The “Mother Monster” — aka Lady Gaga — is in Taipei for a two-night run that began yesterday and ends with a sold-out show tonight at the Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall (台北世界貿易中心南港展覽館).
The ever-predictable frenzy got underway as soon as the pop sensation stepped off her private chartered plane at Songshan Airport in Taipei on Wednesday. Decked out in a vintage green Versace dress, Lady Gaga greeted reporters and fans at the terminal, “walking unhurriedly, waving at the cameras and blowing kisses,” as the Taipei Times’ sister paper, the Liberty Times, put it.
She then boarded a black Mercedes, protected by a motorcade of M Class Mercedes SUVs, and headed to the W Hotel, where the singer is staying. Naturally, the reporters hopped in their cars and were in hot pursuit, with one TV cameraman even pulling a Dukes of Hazard move, hanging outside the window with his camera on one shoulder.
Photo: Taipei Times
But the real shots to capture were at the W Hotel, where 100 or so “little monsters” got a few minutes of interaction with Mother Monster (albeit from behind a metal fence). Lady Gaga obliged the shrieking fans, approaching them as soon as she stepped out of the car at the hotel, shaking hands and signing autographs.
One female fan, according to Now News (今日新聞網), was lucky enough to attract Lady Gaga’s attention. The student had made a pair of rings, one of which she gave to the singer, who accepted the gift and returned the favor by kissing the matching ring on the student’s hand.
Lady Gaga fans in Taiwan, some of whom shelled out more than NT$12,000 for tickets each for yesterday and tonight’s concerts, will be seeing the singer fulfill a promise to return after giving a free mini-concert in Taichung last year.
But Lady Gaga fans in Indonesia won’t be as fortunate: the diva was denied a permit to hold a concert, which was scheduled for June 3, in Jakarta after some of the country’s Muslim hardliners accused her of, among other things, worshipping Satan.
Back in Mando-pop land, Aska Yang (楊宗緯) is smarting over his failure to get nominated for the best male Mandarin singer gong at the 23rd Golden Melody Awards (第23屆金曲獎). The ceremony takes place next month. Yang, who became a household name as a contestant on the reality show One Million Star (超級星光大道), recruited respected pop singer-songwriter Jonathan Lee (李宗盛) to produce his chart-topping album Pure (原色).
But even that apparently did not impress the Golden Melody committee judges. The China Times quoted one representative as saying that Yang “did not enter the discussion from the start.” There were few surprises for this year’s nominees for best male singer, which include Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰), Eason Chan (陳奕迅) and Jay Chou (周杰倫).
But all eyes at this year’s awards will be on Singaporean singer Tanya Chua (蔡健雅), pop-rock idols Mayday (五月天) and S.H.E singer Hebe Tien (田馥甄), who each received seven nominations. All three artists are vying for the year’s best Mandarin album and best composer awards.
Water management is one of the most powerful forces shaping modern Taiwan’s landscapes and politics. Many of Taiwan’s township and county boundaries are defined by watersheds. The current course of the mighty Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) was largely established by Japanese embankment building during the 1918-1923 period. Taoyuan is dotted with ponds constructed by settlers from China during the Qing period. Countless local civic actions have been driven by opposition to water projects. Last week something like 2,600mm of rain fell on southern Taiwan in seven days, peaking at over 2,800mm in Duona (多納) in Kaohsiung’s Maolin District (茂林), according to
Aug. 11 to Aug. 17 Those who never heard of architect Hsiu Tse-lan (修澤蘭) must have seen her work — on the reverse of the NT$100 bill is the Yangmingshan Zhongshan Hall (陽明山中山樓). Then-president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) reportedly hand-picked her for the job and gave her just 13 months to complete it in time for the centennial of Republic of China founder Sun Yat-sen’s birth on Nov. 12, 1966. Another landmark project is Garden City (花園新城) in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) — Taiwan’s first mountainside planned community, which Hsiu initiated in 1968. She was involved in every stage, from selecting
It’s Aug. 8, Father’s Day in Taiwan. I asked a Chinese chatbot a simple question: “How is Father’s Day celebrated in Taiwan and China?” The answer was as ideological as it was unexpected. The AI said Taiwan is “a region” (地區) and “a province of China” (中國的省份). It then adopted the collective pronoun “we” to praise the holiday in the voice of the “Chinese government,” saying Father’s Day aligns with “core socialist values” of the “Chinese nation.” The chatbot was DeepSeek, the fastest growing app ever to reach 100 million users (in seven days!) and one of the world’s most advanced and
The latest edition of the Japan-Taiwan Fruit Festival took place in Kaohsiung on July 26 and 27. During the weekend, the dockside in front of the iconic Music Center was full of food stalls, and a stage welcomed performers. After the French-themed festival earlier in the summer, this is another example of Kaohsiung’s efforts to make the city more international. The event was originally initiated by the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association in 2022. The goal was “to commemorate [the association’s] 50th anniversary and further strengthen the longstanding friendship between Japan and Taiwan,” says Kaohsiung Director-General of International Affairs Chang Yen-ching (張硯卿). “The first two editions
RSS