Taiwan Theater Museum

There's a good reason why the Taiwan Theater Museum (台灣戲劇館) is located in Yilan, a county in Taiwan's northeast which - until less than a decade ago - was somewhat hard to reach from the densely-populated west coast. Yilan is considered the birthplace of Taiwanese opera, Taiwan's only indigenous performing art, as well as a stronghold of traditional string puppetry and glove puppetry.

Most of the displays are bilingual, and there is a decent collection of opera clothes and props on the third floor. This is also where regular full-costume rehearsals by local troupes begin at 3pm and 4pm on the second and fourth Saturday each month. Performers sometimes also practice on weekend mornings. Visiting musicians will be fascinated by the sheet music on the first floor as it uses quite different symbols to modern Western scores.

The second floor exhibits 114 puppets, of which a dozen or so are string puppets. One section explains how glove puppets are made. The head is wood, but facial features are resin or clay. Hands, forearms, shoulders and feet are fashioned from wood; puppets have neither torsos nor thighs. Clothes are cut, embroidered and decorated with sequins. After the face is painted, beards and eyebrows are glued on. Finally, each puppet is given something to hold, such as a sword or a staff.

Directions

From Yilan TRA Station, take a taxi or walk around 1.5km. Turn left when leaving the front of the station and head south until you reach Fuxing Road after about 400m, then follow Fuxing Road southwest until you see the museum.