The Japanese makers of Line present Here We Are in Taipei — Line Friends (Line 玩偶展覽), their first attempt at turning the mobile messaging app into a full-scale exhibition. The formidable offerings include a gallery dedicated to Line-themed art, and another to original sticker drafts and other sketches apparently taken off the walls of the Line Corporation headquarters. Meet life-sized models of Brown the bear and Cony the bunny, then browse at a pop-up shop stocked with imported Line products. A special little app promises to unveil a new Line friend and other surprises.
■ 7F, National Taiwan Education Science Center (國立臺灣科學教育館7樓), 189 Shishang Rd, Taipei (臺北市士商路189號), open Mondays to Fridays from 9am to 5pm, Jan. 25 to Feb. 10 from 9am to 6pm, tel: (02) 8643-3955, general admission: NT$250
■ Opens tomorrow. Until April 27
Photo Courtesy of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (國立臺灣美術館) is marking the Spring Festival with a concert on Feb. 1 and two concurrent exhibitions. Thundering Success for the Year of Galloping Horses — the 29th Annual R.O.C. New Year Print Exhibition (29屆版印年畫展) collects 84 best-of block prints themed on the horse. Now in its 29th year, the juried exhibition received 232 submissions from professional and hobbyist folk printmakers nationwide. A second show, The Pioneers of Taiwanese Artists, 1951-1960 (刺客列傳, 四年級生), showcases 20 Taiwanese artists who came of age professionally in the 1980s. Breakneck social changes during the decade, notably the lifting of martial law and the nationwide press ban, spurred on this generation of artists to challenge both traditional aesthetics and contemporary ideological trends.
■ National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (國立臺灣美術館), 2, Wuquan W Rd Sec 1, Greater Taichung (台中市西區五權西路一段2號) tel: (04) 2372-3552, open Tuesdays to Fridays from 9am to 5pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 6pm
■ Until March 25
Photo Courtesy of VT Art Salon
A New Age of Exploration: National Geographic at 125 (探索無限─國家地理125年經典影像大展) opens in Greater Kaohsiung today with archival photographs of key moments around the world. On display are Steve McCurry’s Afghan Girl (1984), views of the Titanic shipwreck and other iconic photojournalism from National Geographic’s 125-year history. This international show’s Taiwan edition includes a gallery titled Memories of Taiwan (台灣記憶), a collection of local images that date back to 1920.
■ B6 and B7 at Kaohsiung’s Pier 2 Arts Center (高雄駁二藝術特區), 1 Dayong Rd, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市大勇路1號), tel: (07) 780-9900, open daily from 10am to 6pm, general admission: NT$399
■ Opens today. Until April 13
Lai Pei-yu (賴珮瑜), an artist and art theorist, has developed a style of using white dots to depict everyday scenes, reducing them to such ambiguous abstractions that a viewer must access and reconsider memory to complete the picture. At Path (路徑), her latest solo exhibition, she uses dot writing in video art to let audiences almost see logic behind big aggregations of data, such as citywide traffic flow or 95 television channels at 8:31pm.
■ VT Art Salon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 17, Ln 56, Xinsheng Rd Sec 3, Taipei (台北市新生北路三段56巷17號B1), tel: (02) 2597-2525, open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11:30am to 7pm, Saturdays from 1:30pm to 9pm, closed Sundays and Mondays
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 7pm. Until March 1
History Re-presented (再會歷史) features sculpture by iconic Chinese artist Cai Zhisong (蔡志松). His best-known series, Ode to Motherland (故國), is a look at the erosion of ancient traditions from present-day China. These sculptures are the last ancient Chinese standing: Some are naked with head bowed and fists clenched, while others are robed, deferent and resigned to the tide of time. Cai also brings to Taipei his recent series Clouds (浮雲) and Rose (玫瑰) — a collection of glorious, permanent, technically perfect blooms drained of color and warmth, each an open question about what ideal love should be.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA Taipei, 台北當代藝術館), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3720, open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm, admission: NT$50
■ Opens tomorrow. Until April 6
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50