By Yachin You. Images via Weiwuying.

For most of my life, Taiwanese opera (歌仔戲) was something that belonged to the last generation. It was the sound coming out of the television at my grandma’s house on a weekday afternoon. It was a stage bolted together in front of a temple, plastic stools out front, no one watching but the gods. It was part of the culture, sure, but I never paid much attention to it.

So I was not prepared to walk into the Opera House at Weiwuying (衛武營國家藝術文化中心) and watch Taiwanese opera with a full live orchestra, a revolving stage, and a story that was nothing like the familiar tales told over and over, such as those about the Monkey King (孫悟空).

The show was the Chun-Mei Taiwanese Opera Troupe’s (春美歌劇團) The Scented Mirage (伽羅香), adapted from the story of Cleopatra. The setting has been transplanted so cleanly that you could drop it into almost any gap between Chinese dynasties and never feel the seam. A throne suddenly empty, an heir who prefers rumor to swords, a decorated general who becomes inconvenient. The genius of it was that Cleopatra keeps her Egyptian heritage, which carries the scent of the Middle East into Taiwanese theater.

Which brings me to the part that scrambled my brain in the best possible way. There was Egyptian dance, beautiful and alluring. There were also Chinese martial arts sequences, with ranks of spear-carrying soldiers clashing in formation and, at times, stacked on top of one another. They shared the same evening, sometimes nearly the same breath, and the orchestra folded Middle Eastern instruments into a traditional Chinese ensemble as though they had always been sitting together. It was like watching two shows perfectly melded into one, on a single ticket.

Then there was the casting, which read as contemporary gender commentary and was also completely ordinary for Taiwanese opera. A mother-and-daughter team played the two male leads. That is not a novelty booking. Women have been playing male roles in Taiwanese opera since at least the early decades of the 20th century, and they are now among the defining faces of the art form. Watching two women hold the stage as rival men, carrying the full technique of the male lead, set against a leading lady who was all softness and femininity, made the whole evening feel startlingly modern.

Moving to the production itself, let me start with the live music. The lock between the orchestra and the bodies on stage was exact, every landing and every turn of the head on beat. The acrobatics were thrilling, and the big sea battle played out on the theater’s turntable, with the fighting carried right across it while the scenery swung around them. The ballads and the dialogue had me sitting forward; I found myself choking back tears at one point. The costumes were dazzling, and the set was abstract, modern, and elegant, unlike the shows I saw at my grandma’s house years ago.

I have to admit that my Taiwanese is embarrassingly broken, but there were surtitles on both sides of the stage, in both Chinese and English, so I didn’t miss a beat. The theater itself was as polished as any I have been to in San Francisco or London.

Weiwuying has plenty of shows coming up that are rooted in traditional Taiwanese and Chinese theater while pulling in contemporary elements. Between the cultural mix and the sheer sensory impact, I’m certain one of them will almost certainly change what you think modern theater can be.

Coming Up at Weiyuwing 

2026 Weiwuying Organ Festival (衛武營管風琴音樂節) Details

The 2026 Weiwuying Organ Festival, directed by Notre-Dame de Paris organist Olivier Latry, presents three concerts spanning Baroque to contemporary works, including a four-hands finale with Shin-Young Lee.

2026 Taiwan Dance Platform ｜ Beyond the Gaze: Plural Bodies (台灣舞蹈平台｜ 跨。鏡—複數身體) Details

The 2026 Taiwan Dance Platform, “Beyond the Gaze: Plural Bodies,” gathers international artists exploring how the body is fragmented and reassembled through technology, culture, and others.

24 Hours CHOPIN (瘋迷24蕭邦) Details

24 Hours, 18 Pianists, Over 180 Works. A Record-Breaking Tribute to the Poet of the Piano!

Check the Weiyuying Official Site for more information on upcoming programs and ticket information