VIEW THIS PAGE Joining post-rock band Mosquilephant (蚊子大象) tonight at Underworld (地下社會) are newcomers Hi Jack. Tomorrow one-man electro-rock band Sonic Deadhorse opens for post-rock group Aphasia (阿飛西雅). On Wednesday, it’s psychedelic folk rockers No.7 Cyan (七號青), with Tough Black Tea (硬式紅茶).
▲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
▲Shows are from 9:30pm to 11:30pm and 9pm to 11pm on Wednesdays
▲Entrance for music shows is NT$300 tonight and tomorrow and includes one drink, Wednesday’s show is NT$100. Bar opens daily from 9pm, closed Mondays. Drinks are buy-one-get-one-free before midnight on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Loaded plays everything from “rock classics to today’s hits” tonight at Tone 56 Live Bar. Blues and surf rock trio Blues Vibrations take the stage tomorrow. There’s an open acoustic jam on Sunday hosted by The Diamond Backs.
▲1F, 56, Minquan E Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市民權東路三段56號1樓), near the corner of Fuxing North (復興北) and Minquan East (民權東) roads. Tel: (02) 2517-3869
▲The music starts at 9:30pm tonight and tomorrow. Open jam goes from 7pm to 10pm on Sunday.
▲No admission fee
Exhibitions
Li An-cheng Solo Exhibition (晨暮中的行星 ─ 李安成當代水墨跨年個展) showcases 50 works by one of Taiwan’s foremost ink painters.
▲Soaring Cloud Art Center (上雲藝術中心), 7F, 11 Dayung Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市大勇路11號7樓). Open Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 6pm and Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 8pm. Tel: (07) 533-1755. On the Net: www.sc-art.org.tw
▲Until March 29
Explore is a group exhibition of works by Hubert Cance, Iskren Semkov and Luiz Cavalli. The artists, hailing from France, Bulgaria and Brazil, use abstraction, expressionism and realism to “explore” landscape and still life.
▲X-Power Gallery, 98, Xinyi Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市信義路四段98號). Open Monday to Thursday 11am to 6pm and Friday and Saturday 11am to 8pm. Tel: (02) 2708-0929. On the Net: www.xpgallery.com.tw
▲Until March 31
The Yingge Ceramics Museum investigates the human form in Passionate Beings: Contemporary Ceramics of Museum Collection (多情.人—當代陶藝典藏展), an exhibit of 35 sculptures from its permanent collection.
▲Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Yinge Township, Taipei County (北縣鶯歌鎮文化路200號). Open Tuesday to Friday from 9:30am to 5pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9:30am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 8677-2727. On the Net: www.ceramics.tpc.gov.tw
▲Until April 19
Easy Plastics is a group exhibition by 11 up-and-coming Taiwanese artists who use sculpture, installation and design to investigate plastic and its metaphorical applications to our society.
▲Taipei National University of Arts — Guandu Museum of Arts (台北藝術大學關渡美術館), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Beitou Dist, Taipei City (台北市北投區學園路1號). Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm. Tel: (02) 2896-1000 x2432. On the Net: kdmofa.tnua.edu.tw
▲Until March 29
Those wanting to gain a deeper understanding of one of Asia’s oldest trade routes can check out Legends of the Silk Road — Treasures From Linjiang (絲路傳奇—新疆文物大展). The exhibit provides viewers with a glimpse of life in the ancient world by displaying 150 items unearthed along the Silk Road, including a 4,000-year-old mummified body of a woman in sandals known as the Loulan Beauty (樓蘭美女) and artifacts from the Tang Dynasty.
▲National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號). Open daily from 10am to 6pm, closed on Mondays. Tel: (02) 2361-0270. On the Net: www.nmh.gov.tw
▲Until March 15
Ancient Pottery of the Paiwan Tribe in Taiwan (祖靈的居所—台灣排灣族古陶壺特展) shows how ceramics are closely associated with the legends of the Paiwan tribe’s origins, and how pottery helps to perpetuate the tribe’s social hierarchy.
▲National Museum of Natural Science (國立自然科學博物館), 1, Kuanchien Rd, Taichung City (台中市館前路1號). Open daily from 9am to 5pm, closed on Mondays. Tel: (04) 2322-6940. On the Net: www.nmns.edu.tw
▲Until May 17
The God of Earth in Taiwan (台灣土地公特展) explains the origins of the Earth God (土地公) and why it continues to play an important role in folk worship throughout the country.
▲National Museum of Natural Science (國立自然科學博物館), 1, Kuanchien Rd, Taichung City (台中市館前路1號). Open daily from 9am to 5pm, closed on Mondays. Tel: (04) 2322-6940. On the Net: www.nmns.edu.tw
▲Until May 31
The National Palace Museum does a superb job of explaining the history and importance of Chinese ink painting with its exhibit The Art and Aesthetics of Form: Selections From the History of Chinese Painting (造型與美感—中國繪畫的發展). Beginning with the Six Dynasties period and moving up to the Qing Dynasty, the show represents a selection of individual works from the museum’s collection arranged chronologically to provide an overview of some major traditions and movements in Chinese painting.
▲National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院), 221, Zhishan Rd Sec 2, Shilin Dist, Taipei City (台北市士林區至善路二段221號). Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm; Saturday open until 8:30pm. Tel: (02) 2881-2021. On the Net: www.npm.gov.tw
▲Until March 25
Madden Reality: Post-Taipei Art Group (叛離異象:後台北畫派) features 72 works by eight of Taiwan’s most well-respected contemporary artists ranging from sculpture to painting.
▲Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段181號). Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:30am to 5:30pm; Saturday open until 8:30pm. Tel: (02) 2595-7656. On the Net: www.tfam.museum
▲Until April 5 VIEW THIS PAGE
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist