GEORGE TOWN: Lau Wan Yin does not speak Hokkien but she beat 49 others to win an international Taiwanese singing competition that was held using the Chinese dialect. Wan Yin, 12, who triumphed in ...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Taiwanese opera, or koa-a-hi in Taiwanese Hokkien, first started ... all the complicated choreography and classic productions, down to the hand gestures ...

Taiwan opera is revered across the Asian island. One of its most beloved traits is its gender-bending character archetypes, and its best-known actors are women who portray men.