The flourishing, withering, and transforming / rebirth eras of Taiwanese traditional operas all fell within the post-war period. Local traditional operas awakened in the midst of the thirty years post-war (1949 – 1979), from when the nation was awaiting its time to blossom until it was prospering. Within the thirty years, Chinese local operas penetrated through Taiwanese opera market and presented itself on stage through the new immigrants who entered Taiwan along with the National government. The Peking opera dominated the market at the time as it was protected by the cultural policy, whereas the Taiwanese local operas successively encountered its prospering and withering era. Traditional operas went through an important stage of revolution - from deterioration to innovation, since the 1980s. A new traditional operatic art was developed through an intentional multi-cultural reorganization and combination, as well as through cross-cultural and cross-domain cooperation. Hence, the content of this study will surround the post-war development of Taiwanese traditional operas within the 38th and 106th year of Republic (1949 – 2017), targeting the development of local and foreign operas in Taiwan. This study is divided into three series. First being “The Local Opera” series, introducing local operas that are full of Taiwanese essence, such as the Beiguan Opera, Gezaixi (Taiwanese) Opera, Hakka Opera, Chi-zi Opera, Gaojia Opera, Siping Opera, etc. Third being “The Puppet Show”, examining the development of puppet shows, such as the Puppetry, Shadow Play, Glove Puppetry, etc.
Based on the progression of history, the formation of contemporary policies and economic trends of the society played a significant role on whether to push forward or to suppress the development of operas. For this reason, the study will conclude on the impact level of cultural policies on traditional operas and the gap between government policy concept and live performance through the power of government cultural policies as well as the observations on tangible changes and the journey of re-adjusting and re-positioning of traditional operas throughout history. In simple words, the three series of this study are to observe changes on operas and development of operatic type through the angle of historic progression and artistic development. To conclude, the study will switch lenses to observe and discuss traditional operas’ progression and changes through the political system and cultural policies. In addition, the study will also discuss the gap between government policy concept and live performance. In all its seemingly complexity, the author hopes that by positioning the history of operas on the longitude, cultural policies on the latitude, history, art, politics, and practicality on the main axis, and by exhausting relevant live performance and literature history information, the study is capable of integrating different point of views and opinions from scholars to achieve four results. First is to integrate the development history of various Taiwanese operatic categories, second is to supplement relevant information on the development of Taiwanese traditional operas after 2000, third is to combine operas, politics and live performance, and last is to analyze the impact of cultural policies on operas’ live performance, in hope that this can clarify the development thread of Taiwanese traditional operas since 1949 and discuss the influence and effect of cultural policies on the development of operas.