In the campus of Xihu Elementary School, you could often see Miss Suen brandishing a falchion or spear on the stage; or you can follow Ms. Suen’s graceful movement to learn some classic chasse of Taiwanese Opera. Ms. Suen can even show you how to draw the facial mask of Taiwanese Opera. Even for those who have never seen any performances of the Ming Hwa Yuan, they still know the household name, Suen Tsuei-feng.
“Our predecessors passed down Taiwanese Opera for us to perform; what else could we leave for our next generation?” The sense of mission for Taiwanese Opera has existed in her mind for years. She used to instruct students from National Taipei Teachers College in Taiwanese Opera. Since those students would become teachers in the future. She hopes that they will inspire more students to appreciate the beauty of Taiwanese Opera. In Xihu Elementary School, Miss Suen instructs students ranging from the 4th grade to the 6th grade. Through this extracurricular activity, students can enjoy learning Taiwanese Opera. Whenever young students tell Ms. Suen that they really love Taiwanese Opera, Ms. Suen’s heart would immediately be filled with joy and content. Her schedule is always fully occupied by endless performances, lectures, and teaching. The reason that she devotes herself so much into Taiwanese Opera is simple: to let more people understand the Ming Hwa Yuan’s contribution, to know more about Taiwanese Opera, and further get closer to it. Now let us introduce the diva of Taiwanese Opera. You’ll know the story of how she promotes the Taiwanese Opera and how she successfully completed the mission impossible, by challenging herself to learn Taiwanese Opera when she was already twenty six years old.

There are many different stages in everyone’s life. For Miss Suen, the age 26, was the turning point of her life. After graduating from commercial college, Miss Suen was a happy office lady who only speaks fluent Mandarin. A few years later, when she turned twenty four, she got married, her husband’s family runs Taiwanese Opera Troupe in Pingdong, that is, the Ming Hwa Yuan. Miss Suen didn’t start to learn Taiwanese Opera until she was twenty six years old. She had to learn to speak Taiwanese and try to break through the limitations of her body. Finally she becomes the best male lead of the Ming Hwa Yuan. From the perspective of professional opera family, the age of 26 is just too old to start as a beginner.
While no one believed in her, Miss Suen learned from the basic step by step. She didn’t learn to stretch tendon until she was thirty. Miss Suen was amazed by what she had been through. Even the martial instructor asked her to stop such self-abusing training, she had no time to feel the pain and bitterness that she was suffering. Because she was aware that she was already far behind the others, she had to be even more diligent than others.
Three and a half years later, with her strong willpower, finally she got a chance to perform a minion on stage, while it took her seven years to become the best male lead of the Ming Hwa Yuan. A traditional proverb can best express her achievement, “three-minutes’ performance on stage takes ten-years’ labor behind the scenes.” Miss Suen Tsuei-feng is a genuine proof of this proverb.

With the success of Miss Suen’s performance, Miss Suen’s husband, Mr. Chen Sheng-fu, the current chief of the Ming Hwa Yuan, decided to promote Taiwanese Opera to Europe, America, Japan, Southeast Asia, as well as the Mainland China. The Ming Hwa Yuan’s ceaseless contribution was highly acclaimed by the National Cultural Association and KMT’s Culture and Communication Affairs Committee. In 1996, Miss Suen won the award of Ten Outstanding Young People and was received by the former President Lee Teng-hui.
In 1990, the Ming Hwa Yuan performed in Peking Arts Festival of Asian Games. At that time, Taiwan and Mainland China hadn’t opened up cultural and arts exchange yet. The Ming Hwa Yuan was selected to be the first Taiwanese theatric group ever performed in Mainland China. After intense training, finally the Ming Hwa Yuan was ready to put aside the current awkward situation of cross-strait relations and try to give a perfect performance. Unfortunately, China government created all sorts of restrictions, such as, no distribution of flyers, and no press conference. Under such depressing circumstances, the Ming Hwa Yuan still tried their best to launch the play. In the beginning, the audience seemed lukewarm, watching the play with numb facial expression. However, as the performance approached to the end, the audience gave the Ming Hwa Yuan a standing ovation and cheered from the top of their lungs for the Ming Hwa Yuan. At that time, there were no political barriers between them, because those barriers were already eliminated by the Ming Hwa Yuan’s fascinating performance.
In 1994, the Ming Hwa Yuan went to Paris to perform Taiwanese Opera. As we know, Taiwanese Opera is a native born & bred theatric form which has existed for almost a century, It has struggled to survive through the time of Japanese Occupation, the old KMT government, because none of them was willing to support its survival, not to mention to treasure it, even if it has been very popular in Taiwanese grassroots. Until the day the Ming Hwa Yuan brings Taiwanese Opera to National Theater concert hall, the government finally began to recognize this traditional theatric form. No one really expect that Taiwanese Opera could really step on international stage. However, the Ming Hwa Yuan did it. As they stepped on the city of Paris, they felt lonely. No one knew where Taiwan was. When Ms. Suen was taking stage photos on the street of Paris, Parisians thought she was a Peking Opera actress. The members performed the Lord Ji fidgetly. When troupers were singing Chi-Zi Diao（Seven Syllables Melodies） on Champs Elysees, they all asked themselves one question, “Could there be any audience coming to see our play?” or “Can they understand what we are singing?” On the first day of their performance, about 80% of the tickets were sold. No one left their seats during the whole play. At the end of the performance, everyone was fascinated of the delight and amusing atmosphere of the drama. In the end, the troupers had to come out to respond to a curtain fall for several times. The next day, the theater house was crowded with viewers coming to see the play, including the First Lady of France, Mary Joseph. She watched the opera from the very beginning till the end. She highly praised Taiwanese Opera. She said, “Taiwanese Opera is a traditional native drama that could genuinely represent Taiwan. In the past, it never occurred to anybody that Taiwanese Opera, being such a grass-root theatric form, could some day fight its way onto the international stage!
Speaking of this, Miss Suen reminisced the loneliness and bitterness she used to suffer from training and performing Taiwanese Opera. Somehow she choked with sobs as well as proud. Through reading her biography, photos and some news clips, we not only are inspired by her life experiences, but also admire her dazzling performances from the bottom of our hearts. Just like the title of her new Taiwanese Opera album says, She is a Brave Taiwanese Woman!