For the last six years, Taiwan Season at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, has become a popular series of events – building a cultural connection between Fringe-goers and Taiwan. However, in responding to the challenge of the novel coronavirus and the cancellation of physical events at the Fringe this year, Taiwan Season at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe will this year be presenting the “Connecting with Taiwan” Online Symposium – an ambitious month-long programme digitally showcasing a wealth of dance, theatre and live performance from Taiwan. As an online series of events that can be streamed directly to your home, the Taiwan Season Online Symposium will be a new and innovative way for people to form a connection with Taiwan. Events will be aired on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with Tuesday’s event being repeated on Thursdays.

Over the course of four weeks, Tuesdays will see an artist interview with a producer or choreographer from one of the four dance companies that had been set to present their works at the Fringe, with each interview introducing and analysing the choreography of their work. Each interview will be streamed live through the Taiwan Season Facebook page and YouTube channel at 1.00pm – 1.45pm British Summer Time and will be repeated on Thursdays at the same time.

The first Tuesday artist interview (4th August) is Touchdown. Hao Cheng’s mathematical background provides a fresh insight, with his performances being infused with quantum physics in a unique and unmissable way.

Tuesday 11th August will focus on the Hung Dance’s ensemble work Boundless – an intense and dark performance that utilizes props from traditional culture in its construction of a complex and contemporary atmosphere.

A week later, on the Tuesday 18th August, hip-hop and Taiwanese religious culture will be combined with classical Chinese literature in Fighters. Created by Nai-Hsuan Yang’s Les Petites Choses production, Fighters’ contemporary dance performance is enhanced by a folk-techno soundtrack.

The last week will see Tai Gu Tales Dance Theatre’s dancers merge Eastern cultural traditions with contemporary Western practices in The Back of Beyond, as the cycle of life is charted from birth to death and rebirth.

Wednesdays and Fridays from 1:00pm to 3:00pm BST will see the symposium take a deep dive into a series of webinars on Taiwan’s performing arts scene.

The first week (5th and 7th Aug) will probe into the Present and Future of Taiwan Arts and Culture Centres separately over the course of the week. The second week will put Disability Arts in the spotlight, whilst the third week will examine cross-cultural collaborations from across the Asia-Pacific, Europe and beyond. In the final week, the focus will be on Taiwan’s indigenous dance scene, and creating contemporary indigenous art in a mainstream context. All of the dates for these events can be found in the link at the end of the text.

In addition, as a special format that will see Taiwan Season engage in the virtual version of Edinburgh Festival Fringe, on the 10th August, the Taiwan Season 2020 Showcase & Pitch will be available on the Fringe’s bespoke video-on-demand platform for arts industry professionals, “Fringe Marketplace”. The Showcase & Pitch will feature a short pitch, a production showcase and a Q&A from each of the four productions in the Taiwan Season Online Symposium. The Showcase & Pitch will be available on Fringe Marketplace until July 2021.

With a wide variety of performance arts related topics, the Taiwan Season Online Symposium aims to engage professional international artists and teams with Taiwan, building a viable foundation for future cross-cultural industry relationships.

Registration and more information for the event can be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/taiwanseason-edinfringe