Balgo Hills, in Western Australia, is a melting pot of Aboriginal cultures and is one of the most important centers for Aboriginal art in the country. A sampling of the work of 26 Aboriginal artists from the region titled Balgo Contemporary Australian Art From the Balgo Hills is currently on view at Taipei Fine Arts Museum. The Aboriginal artists from Balgo Hills create art that resembles experimental techniques of Western abstractionism and expressionism, yet employ a unique visual language imbued with strong totemic imagery.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM — 台北市立美術館), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段181號). Open daily from 9:30am to 5:30pm, closes at 8:30pm on Saturdays.
Tel: (02) 2595-7656
■ Until Feb. 21
The Classics (經典大展) presents a who’s who selection of works by Taiwanese artists, both living and deceased. The paintings range from Modern works by Chu Teh-chun
(朱德群) and Yang San-lang
(楊三郎) to contemporary canvases by Lee Ming-tse (李明則) and Lien Chien-hsing (連建興). Sculptures by Ju Ming (朱銘) are also on display.
■ Impressions Art Gallery
(印象畫廊), 40, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段40號). Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 10:30am to 7pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2705-9966
■ Until Feb. 5
Celestial Realm (天界) is a solo exhibit by Taiwanese artist Chiu Hsien-te (邱顯德). Chiu’s finely detailed watercolor landscape paintings are flourished with rugged expressionist brushstrokes.
■ 99 Degrees Art Center
(99 藝術中心) 5F, 259, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段259號5F). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm.
Tel: (02) 2700-3099
■ Until Feb. 28
The fine line separating fantasy and reality is the central theme of Low Floating Palace — Remix Version (浮宮 - 瑞米克斯版), a solo exhibit by Taiwanese multimedia artist Lin Ching-fong (林慶芳). Lin employs neon lighting, paint and sculpture to create works that examine Taiwan’s iconic betel nut girls, and in which he ponders the dichotomy between their attractive exteriors and the often torturous emotional lives they lead.
■ Gallery J. Chen, 3F, 40, Ln 161, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City
(台北市敦化南路一段161巷40號3F). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 9pm. Tel: (02) 2781-0959
■ Until Feb. 21
From Gatchaman to Deva Loka — The Legend Continues is a solo exhibition by Japanese contemporary artist Yoshitaka Amano. The show features Amano’s latest fine art paintings rendered in a manga and anime style.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm.
Tel: (02) 2552-3720
■ Until March 7
The Yingge Ceramics Museum’s Ceramics Park Gallery has been taken over by an ambush of tigers — ceramic tigers that is. The museum chose 120 sculptures as part of its contest for the Year of the Tiger. A brief overview of the tiger’s place in Chinese history and folk religion accompanies the exhibit, revealing that although extinct in many parts of the world, the large feline retains considerable mythological resonance for Taiwanese.
■ Yingge Ceramics Museum
(鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Yinge Township, Taipei County (台北縣鶯歌鎮文化路200號). Open daily from 9:30am to 5pm, closes at 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Tel: (02) 8677-2727
■ Until Feb. 28
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless