Seqalu: A New Page for Taiwan Historical Dramas

This is a translation of the original 台灣歷史劇開啟新頁──談《斯卡羅》by Chen Wen-lan (陳文瀾), a columnist. Originally published by Voice Tank. Translation by Chieh-Ting Yeh.

Seqalu: Formosa 1867, the 12-episode TV series produced by Taiwan’s Public Television Service, is a phenomenon in Taiwan. It broke the record for highest rating of a premiere in PTS’s 21-year history, and has been the hottest topic in Taiwan ever since the end of the Olympics. Even though the show sparked praise and criticism, it has made more people passionate for Taiwanese history and opened a new page for Taiwanese dramas.

In recent years, a handful of historical dramas like Island Nation (國際橋牌社) and The Magician on the Skywalk (天橋下的魔術師) have become popular, but they’re set in the 1970s and 80s, a period familiar to middle-aged Taiwanese folk. Seqalu is set in the 1860s and depicts events that most Taiwanese people don’t even know well, but the buzz around Seqalu has far surpassed the other two dramas.

Coincidentally, Cape No. 7, the 2008 movie often credited with starting this golden age of Taiwanese cinema, was also set in the far south of Taiwan like Seqalu. If Seqalu opens a golden age for Taiwanese drama, the value of the show will eclipse its controversies.

Historical dramas reinterpret history 

People have always learned more history from fiction than historical records, whether in folklore or literature. For our age, it’s TV and movies. Most don’t care that Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義), a novel written in the 14th Century, employed its creative license liberally in its depiction of stories from China in the 3rd Century. Three TV series from China have done the same: Yongzheng Dynasty (雍正王朝), Ming Dynasty 1566 (大明1566), and Towards the Republic (走向共和).

The Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing was long considered a brutal and sadistic ruler, but the 1999 drama changed people’s perception of him. Similarly, the incompetent Ming emperor in Ming Dynasty 1566 was depicted as a smooth political operator. In Towards the Republic, many of the historical figures, such as Li Hongzhang, Kang Youwei, and Yuan Shikai were given new interpretations.

Looking at Taiwanese TV in the past, except for a few shows based on old Taiwanese folklore, the mainstream was dominated by shows about ancient Chinese history, like Justice Bao (包青天), Empress Wu Zetian (一代女皇武則天), and My Fair Princess/Huan Zhu Ge Ge (還珠格格). In the early 1990s, Taiwanese shows about Chinese history became popular even in China.

But the Chinese entertainment industry expanded exponentially, and the quality of Chinese TV quickly overtook Taiwan’s, especially with historical dramas. Taiwanese dramas about Chinese history lost their market appeal. Sure, a few dramas were made based on Taiwanese folklore, and kua-á-hì (Taiwanese folk opera) on TV still had historical themes, but no one thought of them as historical dramas.

In more recent years, we’ve seen more Taiwanese TV shows set in Taiwan’s own past (rather than on ancient China), like La Grande Chaumière Violette (紫色大稻埕) and Roseki (台北歌手), but their ratings and popularity cannot compare to the imported Chinese dramas.

Seqalu after the Tokyo Olympics

Taiwan had a tremendous showing at the Tokyo Olympics this year, earning a total of 12 medals. This is the result of Taiwanese athletes’ efforts over the past 20 years. Similarly, Seqalu becoming a blockbuster right out of the gate is a result of Taiwanese cultural and entertainment industries’ investment and efforts, from inspiring more talent to challenging new topics and stories.

Taiwanese historical dramas, while high in quality, had a small fan base. Not only are there more dramas with higher production values, they finally broke into the mainstream.

The Tokyo Olympics is a watershed moment for Taiwanese sports, with a new generation of athletes extruding more confidence than their predecessors, gracious in victory and defeat. Seqalu–regardless of the arguments about historical accuracy–the actors in the show also show more confidence and grace in their performance than ever before. The same goes for all the support staff and people who support our athletic endeavors and cinematic productions.

People have said Seqalu, an adaptation of the novel Lady the Butterfly by Dr. Y.C. Chen, is like the epic taiga dramas from Japan. I think it means more than that; like Korean historical dramas, it’s a foundation for a new public awareness of history. Since the 2000s, Korean historical dramas have proliferated, with a wide diversity of topics and competing perspectives. They have reconstructed a Korean-centric historical narrative, challenging the views of Korea as an imperial Chinese vassal state or Japanese colony. This is something Taiwan should learn from.

A good start is half the battle 

Most of the criticism directed at Seqalu is about its historical accuracy or the pace of storytelling. But even the most highly regarded historical dramas will differ from actual history. Making anything based on Taiwanese history is especially hard because so many people have ruled and fought each other in Taiwan, leading to a very scattered historical record.

Nitpicking is easy. The point is to appreciate history from a dramatic viewpoint. We need more historical dramas; the more popular they are, the better they’ll become, and the more diverse and multifaceted our historical viewpoints will be.

In the past 30 years, Taiwan’s national identity has consolidated. Now we need to build up from that foundation, especially nourished by culture. Pop culture is a huge part in shaping our identities. There are many more stories from our history just waiting to be made into TV shows. I hope Seqalu is the beginning of a new wave of Taiwanese TV as well as public interest in Taiwanese history.

(Feature photo from Seqalu: Formosa 1867’s Facebook Page)