The 20th Golden Melody Awards’ (金曲獎) ceremony handed out honors in artistic and traditional music categories at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館) on June 6 with 72 works selected from 1,508 entries competing in 14 categories.
One of the surprise winners was sax player Tung Shun-wen (董舜文). The first-time nominee beat veterans Matthew Lien and Gerald Shih (史擷詠) to pick up the Best Arrangement Award for his jazz album One Day (歡日記).
First-time winner Li Ching-fang (李靜芳) welled up when her independently produced Taiwanese opera album was announced as the Best Traditional Opera Album Award.
Highly esteemed for his modern compositions, composer and educator Lu Yan (盧炎), who died of cancer last year aged 78, was honored for his contribution to Moving Sound (聲動), produced by Music Forum (十方樂集). A compilation of works by contemporary composers in Taiwan, the album was also awarded top honors in the Best Classical Album category.
With seven accomplished musicians and music groups vying for the award, the hotly contested Best Performance gong went to guzheng (古箏) player Ren Jie (任潔). China’s renowned kunqu (崑曲) artist Wen Yu-hang (溫宇航) received the Best Traditional Interpretation Award, while Taiwanese erhu (二胡) player Mia Wang (王明華) took home the Best Crossover Music Album Award for her mold-breaking renditions of jazz numbers.
The Lifetime Contribution Award went to Wu Jau-nan (吳兆南), the revered maestro of Chinese stand-up comedy, or cross talk (相聲), who promotes and studies the ancient folk art.
By global standards, the traffic congestion that afflicts Taiwan’s urban areas isn’t horrific. But nor is it something the country can be proud of. According to TomTom, a Dutch developer of location and navigation technologies, last year Taiwan was the sixth most congested country in Asia. Of the 492 towns and cities included in its rankings last year, Taipei was the 74th most congested. Taoyuan ranked 105th, while Hsinchu County (121st), Taichung (142nd), Tainan (173rd), New Taipei City (227th), Kaohsiung (241st) and Keelung (302nd) also featured on the list. Four Japanese cities have slower traffic than Taipei. (Seoul, which has some
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry consumes electricity at rates that would strain most national grids. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) alone accounted for more than 9 percent, or 2,590 megawatts (MW), of the nation’s power demand last year. The factories that produce chips for the world’s phones and servers run around the clock. They cannot tolerate blackouts. Yet Taiwan imports 97 percent of its energy, with liquefied natural gas reserves measured in days. Underground, Taiwan has options. Studies from National Taiwan University estimate recoverable geothermal resources at more than 33,000 MW. Current installed capacity stands below 10 MW. OBSTACLES Despite Taiwan’s significant geothermal potential, the
In our discussions of tourism in Taiwan we often criticize the government’s addiction to promoting food and shopping, while ignoring Taiwan’s underdeveloped trekking and adventure travel opportunities. This discussion, however, is decidedly land-focused. When was the last time a port entered into it? Last week I encountered journalist and travel writer Cameron Dueck, who had sailed to Taiwan in 2023-24, and was full of tales. Like everyone who visits, he and his partner Fiona Ching loved our island nation and had nothing but wonderful experiences on land. But he had little positive to say about the way Taiwan has organized its
The entire Li Zhenxiu (李貞秀) saga has been an ugly, complicated mess. Born in China’s Hunan Province, she moved to work in Shenzhen, where she met her future Taiwanese husband. Most accounts have her arriving in Taiwan and marrying somewhere between 1993 and 1999. She built a successful career in Taiwan in the tech industry before founding her own company. She also served in high-ranking positions on various environmentally-focused tech associations. She says she was inspired by the founding of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in 2019 by Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), and began volunteering for the party soon after. Ko
RSS