On Friday the 5th July, Director-general of the Taichung City Department of Cultural Affairs Susan Ye, Shu-Shan (葉樹姍), personally led a 24-member delegation on a visit to Hangzhou, China to take part in the 2013 Taichung City Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition Cultural Exchange. On the morning of Saturday the 6th July, the opening ceremony was held in the Zhejiang Museum of Art, during which Taichung artists Chen Hua(陳華), Lin Ching-Jing(林清鏡), Chou Liang-Tun (周良燉) and Shih Yong-Hua(施永華) took part in a calligraphy signing. In the evening, ‘Hangzhou Nights’ was held in the Hangzhou Music Hall, where leading performance art group the Chiung-Jung Dance Troupe performed their new ‘Artistic Impressions of Taichung’ and ‘Darkness’ dances. This was the first time that the Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition Cultural Exchange had incorporated performing arts, and represented the perfect fusion and exhibition of visual beauty.

The 2013 Taichung City Da Dun Art Exhibition Cultural Exchange was specially planned by the Taichung City Culture and Arts Foundation and Taichung City Government Department of Cultural Affairs, and is being held in the Zhejiang Museum of Art from July 6 - 26. A total of 121 works are on displays that are made up of previous winners of the Da Dun Award as well as various specially selected pieces from the 17th Da Dun Exhibition. Each work is the painstaking creation of an award-winning artist, and this artistic exchange and sharing of experience has expanded the international reputation of the Da Dun Art Exhibition and attracted more artists to step forward and take part in the exchange.

In addition to the visual exhibition and exchange, this year the Department of Cultural Affairs also extended a special invitation to leading dance group the Chiung Jung Dance Troupe to create a new dance for Taichung and promote the city’s true beauty through the medium of performance art. Leader of the Chiung Jung Dance Troupe Wang Chiung-Jung (王瓊瑢)said: ‘For this new dance interpretation, I used the special feelings I had towards growing up in Taichung to create ‘Artistic Impressions of Taichung, using modern dance to express the new face of Taichung after the city and the county were merged.’ Another new creation, ‘Darkness,’ subtly evoked the beauty of lines in paintings and the unrestrained freedom of calligraphy through the rhythm of the dancers’ limbs. They brilliantly exhibited a fluidity akin to rolling clouds or flowing water in a performance that combined strength and beauty.

When preparing for this year’s exchange, Director-general Wang and 12 children of different ages from primary school to upper secondary school threw themselves into the work at hand. From the creation stage to training, in just 1 month they completed tasks that even Director-general Wang thought impossible. The aim of all this hard work was to bring Taichung to the international stage and increase the city’s visibility.

In addition to being a highly sought-after platform for artists to display their work, in recent years the Da Dun Art Exhibition has also attracted the active participation of leading artists from many countries around the world. In the 6 years since 2007, exhibitions have been successfully held in Xiamen in Mainland China, Kyoto and Okinawa in Japan, San Antonio in America, Canberra in Australia and Jakarta in Indonesia. They were met with an enthusiastic response, and have created a cultural and artistic bridge on the international stage.