Next weekend the Urban Simple Life Festival (簡單生活節) offers fans of Mando-pop and indie music a chance to enjoy the rare congregation of many of Mandarin music’s most popular and influential acts.
The biennial festival, which marches into its third edition this year at Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914) on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5, includes a book fair, a T-shirt market and a lectures series, but is most acclaimed for its music. The weekend boasts a to-die-for roster of more than 60 acts, with heavyweight names such as Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹, better known as A-mei), Cheer Chen (陳綺貞), Tanya Chua (蔡健雅), Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文), Lisa Ono and Soul Asylum.
The performances will take place on five stages throughout Huashan. Established artists will headline at the Sky Stage (天空舞台) and Breeze Stage (微風舞台). Emerging singers and indie bands will take the stage at the Green House Live (綠意舞台). Ten emerging indie bands from Taiwan will be showcased at Street Voice (音樂自在舞台), while 14 of Hong Kong’s representative bands will play at Hong Kong Little Simple (香港小簡單).
Photo Courtesty of Urban Simple Life Festival
Founded by Mando-pop songwriter/producer Jonathan Lee (李宗盛), Urban Simple Life aims to highlight Taiwan’s best creative work in music, design and publishing.
Rufus Chen (陳功儒), the event’s executive supervisor, told the Taipei Times earlier this week that organizers were broadening the festival’s parameters to accommodate unplugged performances by superstars such as Taiwanese pop diva A-mei and Hong Kong superstar Sammi Cheng.
In the past, the music festival section has focused on songwriters or bands who pen their own songs.
“We want to create more cross-genre performances,” Rufus Chen said. “There should be no border between pop singers and songwriters if their music’s attitude sounds right.”
After a banner year as her rock alter ego A-mit (阿密特), A-mei will get back to the basics with an unplugged performance on the evening of Dec. 5. “I’ve been noisy for so long as A-mit, so I want to sing quietly for a change,” she said in a press release.
Cheng, long acclaimed for her hip-wagging electronica anthems and lovelorn ballads, will present unplugged versions of her hits with Hong Kong band AT17.
Three distinguished international acts will make appearances this year. Lisa Ono, Japan’s reigning queen of bossa nova and chansons, will perform with a solo acoustic guitar. Soul Asylum, the American alternative folk-rock group best known for the Grammy-winning single Runaway Train, will also perform unplugged. John Cale, a founding member of the American experimental rock band The Velvet Underground, will perform Saturday evening.
The lineup
Dec. 4
Sky Stage (天空舞台)
Soul Asylum (US) at 3:50pm
Crowd Lu (盧廣仲) at 5:20pm
John Cale (UK) at 7pm
Cheer Chen (陳綺貞) at 8:50pm
Breeze Stage (微風舞台)
1976 + Ze Hwang (黃小楨) at 1:40pm
Joanna Wang (王若琳) at 6:20pm
Tanya Chua (蔡健雅) at 8pm
Green House Live (綠意舞台)
Olivia Ong (王儷婷)at 2:50pm
Yoga Lin (林宥嘉) at 5:50pm
Echo (回聲樂團) at 6:40pm
Kay Huang (黃韻玲) and guest Tarcy Su (蘇慧倫) at 8pm
Chang Chen-yue (張震嶽) at 9:10pm
Dec. 5
Sky Stage (天空舞台)
AT17 and guest Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文) at 3:50pm
Lisa Ono (Japan) at 5:20pm
Sodagreen (蘇打綠) at 7pm
Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹, aka A-mei) at 8:50pm
Breeze Stage (微風舞台)
Tizzy Bac at 1:40pm
Hebe Tien (田馥甄) at 6:20pm
Deserts Chang (張懸) at 8pm
Green House Live (綠意舞台)
Hsu Chia-ying (徐佳瑩) at 5:50pm
Luantan Ascent (亂彈阿翔) at 6:40pm
Sandee Chan (陳珊妮) at 9:10pm
For a complete program schedule, visit simplelife.streetvoice.com/festival/show/show.html
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
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
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
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