VIEW THIS PAGE After being banned in China, Oasis will perform in Taipei on Friday, April 3, sources in the concert-promotion and music industries said.
The concert was originally to be held at Banciao Stadium in Taipei County (台北縣立板橋體育場) but may now be held at the Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC) Nangang Exhibition Hall. Details have not been finalized because the band is still negotiating with promoters, said the sources, who had not received permission to speak with the media.
Information regarding the Taipei concert that was deleted last week from www.ticket.com.tw and a blog run by Sony can be found using Google’s cache function. Oasis’ MySpace page was updated yesterday to include dates in Seoul and Singapore, but not Taipei.
According to a statement on the band’s MySpace page, the Brit-pop supergroup was to play Beijing on April 3 and Shanghai on April 5.
“[R]epresentatives from the Chinese government have revoked the performance licenses already issued for the band and ordered their shows in both Beijing and Shanghai to be immediately canceled,” the statement reads.
“The Chinese authorities’ action in canceling these shows marks a reversal of their decision regarding the band which has left both Oasis and the promoters bewildered.”
Oasis performed at a Free Tibet concert in 1997. Footage on YouTube shows Noel Gallagher singing Wonderwall in front of a Tibetan flag.
Last March, China’s Ministry of Culture said it would tighten regulations on foreign artists after Bjork shouted “Tibet, Tibet!” during a concert in Shanghai. This week marked the 50th anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese occupation. VIEW THIS PAGE
UPDATE: Tickets for the Oasis concert at the Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC) Nangang Exhibition Hall are now available. Visit www.ticket.com.tw/dm.asp?P1=0000009516 or call (02) 2341-9898 for more information.
What was the population of Taiwan when the first Negritos arrived? In 500BC? The 1st century? The 18th? These questions are important, because they can contextualize the number of babies born last month, 6,523, to all the people on Taiwan, indigenous and colonial alike. That figure represents a year on year drop of 3,884 babies, prefiguring total births under 90,000 for the year. It also represents the 26th straight month of deaths exceeding births. Why isn’t this a bigger crisis? Because we don’t experience it. Instead, what we experience is a growing and more diverse population. POPULATION What is Taiwan’s actual population?
After Jurassic Park premiered in 1993, people began to ask if scientists could really bring long-lost species back from extinction, just like in the hit movie. The idea has triggered “de-extinction” debates in several countries, including Taiwan, where the focus has been on the Formosan clouded leopard (designated after 1917 as Neofelis nebulosa brachyura). National Taiwan Museum’s (NTM) Web site describes the Formosan clouded leopard as “a subspecies endemic to Taiwan…it reaches a body length of 0.6m to 1.2m and tail length of 0.7m to 0.9m and weighs between 15kg and 30kg. It is entirely covered with beautiful cloud-like spots
For the past five years, Sammy Jou (周祥敏) has climbed Kinmen’s highest peak, Taiwu Mountain (太武山) at 6am before heading to work. In the winter, it’s dark when he sets out but even at this hour, other climbers are already coming down the mountain. All of this is a big change from Jou’s childhood during the Martial Law period, when the military requisitioned the mountain for strategic purposes and most of it was off-limits. Back then, only two mountain trails were open, and they were open only during special occasions, such as for prayers to one’s ancestors during Lunar New Year.
A key feature of Taiwan’s environmental impact assessments (EIA) is that they seldom stop projects, especially once the project has passed its second stage EIA review (the original Suhua Highway proposal, killed after passing the second stage review, seems to be the lone exception). Mingjian Township (名間鄉) in Nantou County has been the site of rising public anger over the proposed construction of a waste incinerator in an important agricultural area. The township is a key producer of tea (over 40 percent of the island’s production), ginger and turmeric. The incinerator project is currently in its second stage EIA. The incinerator