Maybe, just maybe, the naive notion that music, including even the saccharine tunes of Mando-pop, is safely outside the realm of politics will be tossed out the window after Chang Hui-mei's (
The controversy stirred up when Chang, who's better known as A-mei (阿妹), was basically chased out of Hangzhou by a gaggle of banner-waving students. There was, however, some anxious speculation early this week as to which Taiwanese singers may be next to suffer a blockade on performances and endorsements in China, including Lee Hom Wang (王力宏), Jay Chou (周杰倫), Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), Mayday (五月天), Richie Ren (任賢齊), Alec Su (蘇有朋) and Wu Bai (伍佰) all of whom have been accused in at least one Chinese venue of being DPP supporters. Strangely, no one mentioned Samingad (紀曉君), who sang the national anthem at this year's inauguration. Then again, practically no one's ever heard of Samingad even though she's one of Taiwan's best singers who gained what little fame she has the hard way -- by singing in bars at night and holding down day jobs.
PHOTO :TAIPEI TIMES
As a contrast, and for an example of the easy path to success, look to the new hot band F.I.R., which appeared out of nowhere and is now sitting cozily atop the charts in Taiwan. Their ascendancy has been so vertical even fans are wondering how genuine they are. The Great Daily News (
Holding on to the bottom rung of the pop charts is Jordan Chan (陳小春), whose latest album Black Hole (黑洞) is getting some apparently ineffectual non-stop promotion on Taipei's city buses. Pop Stop caught up with Skot Sukuyama, who arranged one song on the album and was involved in the making of the album from its early stages almost half a year ago, to ask why Jordan's album just isn't taking off. "Basically, it sounds like Frankenstein looks," he said.
While working on the album, the producers provided Sukuyama with some interesting and rather telling guidance on the sound they were hoping to achieve. "They said, `We want it to sound like an elephant and The Matrix," and I was like, "An elephant is an animal and The Matrix is a movie. It doesn't make any sense."
But that's what they wanted.
So that's what they got: an album jam-packed with clashing styles that simply don't come together in a very musical way.
Things looked bad this week for Rock Records, as well, which was featured in a front-page story of Wednesday's Apple Daily (
A spokesman for the label is reported as saying the affair will be cleared up within a week.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not