The taike (台客) brigade was out in force at last weekend's TK Rock Concert (2007台客搖滾嘉年華) in Taichung as local popsters, rappers and rockers vied for a piece of grassroots vogue. Despite intermittent showers, a crowd of around 30,000 bopped to Aboriginal diva A-mei (阿妹) who demonstrated a taike square dance (方塊舞), Bobby Chen (陳昇), who wore a boy-scout outfit and The Chairman (董事長樂團) who were accompanied by the divine dancing Eight Generals (八家將).
Hailed as taike ambassadors, foul-mouth rapper duo MC Hotdog and Chang Chen-yue (張震嶽) won rounds of applause with their obscene version of Chairman Chou's (周董) lyrics. Indie outfit Soda Green (蘇打綠) were on top form after having garnered seven nominations for this year's Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎), scheduled to take place next month.
Outside the main stage, poll-dancing girls fired up the dampened taike crowd with their exposed buttocks and tricks that included rubbing their mammalian protuberances on a male audience member's face. Not before long, the slightly X-rated show caught the attention of local police who issued a warning against the indecent public acts. The resourceful girls upped the ante with a three-way wrestling bout. A happy ending for everyone, except, perhaps, taimei feminists, if that's not an oxymoron, and taike gays.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Whereas the festival embraced a Taiwanese identity loudly and proudly, local girl outfit S.H.E and their record company HIM (華研唱片) were labeled turncoats by our sister paper Liberty Times (自由時報) as their new song Mandarin (中國話) lavishes praise on the Chinese. The company struck back by denying the paper's reporters access to the band's press conferences.
A media war soon broke out when the Apple Daily (蘋果日報) trumpeted its pro-Mandarin opinions while the Liberty Times circulated an online adaptation of the song called Taiwanese (台灣話).
Nationalism was the last thing on VIP shoppers' minds last Friday at the Breeze Center's (微風廣場) exclusive shop-till-you-drop evening that excludes ordinary members of the public. Thousands of honored clients and their platinum credit cards were invited. Starlets and models strutted through the mall and within six hours, NT$260 million had been spent. How the other half lives.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Chinese-language media have been speculating on the possibility of a rekindled romance between old flames Maggie Cheung (張曼玉) and her rumored former lover Tony Leung (梁朝偉) as the pair was spotted dinning together in Hong Kong last week. Obviously having dinner together, in the eyes of the Chinese-language media can never be an innocent affair. Returning to her hometown to attend a local bank's celebration feast as an honored guest, the star tried to dodge questions about the supposed love square between Leung, Carina Lau (劉嘉玲), Terry Gou (郭台銘) and Leung. She decided to play dumb when asked about the dinner date by reporters.
Most heroes are remembered for the battles they fought. Taiwan’s Black Bat Squadron is remembered for flying into Chinese airspace 838 times between 1953 and 1967, and for the 148 men whose sacrifice bought the intelligence that kept Taiwan secure. Two-thirds of the squadron died carrying out missions most people wouldn’t learn about for another 40 years. The squadron lost 15 aircraft and 148 crew members over those 14 years, making it the deadliest unit in Taiwan’s military history by casualty rate. They flew at night, often at low altitudes, straight into some of the most heavily defended airspace in Asia.
Taiwan’s democracy is at risk. Be very alarmed. This is not a drill. The current constitutional crisis progressed slowly, then suddenly. Political tensions, partisan hostility and emotions are all running high right when cool heads and calm negotiation are most needed. Oxford defines brinkmanship as: “The art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, especially in politics.” It says the term comes from a quote from a 1956 Cold War interview with then-American Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, when he said: ‘The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is
Beijing’s ironic, abusive tantrums aimed at Japan since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi publicly stated that a Taiwan contingency would be an existential crisis for Japan, have revealed for all the world to see that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) lusts after Okinawa. We all owe Takaichi a debt of thanks for getting the PRC to make that public. The PRC and its netizens, taking their cue from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), are presenting Okinawa by mirroring the claims about Taiwan. Official PRC propaganda organs began to wax lyrical about Okinawa’s “unsettled status” beginning last month. A Global
Like much in the world today, theater has experienced major disruptions over the six years since COVID-19. The pandemic, the war in Ukraine and social media have created a new normal of geopolitical and information uncertainty, and the performing arts are not immune to these effects. “Ten years ago people wanted to come to the theater to engage with important issues, but now the Internet allows them to engage with those issues powerfully and immediately,” said Faith Tan, programming director of the Esplanade in Singapore, speaking last week in Japan. “One reaction to unpredictability has been a renewed emphasis on
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