Taiwanese play attracts people from all over Kunshan area

A play from Taiwan called "The Village" (宝岛一村) that tells the story of makeshift communities the Kuomintang regime set up around Taiwan during the mid-20th century was put on at the Culture and Art Center of the city of Kunshan, July 16 - 17, and pulled in audiences from the cities of Suzhou, Wuxi, Shanghai and elsewhere.

The 3.5-hour Village story, a work of Wang Weizhong, a Taiwan TV and entertainment mogul, and the award winning playwright and theater director Lai Sheng-chuan, is based on their personal experiences in one of the makeshift communities for military dependents. The play debuted in December 2008 and has been on stage more than 170 times.

Stage setting for “The Village”. [Photo from Kunshan Daily]

The Kuomintang regime settled thousands of hundreds of servicemen and their dependents retreating from the mainland from 1949 on, in a total of 530 designated makeshift communities in Taiwan, called juan cun meaning military dependents villages. The residents of these villages came from all over the mainland and lived together for decades trying to cope with the different dialects and different lifestyles while struggling to define their identities in a different society.

Stage setting for “The Village”. [Photo from Kunshan Daily]