In order to realize the policy concept of “Internationalization – International Expansion” and “Cloudification –Integration of Culture with Technology” proposed by the Ministry of Culture, the “Traditional Performing Arts Toolkit,”which intends to serve the mainstream international communities, schools at all levels, and relevant communities,was established on the network platform of “Cultural Toolkit of Taiwan.” This toolkit introduces the categories ofTaiwanese opera and music categories of the traditional performing arts that are representative, important, andcurrently active, and carefully chooses 40 performance groups and 120 of their works to a provide textual andgraphic introduction. The highlight videos and audios are introduced, with both Chinese and English versionsavailable.

The purposes of the development of this toolkit are to comprehensively collect and arrange the texts and video dataconcerning modern traditional performing arts in Taiwan, utilize the ubiquitous Internet, provide information on thebeauty and characteristics of the traditional performing arts in Taiwan to those who are interested. Relevant themeteaching and plan exhibition activities are organized, to achieve effective promotion and facilitate internationalcultural exchange.

According to the classification system of general knowledge of traditional performing arts, this toolkit includes 4themes: xiqu(traditional opera), traditional puppetry, traditional music, and folk acrobatics, which cover Taiwan’straditional performing arts, such as Taiwanese Opera, Hakka Opera, Beijing Opera, Kunqu Opera, Henan BangziOpera, Luantan Opera, Li Yuan Opera, Glove Puppetry, String Puppetry, Shadow Puppetry, Chinese music, Beiguan,Nanguan, Hakka Ba­yin music, Indigenous music, acrobatics, Lion Formation, and Song­Jiang Formation. Expertsand scholars were invited to write the introductions/guides to various themes, opera/music categories, groups, andworks. In addition, 3­5 minutes highlight videos were filmed for each work, and the setting of “Related Links,” wasdesigned to provide a uniform writing style, increase the convenience of searching, and enhance the accuracy ofinformational content, representativeness of group works, browsing readability, and extensiveness as coreprinciples. The stated aims are to make this toolkit the most representative database of traditional performing arts,texts, and videos in Taiwan, as well as to increase the international visibility of, and the possibility of exchangeinvolving, the cultural treasures of Taiwan.