South China Morning Post
Post Magazine
Date: 11 Feb 2019
By: Ed Peters
- An exciting programme featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the recently opened National Kaohsiung Center for Arts puts the southern city on the performance arts map
- Numerous night markets cater to all manner of tastes, while shoppers will also find plenty to spend hard-earned pennies on
The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts opened in October and has helped put Taiwan’s second largest city on the region’s cultural map.
Having won first prize in the awards for Best Use of a Clapped-Out Army Barracks, Weiwuying – or the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts if you’re feeling formal – hasn’t been resting on its laurels since opening last autumn. Spread over a 10 hectare site and variously described as looking like a container ship’s colossal love child or a writhing whale (though presumably not by its Dutch architects), this is one of the world’s largest arts venues.
It goes without saying that size is not important, but Weiwuying’s tally of opera house, concert hall, playhouse, recital hall and outdoor theatre, plus a 9,085-pipe organ fashioned by German artisans to represent thickets of bamboo, is impressive, to say the least. Best of all, it’s set in rolling parkland, one of the city’s prime lungs, which serves to draw punters inside to sample the varied programmes on offer.
New national arts centre reflects Taiwan’s economic success
Upcomers include ballet from Düsseldorf, a Harry Potter concert, the London Philharmonic and that classic Chinese opera, The Battle of Dragon City. The cheapest tickets start at US$10; given that Weiwuying cost US$330 million, one can’t help but wonder who’s in charge of ROI … [FULL STORY]
