TaipeiModern Taiwanese culture blends Chinese, Austronesian, Japanese and Western influences. Because Taiwan never experienced Communist oppression, visitors have opportunities to witness traditional religious practices and ancient customs that have disappeared from the Chinese mainland. As a consequence, Taiwan is sometimes said to be ‘more Chinese than China’ while at the same time being ‘much more than Chinese’.
National Theater and National Concert Hall (NTNCH)
Zhongshan South Road 21-1, Zhongzheng District
The National Theater and National Concert Hall are twin performing arts venues at Liberty Square in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. Completed in 1987, the landmarks stand on the south and north sides of the square with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to the east.
Taiwan's National Theater and National Concert Hall are two of the first major modern performing arts facilities to be established in Asia. Upon the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975, the Kuomintang government authorized the construction of a monument and cultural arts facilities on the grounds of a memorial plaza.
Yang Cho-cheng and Architects and Engineers Associates were responsible for the overall design. The buildings, though modern in function and purpose, recall traditional elements of Chinese palace architecture.
Each structure can host at least two events simultaneously. The National Theater contains a smaller Experimental Theater and the National Concert Hall holds a more intimate Recital Hall. Outdoor performances can be staged simultaneously on the square. The pipe organ by Flentrop Orgelbouw in the National Concert Hall was the largest organ in Asia at the time of its installation in 1987. Both structures house art galleries, libraries, shops, and restaurants. The National Theater houses a Performing Arts Library and publication offices for Taiwan's Performing Arts Review.
National Theater and Concert Hall, like all performing arts venues in capital cities, play diplomatic as well as artistic roles. Guests regularly include top elected leaders in Taiwan as well as international artists and dignitaries. Visitors over the years have included Margaret Thatcher of the UK, Mikhail Gorbachev of the USSR, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Rafael Calderón Muñoz of Costa Rica and former First Lady Betty Ford of the U.S.
Taipei Performing Arts Center
No. 1, Jiantan Road, Shilin District
It’s a place where all artists can play and experiment with their imagination, enabling their talent to blossom.
It offers many resources, including technical support, for artists of all kinds, curators and producers. Cross-disciplinary exchange is encouraged.
Taipei Performing Arts Center actively participates in local and global performing arts communities. It strives to bring together local and international curators, producers andvenues, and welcomes cross-national productions.
It is a departure point for Taiwanese performing arts to travel the world, for welcoming the world’s artists to Taiwan, and a hub for collaboration between them.
Taipei Performing Arts Center stands out from the crowd. Located near Jiantan MRT Station and Shilin Night Market, Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Rem Koolhaas’ contemporary-looking building features a cube-sphere main body with block-shaped structures extending in three directions. It’s an imaginative and multi-purpose design that reflects the liveliness and open-mindedness of Taipei, and the vibrant energy of its people. Koolhaas’ geometric design forms a dialogue between the real and the surreal.
The whole structure is lifted up from the ground, the sphere looking like a planet is floating in the air. At street-level is a vibrant public space open to all. The scene is completed with the hustle and bustle of nearby streets; a nonstop live drama day and night.
National Taichung Theater
No. 101, Section 2, Huilai Rd, Xitun District, Taichung City
A space created for the imagination to soar and pursue different means of artistic expression in beautiful encounters that touch the soul. Performances can take place anywhere at the NTT—in the lobby without pillars and beams, in a cavernous corner, along the grand spiral staircase, inside the wondrously evocative Butterfly Foyer or the Tutu Gallery. Air flows freely along the NTT’s curvaceous walls, and gorgeous sounds reverberate!
The National Taichung Theater is an opera house in the Taichung's 7th Redevelopment Zone in the Situn District of Taichung, Taiwan. The estimated area of the structure is 57,685 square meters (620,920 sq ft). It was designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito in collaboration with Cecil Balmond at Arup AGU. It was officially opened in 2016.
Taipei Music Center
No. 99, Section 8, Civic Blvd, Nangang District
The Taipei Music Center is a performing arts and cultural venue in Nangang District, Taipei, Taiwan. Taipei Music Center is funded by the Ministry of Culture and operated by Taipei City Government. The first site in Taiwan created for and wholly dedicated to the preservation and development of music in Taiwan, the center contains a Concert Hall accommodating up to 5,000 people, a Cultural Hall presenting the history of popular music in Taiwan, and a Creative Hub which will serve as an incubator for young musical talents.
Concert Hall
The Concert Hall is a medium-sized auditorium at Taipei Music Center, specially designed for live music performances. Built as an angular-shaped shell with five stories above ground and three stories below, it can accommodate about 5,000 people, a solution to the lack of similarly sized venues in Taiwan. In order to provide musicians with an optimized place to perform, TMC is equipped with four main infrastructure facilities: A large elevator platform, a wide-ranging mother truss, a large-sized sound insulation wall, and the renowned L-Acoustics K2 System, all contributing to a convenient working environment and high-quality stage. TMC fosters and supports diversified forms of music performances, including concerts, musicals, talk shows, and more. The Concert Hall aims to shape the future by providing a blank canvas for emerging musicians to experiment and explore and by encouraging artists of all music genres to expand their audience pool as well as to enrich their creativity.
Taipei Zhongshan Hall
No .98 Yenping S. Road
Zhongshan Hall is a historic building which originally functioned as the Taipei (Taihoku) City Public Auditorium (public hall). It is located at 98 Yanping South Road in the Ximending neighborhood of Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. In 1992, it was recognized by the government as a historic site. The hall has several auditoriums currently used for arts performances such as chamber and orchestral music, traditional Chinese music, voice/choir, opera, dance, ceremonies, and exhibits.
Zhongzheng Auditorium
This Grand Meeting Hall was the largest indoor meeting venue at the time, seating over 2,000 people since it was created on 27 December 1936. After World War II, it was the only concert hall in Taipei. Until Zhongshan Hall on Yangming Shan was completed in 1993, the National Assembly leased this hall. It is historic as Chiang Kai-Shek announced he would take office again and held his inaugural ceremony here.
Eslite Performance Hall
Xinyi District, Yanchang Rd, 88
Located in the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, the Eslite Performance Hall was designed by the team led by Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Toyo Ito. It has a shoebox-style space with excellent sound field effect, comfortable seats, and extremely perfect clear audio and video. It brings the audience closer to the performing arts, and provides and shares on-the-spot touches. With a total seating capacity of 361 seats, in addition to the original sound transmission of classical music, it is also suitable for multi-functional activities such as cross-border performances, forum lectures, and press conferences. Since its operation in 2013, the performance hall has carefully planned and enriched its own programs based on the cultural and creative characteristics of Songyan and Eslite.
Taipei City Arts Promotion Office
No. 25, Section 3, Bade Road, Songshan District
Taipei City Arts Promotion Office is a cultural center in Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. The founding preparation and planning stage of the cultural center began in April 1961. It was opened in January 1964 under the Department of Education of the Taipei City Government as the Taipei Municipal Social Education Hall at Chung-Shan Building in Taipei. In January 1967, the center borrowed the Ming-Lun Hall of Taipei Confucius Temple as their temporary location. In 1976, the center decided to construct its own place at the Municipal Park No. 5. The construction work commenced in March 1979 and was completed in June 1983. The center was officially reopened to the public on 22 October in the same year. In November 1999, the center was taken over by the Department of Cultural Affairs and its English name was changed to Taipei Cultural Center. In November 2015, the center was changed to Taipei City Arts Promotion Office.
Grand Hall of the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall
No. 505, Section 4, Renai Road
The National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is located in Xinyi District, Taipei, Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan). It is a memorial to the ROC's National Father, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and was completed in 1972. The total building area covers 29,464 square metres (7.3 acres) in an open space of 115,000 square metres (28.4 acres). It contains displays of Sun's life and the revolution he led, and is also a multi-purpose social, educational and cultural center for the public.
Taiwan Traditional Theatre Center
No. 751, Wenlin Rd, Shilin District
Taiwan Traditional Theatre Center (TTTC) is the performance venue in Taipei of the National Center for Traditional Arts(NCFTA). The GuoGuang Opera Company, National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan (NCO), and Taiwan Music Institute have established their presence here. TTTC is the first professional theatrical venue to feature resident performing groups and a multi-purpose facility suited for artistic and cultural exhibitions and performances, art education and cultural and leisure events in Taiwan. Its simple and flowing architectural style nevertheless implies operatic aesthetics of boundless possibilities. Its main structures, based on the traditional elements of a table with two chairs that comprise the core stage props of Traditional Chinese opera, are inverted and transformed into a fresh and fashionable condensed classical form that actively explores the contemporary new meaning of opera in line with our changing times.
Following up with the vision of NCFTA, TTTC is committed to invigorating the professional artistic and cultural performance environment. As the home of traditional performing arts groups, TTTC provides strong backing through comprehensive provision of production resources, facilities and performance spaces of high standards. The campus of the Center comprises the Main Theatre, Experimental Theater, 3102 Multi Hall, 3201 Multi Hall, International Conference Hall, audio-visual booths, and open spaces such as the Plaza and Xiqu Terrace. Its diverse and flexible spaces provide multifunctional uses that allow different theatre companies much freedom to experiment with artistic forms.
The Main Theatre
The Main Theatre numbers 1,036 seats, and is located in the north of the Center. Its design breaks the traditional image by covering the walls with gold foil, and hanging three streamlined crystal chandeliers to demonstrate the grandeur and magnificence of the Main Theatre. Different from the common design in an ordinary theatre, the audience seats are filled with the touch of traditional opera by tinting the seats in all kinds of red colors, which is full of youthfulness and liveliness, just like the impression of the traditional opera's character "Hong-niang (matchmaker)".