The Works：Ding Ding Comix Tram, Taiwan Culture Festival "Our Town" theatre production & in the stu

This week we’ll be devoting the whole of the second half of The Works to Ara Kimbo, a descendent of the Pinuyumayan and Payuan tribes, whose voice has been called “the most beautiful sound in Taiwan”. Ara Kimbo’s visit to Hong Kong is part of the “Taiwan Culture Festival” which includes workshops on creativity, an outdoor market, fashion show, and classical music. It also includes an adaptation of a play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. But what took Thornton Wilder to Taiwan?
But first, Hong Kong’s tram began running from east to west along the north side of Hong Kong island in 1904. Well, land has been reclaimed for more living room, and the tram is now much further inland than it used to be, but it’s still part of many people’s daily lives and – apart from your own feet - still Hong Kong’s cheapest way to get around. In July, six local comic artists brightened up six of Hong Kong’s trams with their own illustrations. Their work was only supposed to be decorating the trams until the end of October, but the event’s now been extended and you can catch them – the trams and the comics - up to the end of the year.
Under way in Hong Kong right now is the Taiwan Culture Festival, which runs roughly from October and December every year. Among this year’s attractions is an adaptation of American playwright, Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” which tells the story of the fictional small town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913. But of course, for this production the town in question has changed. This version is set in the Tamsui district in Northern Taiwan.
A descendent of Taiwan’s Pinuyumayan and Payuan tribes, Ara Kimbo is well-known for his enthusiasm for life and for his devotion to nature. He and his friend Shuang-Tse Li started the folk song movement in Taiwan in the 1970s. In 1984, after an explosion in a coal mine near Taipei county, Ara became involved in social movements and spoke out as an advocate of the rights of indigenous groups in Taiwan. He’s been making music for more than four decades but he didn’t release his first album “In a Flash” until 2005. It won him several awards. He’s in the studio with us today.