Teddy Chien (簡志澄) sits in the upscale boardroom of his office that overlooks Ximending. The founder and artistic director of Snow White Entertaining Troupe (SWET, 白雪綜藝劇團) is dressed casually in blue jeans and white T-shirt, a dramatic contrast to the photos of him as a woman, which are displayed on the long table.
The pictures show Chien in various poses wearing eye-catching dresses and slinky swimwear that seem more suited to a fashion magazine than a theater troupe's promotional material.
"It usually takes two hours to put on my makeup and get ready for each show," he said. "Rehearsals for each performance take three days."
PHOTO: COURTESY OF MOCA
Chien's reputation and the promotional images were enough to convince Taipei's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) to invite him to perform as a compliment to its current exhibit, Fashion Accidentally (流行的意外).
Titled I "drag" therefore I am: Snow White Singing Hall, three drag queens and 12 dancers will take to the stage at 7:30pm tomorrow and perform hit songs in Chinese, Taiwanese and English. Chien will team up with a live band to sing four songs, followed by lip-synched tunes by pop diva Jolin Tsai (蔡依林).
Chien will change costumes nine times during the eight songs he performs - a balancing act that he says has taken years to perfect. He is helped along, however, by the design expertise of Lai Wei-jyong (賴蔚炅), a winner of the Golden Horse Film Festival's Best Costume design award.
Dressing up in drag is an art form, said Chien, and audiences throughout Taiwan are warming to Snow White's cheeky brand of entertainment.
"First time viewers usually react positively to our performances," he said. "And quite often they are the ones who go to our future shows."
Having Snow White perform at the museum continues a tradition begun by MOCA last year.
"For every exhibition we invite a performance group to perform in the square," said Elaine Liu (劉怡怜), from MOCA's development and promotions division.
Liu said MOCA chose a drag queen show because it fits into the themes expressed in the exhibit.
Curated by Sean Hu (胡朝聖), Fashion Accidentally features the work of 15 international artists in a variety of media. Liu says the themes expressed in the show provoke the viewer to approach culture and clothing on several different levels.
The exhibit's featured artists include Yasumasa Morimura and Ho Meng-chuan (何孟娟), both of whom use drag as a means of challenging accepted notions of what men and women should wear.
"But we didn't want something as serious as the art," Liu said.
Appealing to MOCA's neighbors is of primary importance, she said.
"This is an old neighborhood ... [and] we invited them as a means of drawing together people who might not go to see contemporary art but are interested in seeing a lively performance."
Liu hopes that if MOCA's neighbors are interested in the performance they might enter the museum.
Note: MOCA will keep its doors open until 7pm tomorrow.
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
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
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built