Paper Windmill Theatre has brought top-tier dramatic productions to children in Taiwan's most far-flung locations. This photo was taken in Chenggong Township in Taitung County. (courtesy of Paper Windmill Foundation)

Lee Yung-feng is a man of many talents. Not only was he Taiwan's first professional mime, he's also been a pioneer in children's theater.

Six years ago he began implementing a grandiose vision without precedent in Taiwanese history: to bring art to schoolchildren in every township throughout the country. From the first performance in Yilan County's Yuanshan Township to the most recent shows in August this year, all but six of the country's 319 urban and rural townships have been checked off the list. It won't be long before Paper Windmill Theatre's "First Mile, Kid's Smile: Arts for Children in 319 Townships" comes to a triumphant conclusion.

The location: the athletic field of Pingdeng Elementary School in Beitou, Taipei City. The time: 2 p.m. Stagehands begin erecting and decorating the stage, moving electronic equipment, putting up the lights, and setting up the sound equipment. This production will be in no way inferior to those held at the National Theater in Taipei!

At dusk, adults leading children by the hand begin to trickle in and sit down beneath the canopy of stars. On stage, an armor-clad Don Quixote rides out on horseback to do battle with a windmill, which turns out to be a hideous dragon. At precisely the moment when the knight topples the monster from the stage, stagehands unleash a cloud of dry-ice fog, and the kids excitedly cheer, "Down with the monster!" This scene never fails to work the little ones up to an ecstatic pitch, their delighted laughter and squeals echoing through the night air.

Paper Windmill Foundation CEO Lee Yung-feng's troupe has staged this production more than 300 times. His artistic commitment and his novel fundraising techniques, both greatly evidenced in his nationwide tour, made his foundation recipient of the fifth Presidential Culture Awards Creativity Award. Naturally, the NT$1 million prize went straight back into the project.