On June 1, 2006, I wrote an article about saving music venues The Wall and Underworld. Today, six years later, The Wall remains a sacred spot for indie bands, but Underworld has been closed by the Taipei City Government.
It is not that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his team lack cultural policies. When I spent a few years as a legislator I pushed for the reuse of empty historical buildings and an international arts village and Ma, who was then the mayor of Taipei, and his team delivered. However, when it comes to cultural affairs, Ma’s administration behaves in absurd ways and the closing of “live houses,” or live music clubs, is one example.
In 2004, the city government strongly recommended Underworld and The Wall in Taipei City’s quarterly Tourist Magazine and in 2006, the New York Times and the New Yorker also recommended both establishments. At the same time as Ma and his team were pushing for these two clubs, they clamped down on other live music clubs in the same way they did with the so-called “eight major industries,” including clubs, bars, dance halls, KTVs, barbershops and saunas, by resolutely shutting them down.
In 2006, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) and I held a public hearing in the legislature calling for live music clubs to be saved. As an urgent relief measure, we pushed what was then the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) to issue an “important art performance space certificate” to these clubs as protection and asked city councilors to demand that police stop closing them down.
As a permanent solution, I demanded that live music clubs be added as a new item to the regulations governing business registration. After agreeing, the Ministry of Economic Affairs included such clubs as an art business in item J6 of the business registration, calling them “music performance businesses.” Next, the CCA was supposed to generate an appropriate definition — something it ended up needing four years to do.
The definition is “a for-profit business whose main business is to provide creators of music and art acceptable to the general public with a performance space with loudspeakers, lighting, hardware and equipment to function as a stage for the live performance of their music.” It took four years to get this down on paper, an average of about a letter per day. By this time, the responsibility for the issue had been transferred from the CCA to the Government Information Office.
However, after the definition had been completed, the concerned agencies did nothing and local building control authorities inspected these establishments using the old regulations which governed the eight major industries.
Then last year, Witch House in Taipei and Sound Live House in Greater Taichung were closed down and now it is Underworld’s turn. Many peculiar things have happened during the process: The Wall, for example, was told to buy three refrigerators to fulfill the requirements of a food and beverage establishment. The owner had no choice but to comply, but the electrical outlet for the refrigerators still has not been inspected.
The situation in Taichung was even more absurd. Different agencies inspecting the premises told the owners to make various changes. One of the requests was for changes complying with demands for a “dance hall,” but after the changes were made, they were still closed down because they no longer complied with their business registration requirements.
Faced with such odd rules and confused government agencies, owners of live music clubs really do not know where to turn or what to do. It seems that when Ma and his team wax lyrical about culture, they are only trying to cover up for their amateurish and uncultured approach.
In addition to Ma and his team, civil servants are another problem. They put on airs and graces and behave as if they were cultured and refined, but although live music clubs have been around for decades, they are still unfamiliar with them.
To give an example, the officials in charge of handling this matter had never been to such a place until I brought them to one. While now, after a few years, they finally understand what it is all about, Ma and his team — those who actually lead these officials — still understand nothing and that is why things have come to this absurd pass.
Since officials already understand the direction in which the solution lies, solving the problem should be easy. Because the ministry’s Department of Commerce has added a new business item and Taipei City zoning regulations have been changed, all that is needed now is that the Ministry of Culture quickly bring members of the Construction and Planning Agency and the National Fire Agency to a few live music clubs to understand how they operate and then ensure that the corresponding fire regulations and other safety equipment standards and building categories are applied, or amend them so they can be applied.
This would be an example of the administrative authorities taking the initiative. Current laws can be applied with some complementary measures without any need for legal amendments.
Legislators could also take the initiative. There is no need to make a big fuss and write new laws — all that is needed is amending the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Act (文化創意產業發展法) to create a legally unambiguous concession system for live music clubs. The administrative regulations would be the same as in the previous example with the administrative authorities taking the initiative.
It is all very easy and live music clubs in general, and Underworld in particular, could be saved.
Lin Cho-shui is a former Democratic Progressive Party legislator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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