Tomorrow in Xinyi District (信義區), winter will be banished. Friendly Dog
(友善的狗), the team behind Kenting’s highly successful spring-break event — Spring Wave Music Festival — is throwing 2009 Taipei New East Party Life: Spring Wave (春浪台北). And not only is this new urban outdoor party going to take place in Taipei’s most cosmopolitan district, the venue also boasts a capacity of more than 3,000 people and the bill includes three of dance music’s hottest acts, Lange, Infusion and Miss Nine.
The Vinyl Word caught up with Friendly Dog’s director Shen Kuang-yuan (沈光遠) to find out why he’s undertaking such an ambitious project.
Vinyl Word: What’s so special about Spring Wave?
SGY: Since 2006, we’ve been doing the party in Kenting. Kenting is the most beautiful holiday destination in Taiwan and it’s all because of that. It’s a great thing for those who go there for vacation to be able to participate in a party like Spring Wave, which combines elements of nature and electronic dance music.
VW: You’re a pop producer. Have you always been into electronic dance music?
SGY: Actually, I wasn’t into electronic dance music until after throwing these [Spring Wave] parties.
VW: Taipei has never held an outdoor party like this before. How much time did it take for you to plan? What kind of difficulties did you encounter?
SGY: It took us about 4 months to plan. The biggest difficulty was finding an outdoor venue in Taipei’s most high-end neighborhood and then negotiating with Taipei City Government to get approval to hold the party until 3:30am.
VW: Why did you choose Lange, Infusion and Miss Nine?
SGY: Spring Wave has always emphasized the quality of the music and sound system. We wanted to find someone who could represent trance, so we found Lange. And through a friend of mine, we found Infusion — a rock/electronic dance music act. We also wanted to find a female DJ who plays good music so we got Miss Nine. And, of course, there should be someone who could best represent Taiwan, so we got SL [劉軒, aka Xuan].
VW: Aside from the music, what else can partygoers expect?
SGY: Our creative stage theme — with the special visual effect, it will look as if the DJs are surrounded by drops of water, light and shadow. In addition, throughout the night there will be dance performances every 40 minutes, not to mention the alfresco VIP booths and the fine food and drinks. It’s going to be a good time, I promise. [In case of inclement weather, large tents will be available.]
VW: Will you take Spring Wave to any other cities?
SGY: Next year we’ll have the fifth Spring Wave in Kenting, and we’re also planning on doing it in Beijing.
2009 Taipei New East Party Life: Spring Wave (春浪台北), tomorrow from 9pm to 3:30am at A10 square beside Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Xinyi District, Taipei City (台北市信義新光三越旁A10廣場). Tickets are NT$900 presale, available at 7-Eleven, or NT$1,100 at the door. On the Net: www.spring-wave.com. For more information, call (02) 2356-9888.
This interview and has been edited and condensed.
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
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby