Whether you like or dislike Tiger Huang’s (黃小琥) music, one thing is for certain: she is always entertaining. A veteran singer in the Mando-pop industry, Huang finally became a household name a few years ago after she landed a role as a judge on the TV talent show One Million Star (超級星光大道).
This newfound fame rejuvenated what had been a sagging career. Last month, Huang released Simple, Or Not (簡單/不簡單), her first new album in eight years.
Huang will present a mini concert titled 2010 Tiger Full Throttle Not So Simple (2010琥力全開不簡單演唱會) tomorrow at Legacy Taipei to promote the album’s release. She also performs regularly on Monday nights at EZ5 Live House in Taipei.
A straightforward, take-no-prisoners kind of gal, Huang is best known as the acid-tongued judge on One Million Star who spews scathing criticism at the show’s impressionable young contestants. She was no less straightforward during a phone interview with the Taipei Times on Tuesday.
“I have a very eclectic style on this new album. It’s not just love songs anymore,” Huang says. “There is funky dance, R ’n’ B and even rock songs.”
Winning the Best New Comer gong at the 1990 Golden Melody Awards for her debut album Not Just Friends (不只是朋友) failed to propel Huang to the fore of the music world. An odd figure in a Mando-pop landscape populated with photogenic, prepackaged idols, she was mostly overlooked by the major labels and spent much of her career recording more cover albums than original releases.
Performing on the pub circuit to cultivate a fanbase earned Huang the moniker of “the Queen of Pubs” (Pub女王), a singer with a smoky voice that conveys the aura of a woman who has been places and seen things.
Despite a lack of quality original songs, Huang manages to put her personal stamp on every cover she’s interpreted with her distinctively throaty, soulful voice and jazz-infused phrasing. Her virtuosic renditions of classic tunes in both Chinese and English have endeared her to audiences in the know.
When asked how she would describe her voice, she responds somewhat tersely, “Get my CDs and listen to them. I don’t know how to describe it.”
Pressed further, she relents and answers, “It’s unique and very low. Actually my voice is husky but not low. I can sing in very high notes.”
Asked how she feels about her newfound fame as a TV talent show judge, she responds, “These are all platforms. I simply need a platform.”
When asked what oldies she intends to tackle at tomorrow’s concert in addition to her new songs, she hisses, “I can’t tell you that, and this information is of no use to you anyway.”
Asked what music projects she intends to pursue in the future, such as theater, she moans, “You’re probably too young to know this. I’ve done theater, actually, but nobody knows.”
For her highly acclaimed concert in 2008, Huang made headlines when she tackled Jolin Tsai’s (蔡依林) Dancing Diva (舞孃) and No Mercy (愛無赦), complete with all of Tsai’s dance moves. Last year, Tsai sent a gift card challenging Huang to have a go at her song Butterfly (花蝴蝶), according to media reports.
Asked which of Tsai’s songs she might consider tackling again, Huang snarls, “Whether I hold a concert or not is not related to Jolin Tsai. Jolin Tsai does not affect what songs I want to sing!”
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built