Watching TV in Taiwan

If we would be asked to detail what we did during the eight days of R&R we spent in Taiwan, we would answer  resting, sleeping, walking along clean roads, experiencing winter without snow, eating Taiwanese food and watching CNN until we began to feel like an expert newscaster. The CNN experience, nevertheless, is what kept us in touch with the world. The hotel’s TV set must have provided entertainment, contests, teleseryes and games but it was all in Taiwanese with no subtitles.

From CNN, the only English source, we found out about the hacking of Sony’s film The Interview and its cancellation; Pres. Barack Obama getting into talks with Cuba after years of silence; Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather’s possible encounter in May; the Taliban massacre of school children in Pakistan; Pope Francis helping in the issue of embargo between the US and Cuba; news about life on Mars getting clearer and more possible; Russia into economic problems; the US economy the best in years and many other items we would have missed had it not been for CNN.  

It wasn’t in the main city of Taiwan  where we stayed with music master Adolfo Timuat who had been invited to share his expertise in flamenco guitar playing and building, but in the little county of Yilan that had beautiful scenery and fewer people.

When our friend Adolfo heard that we hadn’t been to Taiwan, he wangled an invitation to take us along, and it was an exceedingly educational experience we had never expected for which we are immensely grateful. We had been told we would be joining a group of Filipino performers who had also been invited to give shows in various schools in Taiwan. The show had been billed The Philippine Rondalla & Choir in Taiwan and was composed of 14 rondalla members, plus 25 members of the choir. Each group had their own conductor. For all of them, it was their first performance in Taiwan.

That’s me with National Artist for Music Ramon Santos

On the first day, Adolfo and myself came ahead of the rest to be able to adjust to the cold. We wondered how the Filipinos would fare during their five-day stay of performing in nine venues. The most difficult part of our journey, however, was making ourselves understood. To our mind, they all looked alike, and had similar names. There was Felix the young flute virtuoso; Dr. Wu who builds bamboo instruments; and of course, famous conductor of the Chinese Orchestra in Yilan, Vincent Li, who thought of bringing the entire Filipino group to Taiwan.

As we watched the Filipinos’ numerous shows, it was obvious why the Pinoy performer, especially in the field of music, is admired worldwide. We met the 23-year-old soprano Stefanie Quintin who has honed her talent by joining various music competitions and concerts, winning awards like the Delphic Lyra Award for Traditional Music, and the Presidential Award for Culture and the Arts. As we watched her perform solo, we thought that not only was she talented, but she was also beautiful.

What made our day in Taiwan, however, was coming face-to-face with the unassuming Ramon Santos, much-awarded composer, lecturer, book writer on music, researcher of various types of music, former VP of the International Executive Committee at UNESCO and National Artist of the Philippines in Music.

Before we left the country, we asked some of the Taiwanese hosts if it was possible to show even part of the Filipino performance on television. After all, music is the most welcoming of all the arts that will need no translation.

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