'We only give the best.'
The audience at Lin Hwai-min’s talk may not have realized that they had missed perhaps the most enlightening part of the event. During the rehearsal, which took place some two hours before the talk, Mr. Lin and the technicians of the Lee Hysan Concert Hall spent about an hour staring at the screen showing Cloud Gate dancers performing, painstakingly trying to get the colours and sound right. ‘This part is too green. The colours look astringent.… This should be bright yellow.… Lower the pitch. I heard echoes.’ Scrupulous attention to detail. Uncompromising aesthetics. Incessant adjustments. Was a three-minute long video clip worthy of the effort? Lin Hwai-min replied, ‘We only give the best.’