Chiayi County in southern Taiwan has become a unique art and cultural hub. The curators of the annual Grasstraw Festival share how they're attracting more young artists to come back home.
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00:00 Taking a walk down memory lane, Wang Zhao-Chien has been a pioneer in the Chiayi art scene
00:07 for decades. Growing up, he says the southern Taiwan county was a lonely place for artists.
00:14 Wang left his hometown to study theater arts in Taipei, but knew early on that he wanted
00:18 to return to change that for future generations.
00:21 I told my friends though that I want to go to Chiayi. They just told me, "Are you crazy?
00:27 You're back to Chiayi to do art? No, you're crazy. It's impossible."
00:33 That was over a decade ago. Now, Wang is the founder and curator of the Grass Draw Festival,
00:38 one of the largest performing arts festivals in the county, which has transformed the area's
00:42 art scene.
00:44 The Grass Draw Festival attracts more and more young people from the north to the south.
00:54 Some of his closest collaborators are also Chiayi returnees, like his co-curator, Huang
00:59 Ming-Zhang.
01:00 Huang spent a decade working as a magazine editor in Taipei, but moved back to Chiayi
01:05 two years ago, a move he never expected to make. But he says he's witnessed a transformation
01:10 in his hometown, partly thanks to the festival.
01:13 In the past, we would think it's not possible to work with many young people in Chiayi,
01:18 but now it's possible. We work together very closely and create something that we have
01:24 never imagined before.
01:26 This is the 16th Grass Draw Festival to be held here at the Chiayi Performing Arts Center.
01:31 But it's also the first year that the festival has expanded into the county at satellite
01:35 sites, which showcase the county's unique art and culture. This way, the curators hope
01:40 to encourage more young artists from Chiayi to look for inspiration within their hometown.
01:45 And in its 16th year, which marks the coming of age in some parts of Taiwan, the festival
01:52 theme invites visitors to reflect on the complexities of their youth, as the curators do the same,
01:57 realizing how far they've come, all while staying in their hometown of Chiayi.
02:02 When I saw the park in Chiayi, or the mountains in Chiayi, I think of my youth and what I
02:09 have been doing here when I was young.
02:18 Looking at the audiences here, coming to the Grass Draw Festival may very well become one
02:22 of those formative memories for the county's next generation of artists and creatives.
02:28 Devon Tsai and Tiffany Wong in Chiayi County for Taiwan Plus.
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