Tong Ya-li (彤雅立) rises when the moon ascends and sleeps when night goes to bed. She writes poems, and amid the solitude surrounding her suburb home near Berlin, where she studies silent cinema, the poet feels a sense of longing, which was often obscured by the hectic life of Taipei when she lived in Taiwan.
She waxes lyrical about things like the moon, memories, yearning and the changing seasons.
From last year’s Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) to this year’s Lantern Festival (元宵節), on the 15th day of every lunar month she published Fullmoon (月照無眠詩聲雜誌), a six-edition online poetry-sound magazine (see sleeplesssoundmagazine.tumblr.com for the Chinese version and fullmoonsoundmagazine.tumblr.com for the English version).
Photo: Ho Yi, Taipei Times
“In our material world, human relations have become swift and ever-changing. People greet each other on Facebook, but there is no eye contact between us ... I hope, through poetry, to convey classical emotions that should, and indeed do, still exist,” said Tong, who has published two poetic works, Borderland’s Dawn (邊地微光) and Moonlight, Sleepless (月照無眠).
The product of a collaboration between Tong and musician Hsieh Chieh-ting (謝杰廷), Fullmoon is a bilingual online publication.
For each edition, the pair, along with guest contributors including Austrian Sinologist Martin Winter, translated three works between Chinese and German by poets such as Shang Qin (商禽, 1930 to 2010), Li Yu (李煜, 937 to 978), Ingeborg Bachmann (1926 to 1973) and Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 to 1926).
Hsieh composed a musical accompaniment for each poem.
Tong uses the term “poetry-sound” (詩聲音) to describe their creative practice. To the poet, the musicality in poetry proves there is a unique affinity between the two art forms.
“Poetry and music can reach the innermost part of oneself. I did the poetry-sound project because I feel people need to awaken their hearts and souls,” she said.
A demonstration of wedding words with sounds will take place tomorrow at Joie Eternelle (永樂座), B1, 9, Ln 60, Taishun St, Taipei City (台北市泰順街60巷9號B1). In the basement bookstore, Tong and Hakka songstress Lo Sirong (羅思容) will perform music and sing poems.
Winter, who is currently in Taipei by invitation of the Taipei International Book Exhibition (台北國際書展), will join the duo and read some works from the magazine he translates.
The online magazine has an expiry date, after which it is removed from the Web. Fortunately, the first three editions also appeared in print. They will be on display at Joie Eternelle from tomorrow to March 11.
After the performance in Taipei, Tong will present her project to an audience in Tainan, where she will give a lecture on Feb. 26 at the Tsao Chi Bookstore (草祭二手書店), 71 Nanmen Rd, Greater Tainan (台南市南門路71號). A poetry-sound installation exhibition will run through March 18 at Wu-Chi Art Studio (五 七藝術工作室), 57 Shennong St, Greater Tainan (台南市神農街57號). For more information, visit the poet’s blog at tong-yali.blogspot.com.
Taiwan’s English education system is being pulled apart by three opposing forces. Bilingual Nation 2030 pulls students toward English and global communication. Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness pulls them toward digital judgment, verification and AI-mediated work. But Taiwan’s old exam culture pulls them back toward memorization, grammar drills, timed reading and correct answers. If the education system keeps using old exams to define success, it risks producing graduates who are neither genuinely bilingual nor genuinely AI-ready, but trained for tasks machines can already perform. The first force is Bilingual Nation 2030. Launched in 2018, the policy aimed to “help Taiwan’s workforce connect
It seems every few days one bumps into one of those “real man” comments in which Taiwan is urged to “face reality” or similar, and “make a deal,” with the speaker implying that soon it will be too late. “Deal” advocates always present themselves as having a superior grip on reality, and the manly ability to make the “hard choice.” Their testosterone-laden language often echoes that of Taiwan sellout advocates. Note that such commentary always specifies a process (“make a deal, work with, make progress”), never the end state of what occupation by a violent authoritarian colonialist state will entail. In
There are shadowy cabals plotting to sell out Taiwan to be annexed by China, by invasion if necessary. Fortunately, they are buffoons. In 2019, former Bamboo Union gangster and founder of the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), Chang An-le (張安樂, colorfully known as “White Wolf”), led a protest at the Legislative Yuan against comments made by then-premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) that in the event of an attack by China, he would never surrender, but would protect the nation by fighting to the end, even if he only had a broom. Chang had party members bring a wooden casket that they
June 1 to June 7 "If all Taiwanese were as afraid of dying as you, then what would happen?” Physician Shih Chiang-nan (施江南) reportedly said this to his wife Chen Chiao-tung (陳焦桐) after she urged him to stop intervening on behalf of Taiwanese soldiers stranded overseas after serving in the Japanese Army during World War II. Shih had clashed with high-ranking officials over the issue, engaged in several heated arguments with Taiwan governor-general Chen Yi (陳儀) and allegedly shouted at general Ko Yuan-fen (柯遠芬), chief of staff of the Taiwan Garrison Command, over
RSS