Published: 5 July 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Folk dance is a national pastime in Taiwan and Israeli songs are a big part of the tradition
It was a cool spring day in Yilan, a town on Taiwan’s northeast coast known for its picturesque rice fields and delicious spring onions. On a concrete clearing beneath a bridge that doubled as a dance floor, against a cloudy mountainous backdrop dotted with white cranes, about 10 Taiwanese adults danced expertly to classic Israeli folk music — songs such as Hinei Matov, David Melech Yisrael, Sulam Yaakov — and other folk tunes from around the world. Altogether, over 35 dances were practiced over three hours.
For many of these locals, the dances are familiar, almost second nature. All over the age of 50, they grew up at a time when international folk dancing was the only group activity allowed by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government, starting in 1949.
That year, the KMT, which had been in power in China since 1912, lost a long-standing civil war to the Communist Party and retreated to Taiwan. Estimates say around 2 million Chinese followed in migrating to the island over the following few years.
The KMT ruled Taiwan in a bubble under strict martial law in order to suppress potential Chinese Communist presence or any anti-government activities. What resulted was heavy censorship of newspapers, books, television, radio and other forms of entertainment, as well as a ban on “unlawful assembly.”
But there was one reason Taiwanese could gather in groups, and one genre of dance they were allowed to practice — for political and nationalist reasons.
Soon nearly all schools were using folk dances from around the world as an exercise activity for students, and nearly every university had a folk dance club.
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Folk dance is a national pastime in Taiwan. Israeli songs are a big part of the tradition (JTA)
