TAIPEI - An overlooked piece of Taiwan's cultural history is slowly making its
way back into people's hearts and minds with the documentary E Sha Age,
due to be shown this week.
The 85-minute documentary features Taiwan's defunct E Sha Song and Dance Group,
as it reprises popular numbers from its repertoire with 17 students from the
Kaohsiung Chung-Hwa School of Arts in the southern part of the island. The
group's name comes from its two founding instructors.
A representative icon of entertainment in the baby boom era, E Sha was famous
for its musical performances during a time when strip shows were prevalent. The
group draws strong influences from the Japanese Takarazuka Revue, an all-female
musical
theatre group noted for its extravagant Broadway-inspired productions.
Active from 1959 to 1985, E Sha reflects Taiwan's cultural-political landscape
of that time. "E Sha has lived through Taiwan's most turbulent years, and
looking at its history is like looking at a snapshot of Taiwan's modern
history," director Hsueh Chang-Hui explained.
This can be seen from the way E Sha's repertoire captures the mood of the
grassroots over the years. Under martial law, the group was forced to make
revisions to the Chinese oldie Tonight I'm Not Going Home, which was
banned as officials thought it promoted decadent behavior. The song was
subsequently given the go-ahead only after the lyrics were changed to "Tonight
I Must Go Home".
Urban re-planning in 1985 saw the consolidation of independent cinemas,
rendering the group without a venue for its performances and contributing to
its demise. Another reason for the group's dissolution was the passing on of
its founder, Wang Zhen Yu. There has not been any performing group of a similar
nature in Taiwan since.
Featuring traditional handicrafts alongside advanced lighting technology in its
sets, E Sha was able to deliver performances that melded the best of
international and local influences. These aided the group's rise to fame in
places like Taiwan, Hong Kong and South-east Asia.
For all its cultural value and popularity, E Sha seems to have now become just
a distant memory of Taiwan's baby boomers. Today, the group is practically
unknown to the younger generation in this island of more than 23 million
people.
Hsueh recounted the stark differences she observed during interviews. For
instance, baby boomers share collective memories of going to E Sha shows, with
some having gone as far as saving all their pocket money for the 250 New Taiwan
dollar (US$7.80) tickets to watch them. But the young have generally never
heard of the group.
"We will lose an iconic part of our cultural heritage if we don't do anything
about [E Sha's memory]," Hsueh said, "I'm fighting to preserve this piece of
our heritage."
There is little documentation of E Sha in Taiwan's National Film Archives as
the group was a private family business. Most of its materials were destroyed
with the founder Wang's death.
As a result, there was great difficulty in obtaining historical footage that
was to be used as supplementary material in the documentary. The problem was
overcome with the help of an E Sha fanatic from Hong Kong, who contributed his
personal video collection.
E Sha Age therefore plays an important role in collecting and piecing
together fragmented information that might otherwise go undiscovered.
The 17 students who were roped in to perform in the documentary are at a
similar age as the original E Sha girls when they first joined the group. The
first batch of E Sha girls numbered 52 and this figure was reduced to 32 in
subsequent batches.
Hsueh believes that this is a meaningful and relevant experience for these
students, and hopes the documentary will help to unite older E Sha fans with
the younger generation, which is meeting E Sha for the first time. It is also a
symbolic move to bring E Sha back to the cinemas, where its performances used
to be staged.
While Hsueh was reserved about any ambition to bring the group back together,
she admitted that she hoped the documentary could pave the way for the
reproduction of a full-length E Sha performance resplendent in its former-year
glory.
"I've never watched an original E Sha performance myself, and I'm always
jealous when I see the sparkle in people's eyes when they recall their
experiences," Hsueh lamented. "I hope more people will have a chance to share
in this experience."
E Sha Age will be on screens in Taipei from October 23.
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