In October 2013, while attending the Maljeveq Festival at the Paiwan Tjuabare Village in Taiwan, I met Dr. Hsu, who gave up his high-paying job as a hospital physician to return to his tribe. In the nation’s capital of Taipei, on average, one doctor serves 86 people; in this rural area, one doctor serves more than 4,000 people. It was Dr. Hsu’s goal to build a village hospital here to better serve the people of his tribe. While embarking on this ambitious goal, Dr. Hsu had a stroke at age 39 which paralyzed his left hand and foot.

The story continued after my return in January 2017 to the United States, where I found myself facing the changing political climate and immigration policy. These changes precipitated a series of discussions between me, Asian Americans and other minorities. While I am a member of the majority ethnic group in Taiwan, as a first-generation immigrant in the US, I find myself in the minority population. Simultaneous membership in both the majority and minority has given me a unique perspective.

Messages incorporates thoughts on empathy, diaspora, cultural identity, and hope for the future. The stage presentation is lavish, but clean and minimal: it consists of a narrator and small chamber ensemble. To enhance the story-telling, there are some visual and audio materials, taken from the Paiwan village and the Women’s March demonstration in Houston protesting the immigration ban.

This project is interesting and challenging for me for several reasons. First, as a composer who normally expresses ideas through abstract music, rather than conveying emotions and personal beliefs with words, my attempt to tell this personal story through my music as well as my own lighting and staging design expands my communicative palette. Furthermore, while conventional opera deals with historical stories or legends, Messages deals with current issues about living people. I believe the issues of social justice and personal identity explored in this project are universal and relevant to audiences everywhere, particularly as globalization fuels racial integration and redefinition of the status quo at an unprecedented pace.

《寫給妳的信》
陳士惠

2013年10月，我參加了排灣族土坂的五年祭，並認識了離開奇美醫院回到部落的徐醫生。徐醫生希望在偏遠地區設南迴醫院，讓當地的居民能夠像其他城市享有便利的醫療服務，這是十分艱難的目標。堅持用自己的專業回饋家鄉，努力推動南迴醫院設立的徐醫生(自稱帥哥醫師)，卻在年僅39歲時就中風──左手和左腳癱瘓了。不過，即使行動不方便，徐醫師並沒有放棄目標，仍然為呼籲大眾關注這一塊偏遠地區的居民而奔走。

時光移轉到我回美國以後。

2017年1月，川普總統發佈了許多新的移民、對少數民族不利的政策。一個以移民為基礎的國家為何如此面對移民問題？這也引發我更多的感觸──在美國的亞洲人是邊緣人，而在台灣的原住民也是邊緣人，所不同的是，台灣的原住民是在自己的土地上被輕視，而且是生生世世！

以透過與女兒的世代對談，《寫給妳的信》反映出我對個人、社會問題的想法及對未來的展望，而「同理心」是這齣音樂劇主要探討的核心。

《寫給妳的信》舞台的呈現不豪華，而是清新簡明： 除了(flute, clarient, violin, cello, percussion and condcutor) 五位演奏者之外， 僅有一位「說書人」和一張桌子。另外，舞台上會有簡單的視覺和聲音效果，共同來講這這個故事。視覺方面，我以拜訪部落時所拍的一些影像及在美的反新移民政策的示威遊行記錄影像為主；聲音方面，擬採用部落小孩所唱的排灣族歌曲及我替女兒做的搖籃曲，作為主要的音樂元素來貫穿整個故事。

《寫給妳的信》的題材、形式有別於我以往的音樂創作： 

首先，我一向慣用抽象的音符來表達自己，以文字的方式來傳達個人情感及意念來探討親身經歷的當代問題，則是少有的經驗；它，伸展了我的工作模式。除此之外，創作這件作品擴展了我對音樂與其他媒體 (如燈光、舞台)結合的創意空間。因此，《寫給妳的信》對我來說，是一種自我突破的創作，非常有趣且具挑戰性。 我更希望《寫給妳的信》是一件探討超越國際界線、能引起共鳴的議題性作品。