There are rock 'n' roll bands that sing about revolution, but only one can claim to have actually inspired one. They are the Plastic People of the Universe, whose Velvet Underground-influenced, psychedelic art rock the Czechoslovak Communist regime found so threatening that in 1977 it sentenced them to prison for "organized disturbance of the peace."
The case attracted international attention and became a rallying point for Charter 77, a civic movement that ultimately overthrew Communism in Czechoslovakia. The Plastics - who play tomorrow night at The Wall - even coined the name for their country's peaceful democratic transition in 1989: the Velvet Revolution.
On Monday, the band participated in a talk as part of this year's Spirit of Taiwan (正義無敵), the latest name for the Taiwan Rock Alliance's (TRA) annual music festival held to commemorate the 228 Incident. They sat down in an auditorium at Eslite's Xinyi branch, joined by Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹) and several figures from Taiwan's indie-music scene. The panel was supposed to discuss transitional justice, or how a country comes to terms with past human rights abuses and moves on.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF TRA
"We lived under a Communist regime. If you want to ask us how was it, how it will be, we are ready to answer your questions," said frontman Vratislav Brabenec in his opening remarks. Brabenec was jailed at least 70 times before emigrating to Canada with his wife and daughter in 1983.
But not everyone in the audience of mostly university students wanted to talk about politics. The first person to ask a question noted that most Taiwanese bands break up after a few years. He wanted to know how the Plastics had managed to stay together for four decades. Another said he liked heavy metal and asked what Czech metal bands were good.
When asked about their experiences under Czechoslovakia's Communist government, Brabenec, bassist Ivan Bierhanzl and Eva Turnova, who joined the band 10 years ago, gave thoughtful answers.
"The Communist Party feared us because we are poets," said Brabenec, whose long white beard and round glasses made him look like an aging John Lennon. "We were pushed to be in the political field because of the process against musicians in the Czech underground movement."
But it wasn't until late in the evening that an attempt was made to draw a connection to Taiwanese politics. And the person who made the connection was a Taiwanese politician.
"It seems that in our society in Taiwan people are [more] reluctant to appear politicized or to take a position on matters related to social justice," said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴). What can a government do, she asked, to encourage a sense of transitional justice among artists?
Brabenec responded by saying artists themselves should speak out against the government.
Ko Ren-jian (柯仁堅), singer for indie-rock band LTK Commune (濁水溪公社), said he was impressed by how the Plastics sang about Communist politicians being afraid of artists.
"Bands in Taiwan are a little bit tired about the [domestic political] situation," he said. "The politicians here are not afraid of the bands. They're not afraid of anything. I think it's hard for us to make a change. That's just my personal thought about the difference between [your country] and Taiwan."
"If you cannot tell the truth, don't be an artist," Brabenec said.
That was about as far as anyone seemed interested in going with what was supposed to be the topic of the evening. Not even Wang, the leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, could steer the discussion back to the issue.
"I don't understand so much about rock 'n' roll music, but in my knowledge I think it has a lot to do with rage and anger," he told the band. "But you don't look like you're angry at all. What has changed throughout these years as you grow in age? Do you stop being so angry? Or are you still angry, and if so why?"
Turnova was the first to respond. She said anger was the other side of sex, then took a dig at her bandmates' age.
"I don't agree, but I like sex," Brabenec said, drawing laughter from the audience.
Despite their role in changing European history, the Plastics never considered themselves to be a political band; they have always maintained that they just wanted the Communist regime to leave them alone.
"It's some kind of joke of history that our band became political," said Bierhanzl after the conference was over. "We are just guys who want to play music.
Also See: National Palace Museum hits the road
June 2 to June 8 Taiwan’s woodcutters believe that if they see even one speck of red in their cooked rice, no matter how small, an accident is going to happen. Peng Chin-tian (彭錦田) swears that this has proven to be true at every stop during his decades-long career in the logging industry. Along with mining, timber harvesting was once considered the most dangerous profession in Taiwan. Not only were mishaps common during all stages of processing, it was difficult to transport the injured to get medical treatment. Many died during the arduous journey. Peng recounts some of his accidents in
“Why does Taiwan identity decline?”a group of researchers lead by University of Nevada political scientist Austin Wang (王宏恩) asked in a recent paper. After all, it is not difficult to explain the rise in Taiwanese identity after the early 1990s. But no model predicted its decline during the 2016-2018 period, they say. After testing various alternative explanations, Wang et al argue that the fall-off in Taiwanese identity during that period is related to voter hedging based on the performance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Since the DPP is perceived as the guardian of Taiwan identity, when it performs well,
A short walk beneath the dense Amazon canopy, the forest abruptly opens up. Fallen logs are rotting, the trees grow sparser and the temperature rises in places sunlight hits the ground. This is what 24 years of severe drought looks like in the world’s largest rainforest. But this patch of degraded forest, about the size of a soccer field, is a scientific experiment. Launched in 2000 by Brazilian and British scientists, Esecaflor — short for “Forest Drought Study Project” in Portuguese — set out to simulate a future in which the changing climate could deplete the Amazon of rainfall. It is
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on May 18 held a rally in Taichung to mark the anniversary of President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20. The title of the rally could be loosely translated to “May 18 recall fraudulent goods” (518退貨ㄌㄨㄚˋ!). Unlike in English, where the terms are the same, “recall” (退貨) in this context refers to product recalls due to damaged, defective or fraudulent merchandise, not the political recalls (罷免) currently dominating the headlines. I attended the rally to determine if the impression was correct that the TPP under party Chairman Huang Kuo-Chang (黃國昌) had little of a