Ping-Fong Acting Troupe (
To retrace its own footsteps, Ping-Fong will re-stage My Kid Sister (
PHOTO COURTESY OF PING-FONG ACTING TROUPE
Chang is one of the few writers in Taiwan who has spanned the critical divide, producing works that have appealed to critics while proving popular with the public as well.
Published in 1992, My Kid Sister shocked Taiwan's literary world with its unprecedented juxtaposition of adolescent experiences from female and male perspectives. Having a female protagonist dissect male chauvinism and expose men's weaknesses was so unconventional that the novel sold over 100,000 copies at the time.
Touched by the rarely depicted bond between a brother and sister, Hugh Lee (
In his adaptation, Lee stays true to the novel's setting -- a highly conservative veteran's village in the 1970s where sexual curiosity and even human affection is frowned on. Lee's skill at using comedy to highlight serious social issues is used to good effect here, with Lee presenting a faithful adaptation without undermining the humor of the original work.
Ping-Fong Acting Troupe will perform My Kid Sister at 7:30pm from April 11 through April 20 at Novel Hall (新舞臺) located at 3-1, Sungshou Rd., Taipei. Matinees will be held tomorrow, Sunday, April 19 and April 20 at 2:30pm.
The performance then goes to Chungshan Hall in Taichung on April 26 and April 27, the Performance Hall of Hsinchu Culture Bureau the following weekend and Kaoshiung's Chite Hall on May 10 and May 11 were it wraps up. Tickets range from NT$400 to NT$1500, and are available at Acer ticketing outlets. For more information, call the group at (02) 29382005.
Tickets are NT$400 to NT$1,500, and are available at Acer ticketing outlets. For more information call the group at (02) 2938-2005.
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