"Taiwan still lacks a means of bringing world music to a larger audience," said Chung She-fong (
There is one radio program that showcases world music, produced and hosted by writer and music critic Ho Yingyi (何穎怡). The show, Taipei Big Ear (台北大耳朵), is aired on Saturdays and Sundays from 1am to 2am on Philharmonic Radio Taipei.
Ho's translated book World Music CD Listeners' Guide (漫遊歌之版圖) is the first such book in Chinese.
Apart from Trees Music & Art, there are two local record labels that specialize in world music. One label, called Wind Music (風潮唱片), has a series called World Music Library, which was produced by Japan's King Production. Its Ethnic Music Hall series is an award-winning ethnomusicology production, incorporating eight albums from Taiwanese Aboriginal tribes, six from Taiwan's Pingpu people, one each from Tibetan and Hakka groups and one of southern Taiwan folk songs. The music was collected and produced by the late music scholar Hsu Chang-hui (許常惠) and ethnomusicologist Wu Rung-shun (吳榮順).
Sunrise Records (上揚唱片) has two world music series, the Taiwan Native Folk Songs and the World Music Series.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless