EP7 | A Master of Taiko and Dance Art — Yiming Jose Ho Joins The Great Artist, Interrogating Identity and the Value of Existence Through the Beating of Drums

A Peking opera major at the National Taiwan Junior College of Performing Arts, a performance practice in which traditional culture collides with modern thought

[Taipei] The Great Artist podcast (EP7) by DE Global Art Agency welcomes contemporary Taiwanese performing artist Yiming Jose Ho. In this episode, he shares an artistic life threaded through with the sound of drums, and how, through drumming, he ceaselessly interrogates the two profound questions of "who am I" and "why do I create."

Yiming Jose Ho was born in Hualien, Taiwan, in 1984, and graduated from the National Taiwan Junior College of Performing Arts, majoring in Peking opera. The rigorous training of Peking opera laid for him a solid foundation in movement, rhythm, and performance, and sowed in his blood the deep roots of traditional Asian culture. Yet Yiming Jose Ho did not halt at tradition; rather, he continually sought breakthrough and transformation, infusing the nourishment of tradition into contemporary performance practice.

His artistic course is a trajectory of ceaseless self-breakthrough. In 2003, he joined "Taipei Ji Drumming" and formally studied wadaiko percussion performance; in 2006, he moved to "Drum Soul Titanium Drum," continually refining the craft of drumming and his stage expressiveness; and from 2008, he went a step further into theatrical creation, elevating drumming from a mere display of craft into a theatrical language bearing thought and emotion. The movement of Peking opera, the explosive power of wadaiko, and the critical reflection of contemporary theatre layered upon one another within him, finally distilling into a singular performance vocabulary at once traditional and avant-garde.

The core of Yiming Jose Ho's creation has always revolved around the interrogation of "identity" and "the value of existence." With the life experience of learning traditional Asian culture from childhood as his undertone, he explores, through ceaseless collision with modern thought, how a performer from an Eastern tradition might locate and settle himself within the contemporary, globalised society. Each instant of drumming is at once an eruption of power and an inward dialogue with the self.

In this episode, Yiming Jose Ho shares the deeper meaning that the sound of drums holds for him. The drum is among the most ancient and most direct of instruments, able to bypass language and strike straight to the heart. For him, drumming is not merely a display of technique, but a declaration of existence conducted through body and sound. Behind the strong and powerful rhythm lies an artist's profound contemplation of life, of culture, and of self-identity.

Yiming Jose Ho's creation embodies the foundation of academic orthodoxy that The Great Artist values: taking orthodox operatic training as a starting point, and, through cross-disciplinary exploration and an international vision, distilling a singular performance language and artistic career. He lets us see that tradition is not a fetter, but the richest nourishment for innovation.

The Great Artist EP7 is now available on Apple Podcasts, SoundOn, and other platforms, with each episode running about 33 minutes. You are warmly invited to listen and feel the profound weight of life within the drumming of Yiming Jose Ho.