Eye of the Times — Centennial Images of Taiwan (時代之眼—臺灣百年身影) is a photography exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of the Republic of China, though its reach extends back to the Qing Dynasty. The 271 images by 117 photographers document the social and cultural changes and transitions that have occurred over the past 140 years in Taiwan. The black-and-white and color photos range from before and including the Japanese colonial era, “nativist” salon works and “modern photography” of the 1960s, the documentary photography and photo-reportage of the 1970s, as well as the photo installations and 360° digital works since the 1980s.
■ 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 10pm. Admission: All exhibits free except Monet Garden (NT$270). Tel: (02) 2595-7656
■ Begins Saturday. Until June 26
Photo Courtesy of TFAM
Ten Years (十個年頭) presents the architectural installations and collage paintings of Wang Wei-ho (王為河). Wang’s work serves as a meditation on the relationship between space and time.
■ IT Park Gallery (伊通公園), 41 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街41號). Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1pm to 10pm. Tel: (02) 2507-7243
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 7pm. Until April 23
Huang Hai-hsin’s (黃海欣) solo exhibition of new paintings, A Wordless Ending (無言的結局), comments on fear and the threat of violence in society as generated by mass media images.
■ VT Art Salon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 47 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街47號B1). Open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 2pm to 11pm, and Fridays and Saturdays from 2pm to 1am. Tel: (02) 2516-1060
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 7pm. Until April 23
Illegal Architecture (朗讀違章) examines the concepts of environmental architect through the works of Hsieh Ying-chun (謝英俊) and Chinese architect Wang Shu (王澍) and how these ideas are transferable to illegal structures that dot Taiwan’s landscape.
■ Urban Core Gallery, 89-4, Zhonghua Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市中華路一段89-4號). Open daily from 12:30pm to 8:30pm. Tel: (02) 8773-5556
■ Until April 17
A new series of paintings by Su Yuan-ming (蘇沅銘) is currently on display at Singart (新心藝術館). Su has toned down his earlier realistic and colorful paintings of street scenes to a more gloomy depiction of the same subject using an expressionist aesthetic.
■ Sing Art Gallery (新心藝術館), 67 Shengli Rd, Greater Tainan (台南市勝利路67號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 8pm; closed Mondays, March 28 and April 12. Tel: (06) 275-3957
■ Until April 17
Beauty in Daily Life (日常之美) is a solo exhibition of paintings by May Chao (趙梅). Chao’s vibrant oil paintings include still life, oceanscapes and city scenes.
■ Art Den (藝研齋), 3F, 309, Xinyi Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市信義路四段309號3樓). Open Mondays to Fridays from 11am to 5pm and Saturdays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2325-8188
■ Until April 2
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