Taking in a performance at TaipeiEye is an experience I highly recommend to all visitors to Taipei.
TaipeiEye (臺北戲棚 or Taibei Xipeng , also called Taipei Theater) is Taipei City‘s premier Chinese performing arts venue for tourists. The organization offers hour-long performances three evenings per week, making one of the best things to do in Taipei at night, including for visitors to Taiwan with kids.
Each performance may combine elements of Peking Opera, Taiwanese opera, Taiwanese aboriginal traditions, Chinese martial arts, traditional music & drumming, acrobatics, and/or comedy.
In this article, I’ll share my personal experience watching a show at TaipeiEye. I’ll also tell you everything you need to know about fitting this worthwhile cultural experience into your Taipei itinerary.
Quick Tips and Links
- Book your TaipeiEye tickets here on Klook
- All shows are 8 – 9 PM on Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday. Plan to arrive 15-30 minutes early and stick around for 15 minutes after for photos and cultural displays.
- Performance storylines vary by day, so make sure to read about each of them before you decide.
- See the performance schedule and descriptions here on the official site.
- Location: Zhongshan District (north of Taipei Main Station, here on GoogleMaps
TaipeiEye Introduction
TaipeiEye has origins going back to 1915, during the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan. Originally called Taiwan New Stage (臺灣新舞台), the theater featured traveling Peking Opera troupes from China.
During WWII, the theater burned down during Allied bombings of Taipei. In 1989, the son of the original founder reestablished the theater.
The theater was moved to its present location in the Taiwan Cement Building (台泥大樓, owned by a cement company) on Zhongshan Road in 2002.
When COVID hit Taiwan, TaipeiEye stopped its performances for over three years. Today, they are up and running again, welcoming guests from all over the word.
The performance storylines are simultaneously translated into English, Japanese, and Korean, and staff on site can speak these languages.
It’s also possible to see Chinese performing arts in other venues in Taipei (including the National Theater and Concert Hall, Taipei Performing Arts Center, and at traditional street festivals.
However, these events are harder to track down and book.
TaipeiEye remains the most convenient and reliable way to observe such performances in the country, and this is why I recommend it the most to casual visitors, or even those living in Taiwan.
Taiwanese vs. Peking Opera
Taiwanese opera (also called Hokkien Opera, 歌仔戲 or ge zai xi) was started in Yilan on the northeast coast of Taiwan. Peking Opera is older and originated in Beijing.
Peking Opera goes back to the late 1700s, when performances were held for the Qing dynasty court.
Elaborately costumed performers would enact stories, using speech, song, dance, and combat. Male actors often played both sexes, and there was usually some comedy involved, often from clown-like characters.
Taiwanese Opera is essentially an offshoot of Peking Opera and the two are very similar. It was started by Han people living in Taiwan, but whose origins were the Minnan region of Fujian province in China.
Taiwanese performances are in Hokkien (Taiwanese language) rather than Mandarin language. Hokkien is the language of the Minnan region, where most of today’s Taiwanese trace their ancestry to.
The performances may have Taiwanese settings and elements from Taiwanese aboriginal or Hakka culture, such as the tea picking ceremony (15 to 20% of Taiwanese are Hakka).
If you’re looking for Taiwanese aboriginal performances specifically, TaipeiEye usually has at least one focusing on this. The others will mainly be Peking/Taiwanese opera.
Getting to TaipeiEye
TaipeiEye is an easy, 7-minute walk from Minquan W. Rd. Station on the Red and Orange lines of the Taipei MRT. You could also walk from Shuanglian (10 minutes) on the Red Line.
If you’re looking for dinner before the show, Shilin Night Market (Jiantan station) is only two stops away, while Ningxia Night Market is a 15-minute walk away from the theater.
When you arrive at Taiwan Cement Building (台泥大樓), you’ll notice some posters for TaipeiEye out on the street. In the entrance, the staff will check your ticket and direct you to the correct floor in the elevator.
What to Expect at the Show
Although the show starts at 8, I recommend arriving 15 to 30 minutes early to enjoy the cultural activities in the lobby just outside the theater.
The activities when I visited included cultural displays, traditional Chinese musical instrument performances, and the chance to pose in photographs with costumed performers.
Seating is first-come-first-served in the theater, and there were more than enough available seats when I went.
At 8 PM sharp, the curtains opened and performance began. Photography is allowed during the performance but no flash.
Note that I used a high quality camera and telephoto lens for taking all these photos. If you’re shooting with a phone, it will be hard to get good photos in the low-light conditions, especially if you try to zoom in on the performers like I did.
Here’s the mirrorless camera and lenses I use.
The performance I saw was called Monkey King (美猴王), which is based on the first seven chapters of the Ming Dynasty novel Journey to the West. Netflix has also made an animated film based on the story.
The story follows Sun Wu-kong, who causes problem everywhere he goes. The Jade Emperor lures him to heaven to keep an eye on him. The goddess Guanyin places a band around his neck to keep him in check.
When Sun finds out he was given a lowly position in heaven and wasn’t invited to a banquet, he loses his shit. The Jade Emperor sends soldiers to defeat him, but they fail.
To be honest, I didn’t know this story until I looked it up after the show, for writing this article.
I recommend that you look up the story beforehand if there is one, so you have a better idea than I did about what’s going on.
The storyline is shown in several languages on the side, if you want to attempt to follow along, but most spectators remained focused on the performers and not the words on the side.
But even without knowing the story, the performance was still highly entertaining and enjoyable, especially the scenes involving weapons and martial arts. And the costumes are truly magnificent.
The audience was encouraged to clap and cheer anytime we were especially impressed with the actions. There were also many moments of physical comedy which did not require any real understanding of the story.
At the end of the performance, all the performers came onto the stage for an ovation.
Once it was finished, staff members passed out pencils and surveys about the performance. On the way out, everyone got a second chance to pose in photographs with the performers.
Most people seemed to do this on the way out, so the line was longer. If you want to take photos with the performers, I suggest you take the chance before the performance starts, when I found there was almost no line.
I hope you enjoy the show!
