Chen Chian-nian (
Since then, the story of Pur Dur, Chen's Aboriginal name, the musician, police officer and nature lover who lived quietly in the Taitung hills began to emerge in the media.
Instead of quickly churning out more albums on the strength of his sudden fame, the usual practice in Taiwan's pop music scene, Chen chose to avoid the media spotlight altogether by applying for a transfer to Orchid Island. There, Chen resumed his quiet lifestyle made up of police duty, fishing, diving and music making.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TCM
Except for occasional tour groups visiting him and asking for his autograph, Chen's life was largely undisturbed on the island.
Mother Earth (大地), released two months ago, is the result of Chen's three years as a recluse on the island.
Love of Earth, which Chen wrote with his fans in mind, is the track that best illustrates the change in his life since his first album.
"My decision to transfer to Orchid Island was quite a shock for people around me, but that was the step I had to take for myself and my creative career ? People often talk about getting closer to nature but few can do so. Here I can enjoy solitude in the midst of nature. How lucky I am. Maybe there are fascinating things in cities too, but I believe life in nature suits me best," Chen said.
Other tracks document aspects of his daily life. Balaba is a musical portrait of the city life Chen experienced when he was in Taipei preparing his first album. You Are Heaven (for my Wife and Children) is a collaboration with a friend, who was about to become a father at the time the album was being prepared, as indeed Chen was. Their genuine affection for their families is evident in the song.
In Mother Earth, fans will find Chen has matured as a musician. Repelled by the idea of "singing into a machine," Chen was not comfortable recording in a studio. The past two years has changed that. Not only has Chen become more at ease with recording studios, he also demands higher recording quality.
Experimenting with different musical genres, Chen fused cool jazz, bossa nova and blues into his characteristic folk style. The sounds of nature accompanying the music on the album were recorded on Orchid Island. You can hear the sound of shepherds' piping, the roar of bulls and the sounds of children's laughter in this visually rich album.
Overall, the tone is very mellow, with lots of New Age touches, but Chen manages to defy too-easy pigeon-holing.
To present a more authentic Aboriginal flavor, Chen made a vibraphone out of bamboo gathered in the mountains of Taitung. The sound of this handmade instrument can be heard on the track The Heart of Taitung is an Orchid which is dedicated to his hometown.
Chen Chian-nian will perform at 10pm at Witch's House today. Tickets are NT$250 at the door. For more information, call Witch's at (02) 23625494.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would