Over 2,700 attend banquet for infidelity-themed arts festival opera show

More than 2,700 people dined with the Sun Kailin Opera Troupe’s outdoor performance of “Justice Bao Beheads Chen Shimei” (包公鍘陳世美), a traditional Taiwanese opera, in Tainan’s Anping District on Sunday.

The event was part of the infidelity-themed Zhamei Arts Festival (鍘美藝術節), conceived after former President Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) daughter Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸 妤) revealed her divorce in a scathing one-star review of her ex-husband’s orthopedic clinic last month.

Sunday’s performance was staged in front of the festival’s first of three mass banquets, with Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) among 2,700 or so diners across 280 tables.

Throngs of people attend the outdoor performance of “Justice Bao Beheads Chen Shimei” in Tainan’s Anping District on Sunday.

Photo: CNA

Those without a ticket for the paid banquet were still welcomed to appreciate the opera show for free outside the dining area.

Although Chen Hsing-yu’s online review served as a catalyst, festival spokesperson Ma Chia-tung (馬嘉彤) told reporters that the event organizers wished to refrain from commenting directly on individuals’ private lives out of respect for their privacy.

What began as social commentary on current events gradually evolved into a discussion of morality and marital ethics through culture, Ma said, encouraging the public to support traditional opera.

The five-day festival invited attendees to bring their own food for picnics while enjoying free performances on Friday and Saturday nights, followed by paid banquets and free performances from Sunday through Tuesday.

Each night features Taiwanese hand puppetry or Taiwanese Hokkien opera, with performances based on either the story that inspired the festival’s name or another tale of infidelity.

The organizers estimated that Saturday’s picnic drew around 50,000 people, as many took advantage of the weekend.

The Zhamei Arts Festival opened with the Goodoo Puppet Troupe performing “Justice Bao Executes the Prince Consort” (包公斬駙馬), while the Luo Yu-cong Opera Troupe headlined “Betrayal of the Hippocratic Oath -- The Fury of the Justice and the Beheading of the Unfaithful Man” (杏林怨 -- 青天怒斬負心漢) on Saturday.

With references to the medical world that were not in the original opera, the Saturday show included not-so-subtle nods to the festival’s original inspirations.

On Monday, the Chunmei Opera Troupe will perform “Justice Shi Tries the Unfaithful Man” (施工審負心), with the Shiu Kim Taiwanese Opera Troupe closing out the festival on Tuesday with a performance titled “The Haunting of Chou by the Widow Lin” (林投姐活捉周阿 司).

Paralleling a parable

The Zhamei Arts Festival’s name is a satirical reference to “The Execution Trial of Prince Consort Chen Shimei” (鍘 美案), a Chinese parable featuring Justice Bao (包青天), a figure in Chinese literature and popular culture known for his incorruptibility.

The iconic folklore version of Justice Bao was based on a real-life official from China’s Song Dynasty.

In the story, Bao defies an imperial pardon and orders the execution of Chen Shimei (陳世美), a prince consort who concealed his marriage from the royal family, committed infidelity, and attempted to murder his first wife and children.

Organizers chose the story because they saw parallels with Chen Hsing-yu’s former marriage to orthopedist Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘), who had once been nicknamed Taiwan’s “prince consort” because he was married to the daughter of a then-sitting president.