Contemporary
Legacy Taipei hosts top Taiwanese pop performers and international acts. Tonight’s spotlight is on pop act Chen Nine (陳零九). Tomorrow and Sunday, the venue hosts the Voice Up Concert, featuring pop songstress Wan Fang (萬芳), pop and oldies diva Tiger Huang (黃小琥) and Mando-pop act Peter Pan (潘裕文).
■ Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914), Center Five Hall (中五館), 1, Bade Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市八德路一段1號)
Photo courtesy of Yolanda Cheng
■ Show starts at 7pm tonight, 2:30pm and 7:30pm tomorrow and on Sunday
■ Admission is NT$799 tonight, NT$1,600 tomorrow, NT$1,200 on Sunday. Tickets available through www.indievox.com or www.kham.com.tw
Five-piece rock band Happy from Kyoto join forces with Taiwan’s Hello Nico at The Wall (這牆), Taipei’s most prominent venue for indie rock artists, tonight.
Photo courtesy of Enjoy Music
■ B1, 200, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1), tel: (02) 2930-0162. On the Net: thewall.tw
■ Show starts at 7:30m
■ Tickets cost NT$800, available online through thewall.tw
Tomorrow, Brit-rock/post-rock act The City Rain Man (城市雨人) comes to APA Mini (小地方展演空間) with its new album. They will be joined by alternative/folk rock group I am not Dorothy (不是桃樂絲).
■ B1,147, Hangzhou S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市杭州南路一段147號B1), tel: (02) 2327-8658. On the Net: www.facebook.com/apamini
■ Show starts at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$400, available through www.indievox.com
Sunday’s lineup features alt-rock outfit The Old Mog Detective Agency (老貓偵探社) and college band Gray Dwarf Star (灰矮星) at Pipe Live Music, a major venue for indie music and parties.
■ 1 Siyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市思源路1號), tel: (02) 2364-8198. On the Net: www.pipemusic.com.tw
■ Show starts at 7pm
■ Admission is NT$400. Tickets for the venue’s concerts can be purchased online through www.indievox.com, pipemusic.kktix.cc and at FamilyMart (全家) FamiPort kiosks
Bobwundaye (無問題), a small pub in Taipei, will tonight have live music from indie/folk ensemble Riesage, who hail from the American Midwest, and California’s three-piece indie rock outfit Rubberneck Lions. Tomorrow, Brian Chiu & the Soy Beats play funk, soul and jazz.
■ 77, Heping E Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市和平東路三段77號), tel: (02) 2377-1772
■ Shows start at 10pm
■ Admission is NT$300
Tomorrow, Soundstatues, a rock band from Brooklyn, New York, takes the stage at Kafka by the Sea (海邊的卡夫卡), a coffee house-cum-music and arts venue.
■ 2F, 2, Ln 244, Roosevelt Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路三段244巷2號2樓). On the Net: www.kafkabythe.blogspot.tw
■ Show starts at 8pm. Cafe/bookstore opens noon to midnight Sundays through Thursdays, noon to 2am Fridays and Saturdays
■ Minimum charge is one drink
Folk/blues Aboriginal musician Dakanow (達卡鬧) performs tonight at Witch House (女巫店), an intimate coffeehouse-style venue in the National Taiwan University area.
■ 7, Ln 56, Xinsheng S Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市新生南路三段56巷7號), tel: (02) 2362-5494. On the Net: www.witchhouse.org
■ Show starts at 9:30pm. Restaurant/bar with queer/feminist bookstore and large collection of board games, open 11am to midnight Sundays through Wednesdays, 11am to 1am Thursdays through Saturdays
■ Entrance for music shows is NT$350
Tomorrow, a group of young Rukai musicians from different villages in Wutai Township (霧台), Pingtung County, take the stage at Riverside Live House (河岸留言西門紅樓展演館). Pop singer Yolanda Cheng (鄭宇伶) appears with funk group Soul Blower on Sunday.
■ 177 Xining S Rd, Taipei City (台北市西寧南路177號), tel: (02) 2370-8805. On the Net: www.riverside.com.tw
■ Shows start at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$400, available online through www.indievox.com and tickets.books.com.tw
Toshi Fujii Quartet (藤井俊充爵士四重奏) plays hard bop tonight at Riverside Cafe (河岸留言), and it is Puyuma crooner Leo Chen (陳永龍) tomorrow. Tuesday’s main act is Soundstatues, followed by folk/rock outfit Knock and trip-hop/dream pop act Kingdom of Rain (雨國) on Wednesday. It is live music with psychedelic folk/grunge combo W.S.S.M. (午休失眠) and DSPS on Thursday.
■ B1, 2, Ln 244, Roosevelt Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路三段244巷2號B1), next to Taipower Building (台電大樓), tel: (02) 2368-7310. On the Net: www.riverside.com.tw
■ Shows start at 9pm except for tonight which begins at 9:30pm
■ Admission is NT$400 tonight, NT$450 tomorrow, NT$350 on weeknights, available online through www.indievox.com and tickets.books.com.tw
Tonight, vocalist Bing Bing (范荷婷) performs with bassist Ikeda Kinya, guitarist Chen Ying-da (陳穎達) and drummer Lin Wei-chung (林偉中) at Sappho Live, a late-night lounge bar that hosts mostly jazz shows. Tomorrow, The Muddy Basin Ramblers (泥灘地浪人) play original songs inspired by the classic sounds of blues songsters, jug bands and swing jazz groups from the early 20th century. Morgana Quintet plays jazz, Latina and world music on Wednesday. On Thursday, Japanese pianist Ryohei Kishimoto performs with bansuri player Gumi Nakaguchi and others.
■ B1, 1, Ln 102, Anhe Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市安和路一段102巷1號B1), tel: (02) 2700-5411. On the Net: www.sappholive.com
■ Shows start at 9:30pm
■ Entrance is NT$400 tonight and tomorrow, NT$200 on Wednesday and Thursday
It is a night of jazz with award-winning Interestring Quartet (玩弦四度) at There Cafe & Live House (那兒咖啡), a venue for indie music in Taoyuan, tomorrow.
■ B1, 454, Fuxing Rd, Taoyuan City (桃園市復興路454號B1), tel: (03) 339-8819. On the Net: www.therelivecafe.com
■ Show starts at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$400, available online through tickets.books.com.tw and www.indievox.com
Versatile guitarist Liu Yun-ping (劉雲平) plays jazz, Latin, country and blues at Forro Cafe (呼嚕咖啡) in Taichung tonight.
■ 47, Jingcheng 3rd St, Taichung City (台中市精誠三街47號), tel: (04) 2310-1661. On the Net: forrocafe.blogspot.tw
■ Show starts at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$400. Tickets for the venue’s concerts can be purchased online through www.indievox.com
Pop punk band Thick Big Band (粗大Band) tours to TCRC (前科累累俱樂部), a small venue for independent musicians and local artists in Tainan, with its new EP tomorrow.
■ B1, 314, Simen Rd Sec 2, Tainan City (台南市西門路二段314號B1), tel: (06) 222 3238.
■ Show starts at 9pm
■ Admission is NT$250, available at www.indievox.com
Tonight, Thick Big Band arrives at Paramount Bar (百樂門酒館), an indie rock club in Kaohsiung.
■ 70 Minzu 1st Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市三民區民族一路70號), tel: (07) 389-0501
■ Show starts at 8pm
■ Entrance is NT$300, available through www.indievox.com
The Goat Restaurant & Bar (山羊飯館), a music venue and restaurant in Pingtung, hosts Tainan-based funk/blues/alternative band Iron Punch (鐵擊) tomorrow.
■ 23-2 Hengnan Rd, Hengchun Township, Pingtung County (屏東縣恆春鎮恆南路23-2號), tel: (08) 888-0183
■ Show starts at 8:30pm
■ Minimal charge is NT$200
Moyan (莫言), an Amis musician from Hualien’s mountain hamlet of Cilamitay, performs at Uri-Sabaki-Jo (The Wall, 賣捌所), a historical building-turned-music venue in Yilan, tomorrow.
■ 38 Kangle Rd, Yilan City (宜蘭市康樂路38號), tel: (03) 935-2493.On the Net: thewall.tw
■ Show starts at 5pm
■ Admission is NT$300, available online through thewall.tw
Acclaimed pop guitarist Masa teams up with Melody Yu (游艾迪) tonight at Tiehua Music Village (鐵花村), an arts village in Taitung City, followed by female pop rocker Kris Kuan (管罄) and Shara Lin (林逸欣) tomorrow. Puyuma musician Siruku Kungkuwan and Langus (小余班) play a set on Thursday.
■ 26, Ln 135, Sinsheng Rd, Taitung City (台東市新生路135巷26號), tel: (089) 343-393. On the Net: www.tw.streetvoice.com/users/tiehua
■ Shows start at 8pm. Music venue and crafts shops are open 2pm to 10pm Tuesdays through Sundays. Weekend arts fair opens 6pm to 10pm every Friday, 3:30pm to 10pm every Saturday and Sunday
■ Entrance is NT$250 tonight, NT$450 tomorrow, NT$120 on Thursday, available online at tickets.books.com.tw
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
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
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s