"An aesthetic declaration of Independence."
　　　　　　　　　　　　---Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

During World War II, thousands of Taiwanese were conscripted by the Japanese to fight the Chinese. At the conclusion of the war, with the defeat of Japan, Taiwan reverted to Chinese rule. This created a dilemma for the people of Taiwan. They were now under the control of the Chinese Nationalists, who had only recently been on the other side of the firing line. In February of 1947 there was an island wide massacre in which many intellectual elite and political leaders of the Taiwanese were murdered. Martial law descended upon the island, and would remain in place for 40 years.

During these dark years, the Taiwanese were suppressed and gagged. Nobody dared to speak of recent history, and all family records and photos were secreted away. To have a photo discovered of anyone wearing a Japanese kimono would result in being labeled un-nationalistic, or un-patriotic. To be heard speaking the Taiwanese dialect in school was to invite punishment or penalty. Political dissidents were put into prison or simply "disappeared".

After martial law was lifted in 1987, some of these old photos and family histories began to be unearthed. People were finally free to explore their own heritage, and the history of Taiwan is now being rewritten.

Choreographer Lin Hwai-min describes his first experience of seeing pictures of his parents and his ancestors since the 19th century as being extremely traumatic. He began to collect old photos from all walks of Taiwanese life, and to research the stories behind these photos.

Out of the more than 2000 pictures in his collection, he has chosen about 1000 to serve as the backdrop for Portrait of the Families, the full length work inspired by these photos.

Lin claims to be haunted by these images of people, especially the victims of the 1947 massacre, whose very existence had been wiped out by political force, and decided to examine these turbulent events from the point of view of the family.

What was it like for the mother whose son was drafted by the Japanese army during World War II? What happened to the young boy who saw his father executed during the political purges of 1947? How does the old veteran feel when he visits his relatives in Mainland China after more than four decades? What inspires a young aborigine to recover his native language so that he can communicate with his mother for the first time in years? How do today's twenty-somethings, with their fast motorcycles and casual airs, relate to their parents?

Such stories are told through taped voices in different dialects, and hundreds of collages made up of vintage photographs from Taiwan projected onstage, while dancers in contemporary dress are involved in their own executions of abstract movements, oblivious to the images and voices surrounding them. The set of Portrait of the Families is designed by Ming Cho Lee, the distinguished designer of American theatre. The slide projection is designed by Elaine McCarthy and has been consulted on by Wendall Harrington.

A traditional lion dance, a religious procession, a trance dance, and a rite involving the burning of a sacrificial boat, are just some of the scenes that find their way into this contemporary, hi-tech production. The past and present, fantasy and reality, bitterness of life and religious ecstasy, juxtapose in a world full of stunning images and strong emotions.

This is more than just the Taiwanese experience, it is a universal theme of human suffering and hardship at the hands of oppressors; and the fortitude of the human spirit to survive, remember, and begin to heal after all these years.

"I want to speak of the landscape of the human heart." Lin Hwai-min said.