First there was text, then photos, then music, and now with the broadband revolution, there is video -- uploaded onto the Web, that is. Video clips of every description are being uploaded and shared through sites such as YouTube and Google Video.
Web sites such as these provide platforms for users to upload videos, and from which they become freely available to anyone with an Internet connection to watch.
YouTube was founded in February last year, but didn't become well known until December, when a user uploaded a popular clip from the US TV show Saturday Night Live. NBC Universal, which owned the copyright, asked YouTube to remove the video, but by the time the furor had blown over, YouTube had become a popular location to search for recently released, or hard-to-find video clips.
Naturally there are regulations against infringements of copyright or the up-loading of clips with explicit content, but with so many videos up-loaded per day, such content is not usually removed until after a complaint is submitted, by which time thousands of Internet users have probably viewed the video.
From movie trailers, often leaked prior to a film's official release, to homevideo footage of, for example, the 2005 Taipei 101 New Year's Day countdown, there is a mass of material available for viewing.
Back-packers often show off their travels and provide a commentary. Others aim at social satire. For instance, one popular clip on YouTube, with an incredible 1.5 million views, is titled Crazy Asian Mother, a skit by young Asian-Americans that pokes fun at the stereotypical Asian mother, showing "how Asian parents really act when children get B+ [grades at school]."
Typing "Taiwan" into these video sites usually produces a selection of video clips that show the island's beauty, attest to the country's chaotic society and reveal stereotypical images of the nation, such as images of sexy woman at various night spots. Clips of this last tenor often elicit viewer comments such as, "I'm booking my flight to Taiwan after seeing this video!"
"My classmates and I most commonly view and upload funny videos or clips from popular variety shows such as edited highlight segments from Everyone Talks Nonsense (
Students, Li said, usually upload video clips or provide links on Wretch Album and Blog (無名), one of the most popular chat, video, and picture sites among Taiwan's youth. Unlike the international and professionally run sites that rate and systematically file every upload, these local sites are usually less organized and are shared between friends.
Why do they bother?
According to Li, "I'm eager to share [video clips like] these with others, as I often view whatever is being offered by others."
In all of this sharing, Li does not give much thought to the legal implications, "because none of us are actually selling anything," he said
Many of these recorded videos circulate in China and it's not unusual to find clips of Taiwan programs carrying subtitles in simplified characters. "Often, maybe one hour after a segment of a variety show has aired for the first time in Taiwan, you'll get a condensed, edited version uploaded on various Web sites. Most of these shows are either banned or not available in China."
Fu Jen Catholic University Computer Science and Information Engineering Department Associate Professor Hsing Me (梅興) said the growth in video posting is due largely to the difficulty that contemporary youths have of describing events in words. "Blogs and video posting will probably coexist until such time as everything has the means to become a walking TV or broadcasting station."
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
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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