All-girl industrial band Go Chic and emotronic/breakcore outfit Dynatac perform at Underworld (地下社會) tonight. Punks Inhuman Species (非人物種) and Mr Dirty play tomorrow, while emo-pop band Emotion Gate (情緒出口) and alt-rockers The Fever Cats (發燒貓) take to the stage on Wednesday.
▲B1, 45 Shida Rd, Taipei City (台北市師大路45號B1). Call (02) 2369-0103 or visit www.upsaid.com/underworld for more information
▲9:30pm to 11:30pm tonight and tomorrow; 9pm to 11pm on Wednesdays
▲Entrance for the music shows is NT$300 tonight and tomorrow and includes one drink; shows on Wednesdays are NT$100. Bar open daily from 8pm; closed on Mondays
Tomorrow Bliss hosts Mixter T’s birthday jam, featuring “feel good jams and party tracks from every genre.”
▲148, Xinyi Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市信義路四段148號), one block east of Dunhua South Road (敦化南路). Call Bliss at (02) 2702-1855 or log on at www.bliss-taipei.com. For more information on live performances at Bliss, visit www.myspace.com/blisslive
house
▲Tomorrow at 10pm. Bar/kitchen open from 7pm daily. Ladies night on Fridays; women get one free cocktail of their choice
▲No entrance fee
Both established and aspiring Taiwanese pop musicians perform regularly at the EZ5 Live House. This homey pub and restaurant on Anhe Road, with a clientele that ranges from taxi drivers to prominent politicians, is one of the few places where people actually turn off their cell phones and listen attentively to the performers. The venue hosts three different singers every night. Recommended performers include beloved female crooner Tiger Huang (黃小琥), who performs two sets every Monday, and Julia Peng (彭佳慧), who appears on Tuesdays.
▲211, Anhe Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市安和路二段211號). Call (02) 2738-3995 or visit www.ez5.com.tw for more information
▲Music shows run from 9:45pm to 12:30am
▲Entrance fees vary, between NT$600 to NT$850, depending on the performer. Admission includes two drinks
Every Wednesday night at the Cosmopolitan Grill there’s a blues open mic, held by the Blues Society on Taiwan. All are welcome to bring their instruments and sit in on guitar, bass or drums.
▲1F, 218 Changchun Rd, Taipei City (台北市長春路218號1樓). Call (02) 2508-0304 or visit www.cosmo.com.tw for more information
▲8pm to 11pm every Wednesday
▲No admission fee
Exhibitions
Black Friday — Jayne Dyer Solo Show (黑色星期五). For this installation Australian artist Jayne Dyer has made 3,000 black paper butterflies that cling to the walls, ceiling and windows of the gallery as a message of “nature in crisis.”
▲Taipei Artist Village (台北國際藝術村), 7 Peiping E Rd, Taipei City (台北市北平東路7號). Open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 3393-7377
▲Until Jan. 18
Bologna Annual Illustration Exhibition. The Bologna Children’s Bookfair is one of the most important rights markets for children’s publishers. In collaboration with Grimm Press, Pethany Larsen Gallery is presenting works by four award-winning children’s book illustrators, including Giuliano Ferri and Ariel Pand.
▲Pethany Larsen Gallery (Pethany Larsen藝坊), 30, Ln 45 Liaoning St, Taipei City (台北市遼寧街45巷30號). Open Tuesdays through Sundays from 11am to 8pm. Tel: (02) 8772-5005
▲Until Jan. 6
Joint Exhibition by Wang Chi-sui and Lin Ren-hsin (文建會國外駐村藝術家王綺穗與林仁信雙個展). Promising young artists Wang Chi-sui and Lin Ren-hsin revisit Taiwan’s culture, aesthetics and national identity after returning home from their residencies at Egon Schiele Art Centrum in the Czech Republic and Anderson Ranch Art Center in the US, respectively.
▲Jia Art Gallery (家畫廊), 1F-1, 30, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段30號1樓之1). Open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2591-4302
▲Until Jan. 14
One Hundred Years of Watercolor in Taiwan (台灣水彩100年). With 114 works by 53 local artists, this large-scale exhibition aims to provide a comprehensive review of the development of watercolor painting in Taiwan. Works are divided according to style and period, with categories including “the First Generation of Local Taiwanese Artists” and “Masters from China.”
▲National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung (國立台灣美術館), 2, Wuchuan W Rd Sec 1, Taichung City (台中市五權西路一段2號). Open Tuesdays through Sundays from 9am to 5pm. Tel: (04) 2372-3552
▲Until Feb. 22
Le Folauga — The Past Coming Forward: Contemporary Pacific Art From Aotearoa New Zealand (Le Folauga — 繼往開來:紐西蘭當代太平洋藝術). A collaboration between Auckland War Memorial Museum and Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust, this exhibition puts together art works that are representative of contemporary Pacific art in New Zealand, with the aim of promoting dialogue and exchanges among Austronesian communities in the Pacific region.
▲Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (高雄市立美術館), 20, Meishuguan Rd, Gushan Dist, Kaohsiung City. (高雄市鼓山區美術館路20號). Open Tuesdays through Sundays from 9am to 5pm. Tel: (07) 555-0331
▲Until April 5
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