Lady Gaga, the American reigning pop diva who has conquered with world with infectious electronica anthems such as Bad Romance and her provocative fashion sense, will visit Taiwan for the first time on a five-day promotional junket. Gaga, whose second album, Born This Way, topped the charts worldwide last month, will greet Taiwanese fans in a free album premier session with performances of her new songs in Taichung on July 3. Gaga will also attend the Mercedes-Benz Born This Way creative costume competition and pick out the winner on the afternoon of July 3 in Taichung. In tribute to Gaga’s visit, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) will name July 3 Taichung’s “Lady Gaga Day.” The pop queen has sold 15 million albums and 51 singles globally.
■ Lady Gaga Taiwan album premier session, Taichung City Fulfillment Amphitheatre (台中市文心圓滿戶外劇場), 289, Wensin Rd Sec 1, Greater Taichung (台中市南屯區文心路一段289號)
■ July 3. As of press time, the organizer had yet to announce times for the events
Photo: AFP
■ Tickets are free for those who have purchased the Born This Way album. Entry is limited to 4,000 people. Exchange details to be announced
on Thursday next week
■ On the Net: www.umusic.com.
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
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
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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