Taiwan Academy to bring cultural events to Houston in the Fall

Washington, Sept. 10 (CNA) The Taiwan Academy in Houston is set to host a series of arts and cultural events this fall, featuring award-winning films from Taiwan and more modern performances that showcase Taiwan's gender identity and equality values.

The academy announced in a recent press release that it will be collaborating with arts institutions and universities in Texas between September and November to present a fall-themed showcase, tentatively titled "Taiwanese Sensibility in Texas."

Among the events featured will be screenings of award-winning Taiwanese films by renowned Taiwanese directors Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) and Ang Lee (李安) and Taiwan-based Malaysian director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮).

Additionally, Taiwan's beloved drag queen Nymphia Wind will speak at the city's Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH), while award-winning musicians such as Yuhan Su (蘇郁涵) will hold recitals.

The academy announced that the film segment of the fall showcase will feature five selected works by Hou, Lee and Tsai to be screened at three major arts and cultural cinemas in Houston.

Meanwhile, Nymphia Wind, Taiwan's first drag queen to win the American reality TV show "RuPaul's Drag Race," will be speaking at the MFAH on Sept. 24, including a dialogue with the museum's curator of Asian art, Bradley Bailey.

Nymphia Wind, who uses the pronoun she as Nymphia Wind, will discuss her formative years in Taiwan, including her early exposure to the performing arts and training in theater and movement, and how she uses performance art and social advocacy to express her identity.

Besides being a pioneer on Taiwan's road to gender equality and identity, Nymphia Wind was most recently honored as the inaugural recipient of the Changemaker of the Year award by the Harvard Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative in December 2024.

Another figure featured at the showcase will be Hong Kong writer Gigi L. Leung (梁莉姿), whose work "Everyday Movement" (日常運動) has won several awards in Taiwan's literary world.

After the writer completes a part of her book tour in the United States at the end of October, she will participate in speeches and discussions with academics from Houston's University of St. Thomas.

Su, meanwhile, will bring her unique jazz vibraphone sound to the Asia Society Texas Center on Nov. 21 with members of her jazz trio, with numbers chosen from her album "Over the Moons."

Lu Yi-chih (盧易之), a pianist and assistant professor at Taipei National University of the Arts, will also tour several universities in Texas with his "Bridging Horizons: From Taiwan to Texas -- crossing oceans through the power of music" concert series, the Taiwan Academy said.

According to the academy, people of Asian descent make up 10 percent of the population of the Greater Houston area, and the city is the most "Taiwanese" town in the state.