102.03.11
The traditional performance art, “Driving the plow”, has been disappeared for three decades and it has now resurfaced. The members of this performance art are mainly males and on average over 70 years old; they all wearing female costumes, singing the song about the old farming society, and wriggling their hips during the performances to entertain their audiences. This performance art has not only showed achievements of community-building but also attracted a lot of attentions and it has being awarded by government officials from the Ministry of Culture of Executive Yuan and Research Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC).
The Ministry of Culture of Executive Yuan today (the 11th) visits Garlic Township - Mayuan community of Cihtong Township in Yunlin County to review the achievement of the community building. The auditor members include many officials from the Ministry of Culture of Executive Yuan and RDEC such as Huang Su-Juan, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Culture; Lian Ding-You Section chief; Li Wu-Yu Department Head of REDC; Lai Yun-Lin committee member and many others were welcomed by nearly a hundred people from the community at Garlic-Hemp community museum.
As described by Zhen Wen-Long, manager of Mayuan Community Empowerment Association, that this performance art is long gone; therefore, reestablishing it and its kinds such as “Flower Drum array” are very difficult. However as the news of reforming the art spreads everyone including a 90 years old grandpa wants to joint to perform and hence this art and other performances become the attraction of Mayuan Community.
Some members of the group dress like cattle and some like women, and they all singing and dancing to the time of the old days. As this is the first time they present, performers use oil paints instead of cosmetic products on their faces, so cleaning it off after the performance is really hard as described by Liu Jian-Cheng, the Arts Promotion Section Chief of Cultural Department of Yunlin County Government.
Mayuan Community De Tian Temple is the religious center at which people gather for events. Most people living in this community were farmers who worked hard and wanted less, thus there was a saying “women with small feet would not go over the fence of Mayuan” proved that the residents were diligent. During the Jiaqing Period of Qing Dynasty, landlords build irrigation by drawing the water from Choshui River that created a 500-hectare fertilized farming land. As a result, this region became the main producers in Taiwan of rice, garlic, onion and many produces.