall. Performing Arts has recorded the last 19 years, the golden age for performing arts in Taiwan. Since its establishment it has won the Golden Censer Prize on a number of occasions and, as well as providing a timely introduction to various performing arts programs and helping readers keep a track of developments in the field of art and culture, it has also nurtured a group of high level art critics who help the public become acquainted with performing arts.   

In the early period after the establishment of the National Theater & Concert Hall great vision was shown, with every program and poster right from the first performance carefully arranged and preserved. Over a decade ago, when digital technology began to be used, the National Theater & Concert Hall began, with great foresight, systematically digitally archiving programs and posters and other promotional materials, each Performing Arts issue and even the sound and video recordings of each performance.

After 24 years, each of the four venues of the National Theater & Concert Hall have staged at least 400 performances, totaling more than 1000, annually. Recording the moving sights and sounds on stage involves the problem of handling a large amount of information. To deal with this, the National Theater & Concert Hall on the one hand digitizes each year’s information using the latest technology, and is also digitizing its archives, extending from “present” to “past”, in the process building a precious record of the performing arts performances staged by the National Theater & Concert Hall, and even other venues in Taiwan over the best part of three decades. These precious printed and audio visual archives allow readers and viewers today, and will allow them in the future, to reproduce innumerable important moments for performing arts in Taiwan. 

A kind benefactor makes a substantial contribution to the archives
As well as the art and culture recording work carried out by the national theater and concert hall, its archives were enhanced by a stroke of precious good fortune, for the national theater and concert hall and for the development of art and culture in Taiwan. Mr. Cao Yong-kun (the younger brother of Academia Sinica academician Cao Yong-he) who passed away in 2006, was not only a renowned figure in the world of finance, he was a widely respected aficionado of culture who loved classical music. From a young age he began collecting various kinds of precious western classical music instrument and recordings, from vinyl, to cassettes, to CD, then VCD and then DVD… and he also regularly held music appreciation events at his Shilin, Taipei home to which all lovers of classical music were welcome. In the eyes of music lovers in Taiwan, Mr. Cao was an elder who used music to make friends and a tireless promoter of classical music. After he passed away his family generously donated his collection to the national theater and concert hall library so that more people can enjoy the instruments and recordings he collected over many years. After receiving the collection a special room was set aside for a collection that, after cataloging, was found to contain over 70,000 pieces, underlining the generosity of the Cao family and ensuring that Cao Yong-kun will always be remembered fondly. This audio-visual material is of extremely high quality and will be gradually digitized.

At present, quite a lot of performing arts historical material is available online through the national theater and concert hall digital museum. Director Huang said that, in cooperation with TELDAP, a wider audience can be reached and the permanent archiving of precious materials can be guaranteed.

However, performing arts are art forms that involves a highly level of original creativity and often involve the issue of intellectual property. For reasons related to law or contract, directors or groups adopt different authorization methods: for some works the national theater and concert hall can carry out limited digitization for the objective of promotion but cannot engage in profit making activity; the ownership of the intellectual property of some works belongs completely to the performer (s) and no digitization at all is possible. Intellectual property rights and related laws have to be considered seriously. 

In December the national theater and concert hall digital museum and TELDAP signed a memorandum of understanding. In the future netizens will have a chance to see and hear the performing arts that the theater and concert hall have staged over the last 20-odd years in the TELDAP Union Catalogs. However, due to the aforementioned intellectual property rights considerations, the resources that will be placed in the Catalogs will be slightly less than the resources in the national theater and concert hall museum archives, however, lovers of art and culture can, by becoming a “friend of the national theater hall and concert hall” gain access to the complete archives and enjoy a feat of art and culture.

Over the last 20 years performing arts venues have shot up in Hong Kong, Singapore, Mainland China etc, however, because they were established earlier, the national theater and concert hall are unique and irreplaceable in terms of level of specialization and the quality of archives. In terms of audio visual material they have 110,000 pieces. In the Chinese world, no other organization compares with the national theater and concert hall for their performing arts material collection and preservation efforts of which the people of Taiwan should be proud.

The accumulation of art and cultural literacy
As public cultural facilities the national theater and concert hall hope to be able to assist in the process of taking art to the people so that more people fall in love with art. The two venues not only serve as high quality performance spaces, over the last 20 years they have also played an important environmental education role. Director Huang remembers the first time the Wiener Philharmonike in Taiwan played in Taiwan 18 year ago at the national concert hall. 4000 tickets were sold out in just two hours and, such was the level of public interest, the performance was shown live on screens in the outdoor square, attracting an estimated 70,000 people. Huang said “Although many people didn’t actually have experience of attending a classical concert, the crowd was silent throughout the performance and, when it dispersed, there wasn’t a scrap of litter left on the ground. This situation would have been hard to replicate elsewhere in Taiwan at the time and this is a good example of the influence of culture and spatial quality. Over the last 20 odd years this space for exquisite art has continually played an important role as a nurturer of art and cultural literacy in Taiwan’s society, a role it will continue to play.

After digitization what influence will the archives of the national theater and concert hall have on Taiwan’s society? Director Huang says that “sharing” is an important feature of the Internet era. In the past these materials were stored away in the performing arts library and they could only be viewed if a visit was made to the library, however, in the Internet era the barriers of time and space can be crossed and information easily obtained. A single spark of inspiration can open up an area of culture with limitless space for creativity. Think, if Lin Huai-min had not had the chance to see Martha Graham’s dance troupe there might have been no Cloud Gate Dance Theater. How many Americans were inspired by the reserved elegance shown by Leonard Bernstein in his TV musical commentaries over the years. The national theater and concert hall, and even TELDAP, must play the role as a spreader and expander of culture.

“Aside from “spreading and expanding”, after digitization, these cultural assets can have a structural influence on “publishing and reading” in the digital age. In the case of performing arts, a dance performance on the printed page is a static picture but, read digitally, the splendid dance images and sound can be seen immediately at the touch of the viewer’s finger. Director Huang believes that, in the future, moving digital archives results can, after editing, be shown in all their glory on a digital reading platform. This year, to meet future digital reading publishing requirements,  the national theater and concert hall have established a “publishing department” with the aim of providing readers with more complete information and reading experience in the future.

An intimate dance of digitization and art 
Director Huang said that “digitization” can make material that was hidden away in a corner available for the whole word to view or listen to, the dissemination and sharing of knowledge exerting great power. The content of TELDAP is the most precious cultural heritage of Taiwan and continuing to provide services in a more effective way so that these resources can be easily accessed by the general public when the TELDAP program ends is an important task.  
The Internet will undoubtedly be a good friend to cultural organizations. In the past the National Theater & Concert Hall had to spend a large amount of money every year on TV advertisements, however, since Facebook, an e-bulletin and social media have been used to promote events, while advertising spending has been reduced ticket sales have actually increased markedly. Director Huang believes that netizens share information with each other and provide free “word of mouth” advertising to cultural organizations. The results of TELDAP were originally intended to be mainly displayed online and can actually use the power of the Internet and online communities to exert a positive power that was unimaginable before.
Will digitization have an impact on the ways of artistic expression? The Director also shared her views on artistic performance at present. Artists are often sensitive and anxious about the limitations of creativity and are always searching for news modes of expression. “Cross-field” can be described as a common direction of thought and way out for artists today. Digitization makes stage effects that could not be displayed before possible. However, how to use digital technology to make art better and enhance its contents is a test for the art and technology communities. Ahead of us there is a journey of discovery of which we can have unlimited high hopes.

Special thanks to Director Huang Pi-twan, the staff of National Theater & Concert Hall and the staff of the TELDAP office for the guidance and assistance that made the writing of this article possible!
Reference website: Digital Museum of NTCH