In Taiwan, the term “quality idol” (優質偶像) (referring to someone who is good-looking, talented, has a good education, and is almost too good to be an entertainer) usually summons up images of Wang Leehom (王力宏). Now, another name is set to join the ranks of the quality idols: William Wei Li-an (韋禮安).
Winner of the first season of the now-defunct music show Happy Sunday (快樂星期天), Wei entered the public eye just before the One Million Star (超級星光大道) reality talent show started churning out its own torrent of minor celebrities. As one of the first of this current batch of TV-created idols, Wei will present a themed evening entitled Climbing the Wall to Become an Idol (爬上這牆當偶像), in which he will pay tribute to the different generations of idols in pop history. Wei will perform songs by Taiwanese idol Jimmy Lin (林志穎) and Usher, in addition to tunes he wrote himself.
With his matinee idol good looks and as a bona fide singer-songwriter, Wei captured the admiration of many fans upon his television debut in 2006. After his Happy Sunday triumph, Wei avoided the conventional route of immediately releasing an album, opting instead to return to his studies at National Taiwan University. He has spent the past two years performing at live house venues, writing songs for the likes of Rene Liu (劉若英) and Angela Chang (張韶涵), and releasing his first EP Waiting Slowly (慢慢等) in March this year.
In a phone interview, Wei explained his decision to put his career on hold: “I was exhausted after the half year in competition. It was both the stress and the attention. I wanted a break.”
Wei said he managed to return to a normal life quite quickly as he did not go out of his way to be recognized. “I think all the packaging for an idol can make them very vulnerable and they can break easily,” he said. “I wanted to build a firm foundation [before embarking on a full career].”
Wei’s period of hibernation will soon end. His compositions on the indie music site tw.streetvoice.com have for the past two years ranked in the top 10. Waiting Slowly, the title track from his EP, debuted at No. 2 on www.kkbox.com.tw without much promotion. Wei is scheduled to release his first full-length album during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Audiences can expect songs that ride high on emotionally poignant lyrics and infectious melodies, the hallmarks of Wei’s music.
“I enjoy pop and lean towards music that is melody driven. My music has broadened from early emotional experience to observation of social events these days.”
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
Swooping low over the banks of a Nile River tributary, an aid flight run by retired American military officers released a stream of food-stuffed sacks over a town emptied by fighting in South Sudan, a country wracked by conflict. Last week’s air drop was the latest in a controversial development — private contracting firms led by former US intelligence officers and military veterans delivering aid to some of the world’s deadliest conflict zones, in operations organized with governments that are combatants in the conflicts. The moves are roiling the global aid community, which warns of a more militarized, politicized and profit-seeking trend
The wide-screen spectacle of Formula One gets a gleaming, rip-roaring workout in Joseph Kosinski’s F1, a fine-tuned machine of a movie that, in its most riveting racing scenes, approaches a kind of high-speed splendor. Kosinski, who last endeavored to put moviegoers in the seat of a fighter jet in Top Gun: Maverick, has moved to the open cockpits of Formula One with much the same affection, if not outright need, for speed. A lot of the same team is back. Jerry Bruckheimer produces. Ehren Kruger, a co-writer on Maverick, takes sole credit here. Hans Zimmer, a co-composer previously, supplies the thumping