The 36th Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music is scheduled to take place at the Taiwan Traditional Theatre Center in Taipei on Aug. 23. On July 2, the National Center for Traditional Arts held a press conference to announce this year’s nominees.
A total of 88 performing groups and 42 works were nominated across two main categories: music and theater. “Wen-sinn Yang and Christian Schmitt: Variations of Colors (舒密特與楊文信：萬彩雙琴)” leads the music category with six nominations. In the theater category, “Tavern by the Lethe: A Lost Actress (孟婆客棧：冥星雙飛俠)” and “Who’s in the Painting? (青姬)” each received five nominations, the highest in that category.
Deputy Minister of Culture Lee Ching-hwi (李靜慧) noted that according to 2024 data from OPENTIX, Taiwan’s leading platform for purchasing tickets to arts and cultural events, while overall ticket sales for the performing arts have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, traditional theater has shown robust growth in the number of productions and performances, with ticket sales even surpassing those of musicals.
This year’s Special Award honors Chen Mao-shuen (陳茂萱) and Linwu Su-hsia (林吳素霞). Chen (1936-2023), a prominent figure in music education and production for over six decades, exemplified a musician’s dedication to cultural transmission and innovation. Linwu, a multifaceted nanguan (南管) musician, has spent nearly 60 years performing and teaching, and in recent years has actively contributed to the analysis and preservation of traditional music archives.