The Yellow Crane Tower (黃鶴樓) of Wuhan, in China's Hubei Province, is the stuff of legend. First built during the Three Kingdoms (三國) period, over the centuries poets have waxed philosophical about it, architects have pondered its various styles, and historians have used it as a point of departure to discuss China's many dynasties.
Under the witty pen of Taiwanese comedian Wu Jau-nan (吳兆南), however, the Tower serves as part of a joke that a teacher is trying to convey to two dim-witted pupils. The dialogue is one of six taking place between a teacher and his students in Spring Sun Performing Arts Troupe's (春禾劇團) latest cross-talk performance called Wujiandao (吳間道), beginning tonight at Novel Hall.
Cross talk (相聲) is a style of Chinese comedy that employs complex wordplay in monologues or dialogues to mock a particular person or the preoccupations of society.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SUMMIT BRAIN NEW PRODUCTION AGENCY
With Wujiandao, Spring Sun takes aim at Taiwan's obsession with fame, money and the Chinese classics.
In one dialogue, the teacher uses the popular television series One Million Star (星光大道) as an example to teach students how to become famous. Another discusses how classical Chinese forms are used in modern writing.
Wujiandao will be performed at Novel Hall (新舞臺), 3-1 Songshou S Rd, Taipei City (台北市松壽路3-1號), today and tomorrow at 7:30pm and tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm. NT$400 to NT$1,200 tickets are available through NTCH ticketing.
Recently the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its Mini-Me partner in the legislature, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), have been arguing that construction of chip fabs in the US by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is little more than stripping Taiwan of its assets. For example, KMT Legislative Caucus First Deputy Secretary-General Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) in January said that “This is not ‘reciprocal cooperation’ ... but a substantial hollowing out of our country.” Similarly, former TPP Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) contended it constitutes “selling Taiwan out to the United States.” The two pro-China parties are proposing a bill that
March 9 to March 15 “This land produced no horses,” Qing Dynasty envoy Yu Yung-ho (郁永河) observed when he visited Taiwan in 1697. He didn’t mean that there were no horses at all; it was just difficult to transport them across the sea and raise them in the hot and humid climate. “Although 10,000 soldiers were stationed here, the camps had fewer than 1,000 horses,” Yu added. Starting from the Dutch in the 1600s, each foreign regime brought horses to Taiwan. But they remained rare animals, typically only owned by the government or
Institutions signalling a fresh beginning and new spirit often adopt new slogans, symbols and marketing materials, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is no exception. Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), soon after taking office as KMT chair, released a new slogan that plays on the party’s acronym: “Kind Mindfulness Team.” The party recently released a graphic prominently featuring the red, white and blue of the flag with a Chinese slogan “establishing peace, blessings and fortune marching forth” (締造和平,幸福前行). One part of the graphic also features two hands in blue and white grasping olive branches in a stylized shape of Taiwan. Bonus points for
It starts out as a heartwarming clip. A young girl, clearly delighted to be in Tokyo, beams as she makes a peace sign to the camera. Seconds later, she is shoved to the ground from behind by a woman wearing a surgical mask. The assailant doesn’t skip a beat, striding out of shot of the clip filmed by the girl’s mother. This was no accidental clash of shoulders in a crowded place, but one of the most visible examples of a spate of butsukari otoko — “bumping man” — shoving incidents in Japan that experts attribute to a combination of gender
RSS