Abstract

This article is devoted to Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan (Yunmen Wuji), modern dance and its search for Taiwanese identity in a globalized, cosmopolitan society at the end of the 20th century. The author analyses three choreographic works by Lin Huaimin, the founder of Yunmen Wuji: 'Legacy ('Xinchuan', 1978), 'My Nostalgia , My Songs' ('Wo de xiangchou, wo de ge', 1986) and 'Portraits of the Families' ('Jiazu hechang', 1997). The analysis focuses not only on the formal aspects of the dances but on their role in shaping the cultural and socio-political identity of the Taiwanese in the seventies, eighties and nineties as well.