Theater
Performance Workshop’s (表演工作坊) newest production, The Comedy of Sex and Politics (新龍門客棧), premieres tonight in Taipei, starting a six-city tour. Workshop managing director Ding Nai-chu (丁乃竺) and her team have taken 18th century Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni’s comedic masterpiece, Mirandolina as the basis for their story about a successful hotel owner who manages to fend off suitors while helping her guests sort out their own love lives. Model turned actress Cheryl Yang (楊謹華) headlines the all-star cast, which includes theater veteran Fan Guang-yao (樊光耀), Grace Lu (呂曼茵), comedian Chu Te-kang (朱德剛) and dancer/choreographer Chen Wu-kang (陳武康).
■ Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30pm; tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm at Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館), 505, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路4段505號)
Photo courtesy of Mat Hennek/DG
■ Tickets cost NT$600 to NT$3,200; available at at NTCH box offices, online at www.artsticket.com.tw, convenience store ticketing kiosks and at the door.
■ The show moves to the Performance Hall of the Hsinchu County Cultural Affairs Bureau (新竹縣文化局演藝廳) on Dec. 10, the Kaohsiung Cultural Center’s Chihteh Hall (高雄市文化中心至德堂) for two shows on Dec. 24, the Tainan Municipal Cultural Center (臺南文化中心演藝廳) on Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, and the Jhongli Arts Center (中壢藝術館) on Jan. 14 before taking a two-month break ahead of the last show at the Taichung Chungshan Hall (台中中山堂) on March 18. Tickets as above.
Film
Photo courtesy of Yo La Tengo
The annual Invisible Cities Film Festival kicks off tonight at Spot — Taipei Film House (光點—台北之家 ) with Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville. The festival will feature 15 films, including Kirokazu Koreeda’s After Life, Raymond Depardon’s Journal de France and Taiwan’s A Ghost Island Lies Beneath — about pollution in Taiwan — and runs until Dec. 15. More information can be found at: www.spot.org.tw.
■ Spot — Taipei Film House (光點—台北之家), 18, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市中山北路二段18號)
■ From today until Dec. 15. Tickets are NT$200 for Spot members, NT$240 for non-members, available at the theater
Photo courtesy of BOPOMOFO
Event
A charity concert will be held on Sunday at Taipei jazz club Sappho Live for The Pack Sanctuary, an animal shelter specializing in the rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming or lifelong care of animals in dire need of help, or those unlikely to find suitable homes. The lineup of musicians starts at 5pm with David Chen (of Muddy Basin Ramblers fame). Other acts include ska group Reggae Riddims, JJ & the Cats, who play blues, jazz and Latin, blues group BoPoMoFo and soul/funk combo Funky Duds. All proceeds from the door will go to the charity.
■ 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
■ Show starts at 5pm
■ Entrance is NT$500
Military specialist Dean Karalekas will give a lecture tomorrow, Reforming Taiwan’s Military, which will examine the public’s perception of the nation’s military. Karalekas will argue that the military retains a conservative attitude that differs from Taiwan’s current open and free society. There is confusion as to how these outdated attitudes relate to national identity and perceptions of Taiwan as the homeland. Instead of an all-volunteer army, he says that conscription should remain and training should involve incorporating values of society. The issue of transparency will also be examined as well as and the possibility of Aboriginal units.
■ Ting Ting Tsuei Yu (婷婷翠玉), 174, Anhe Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市安和路二段174號)
■ Seating for the talk is limited. Contact Jerome Keating at jkeating@ms67.hinet.net. A breakfast, average meal is NT$100 to NT$150
Contemporary
American indie rock band Yo La Tengo will perform originals and covers tonight at The Wall (這牆), a prominent Taipei venue for indie rock artists. Malaysian alternative folk rock sensation Yuna will play on Wednesday. Tonight at Korner, a club located inside The Wall, Berlin’s Mobilegirl will play some classic R&B tunes, reworking them in her unique melodic style. She will be joined by Sonia Calico, Veeeky, Yallatee and others. Tomorrow it’s Mystik Night with some of South Korea’s top DJs, including Antwork and Magico. They will be supported by Al Burro, Toska and Andy Chiu.
■ 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
■ Shows for The Wall start at 8pm; Korner shows begin at 11:50pm
■ Tickets cost NT$2,000 tonight and NT$1,500 on Wednesday; Korner shows are NT$500 tonight and NT$300 tomorrow, available online through thewall.tw
It is an evening of hip-hop on Sunday at Legacy Mini, a spin-off of Legacy Taipei, featuring Leo37 and SOSS.
■ Legacy Mini at Amba Taipei Ximending (台北西門町意舍), 5F, 77, Wuchang St Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市武昌街二段77號5樓)
■ Show start at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$600. Tickets available through www.indievox.com and at 7-Eleven ibon kiosks
It’s a night of Japanese hip-hop and dance tonight at indie rock club Revolver, with Banana Boys and Cooriu, and DJs Afuro George, Dubinch and Kzy. Tomorrow the club hosts two parties. The first, beginning at 8pm, features metal core, goth, heavy metal and J-rock with Soundbase, Crescent Lament (恆月三途) and The Poverty (貧窮鐵人). Post rock is on the menu later in the evening as Posh Inverse (優雅逆轉) takes the stage. Thailand’s Houdini and Taipei’s Murky Crows (昏鴉) will play Indie rock and shoegaze on Sunday.
■ 1-2, Roosevelt Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路一段1-2號), tel: (02) 3393-1678. On the Net: www.facebook.com/revolver.taipei
■ Show starts tonight at 9pm, tomorrow at 8pm and 11:30pm and Sunday at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$300 tonight and tomorrow at 8pm, NT$400 on Sunday
Southern rock/country band Twangover describe themselves as “four drunk but technically adequate musicians.” They will play tomorrow at Bobwundaye (無問題), a small pub in Taipei. Canadian musician Radio Rose is also on the bill.
■ 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
Indie act Night Keepers (守夜人) perform tonight at Witch House (女巫店), an intimate coffeehouse-style venue in the National Taiwan University area. Upcoming singer Nini Wu (吳妮晏) plays tomorrow. Celebrated Aboriginal rockers Totem (圖騰樂團) play on Wednesday.
■ 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
■ Shows start 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
Macao-based crooners Kiss My Lipz will play tonight at Riverside Live House (河岸留言西門紅樓展演館). They might be geezers, but Laoluosi Band (老螺絲樂團) will keep you rockin’ through the night on Wednesday.
■ 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
Renowned fingerstyle guitarist Dong Yun-chang (董運昌) will take the stage tonight at Riverside Cafe (河岸留言). Tomorrow, it is indie pop group JS, which is composed of brother-sister duo Justin Chen (陳忠義) and Sophie Chen (陳綺萱), who will hold a Christmas concert. Indie rockers Pink Haze (平克孩子) and Slowing Oscillation (斯洛頻率) will each take the stage on Sunday. On Tuesday it is Tonic 5, who play a combination of jazz, Latin, rock and funk. Shoegaze, noise pop and dream pop group Tut (杜爾與索克) will play on Wednesday. Liberation Zoo (解放動物園) is also on the bill.
■ 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
■ Admission is NT$400 tonight and tomorrow and NT$350 on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, available online through www.indievox.com and tickets.books.com.tw
JJ & the Catz play an eclectic collection of blues, jazz and Latin tonight at Sappho Live, a late-night lounge bar that hosts mostly jazz shows. Sean Wong and Blue Mandarin will play original tunes tomorrow, as well as covers of songs from a wide range of styles, including pop, soul, old school rock and jazz. The club brings you a night of comedy with Taipei Improv on Wednesday.
■ 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
■ Show starts tonight and tomorrow at 9:30pm, and Wednesday at 9pm
■ Admission is NT$400 tonight and tomorrow and NT$300 on Wednesday
Pop group Anniedora (安妮朵拉) will perform tomorrow at TADA Ark (TADA方舟), a music venue located inside the Taichung Cultural & Creative Industries Park (台中文化創意產業園區) in Taichung. On Sunday it is rock group The Roaring Soul (靈魂咆哮), pop group Angelic Ash and rockers The Unspoken Rules (潛規則).
■ 362, Fuhsing Rd Sec 3, Taichung City (台中市復興路三段362號), tel: (04) 2229-0989. On the Net: www.tadaark.com.tw
■ Show starts tonight at 7pm and Sunday at 3pm
■ Admission is NT$450 tonight and NT$400 on Sunday
Mission Formosa Jazz Quartet (福爾摩沙任務爵士樂團), a band composed of both Taiwanese and Italian musicians, plays tonight at Legacy Taichung, a spin-off of Legacy Taipei. Tomorrow’s performance by disco/grunge act No Party for Cao Dong (草東沒有派對) is sold out.
■ 117, Anhe Rd, Taichung City (台中市安和路117號), tel: (04) 2359-8780. On the Net: www.legacy.com.tw/taichung.
■ Show starts tonight at 8pm
■ Admission is NT$700, available through www.indievox.com and at 7-Eleven ibon kiosks
There will be a musical exchange tonight between Taiwanese and Japanese musicians at Taichung’s Forro Cafe (呼嚕咖啡) with folk singer and guitarist Cheshire Cat (柴郡貓), pop folk artist PiA (吳蓓雅), rocker Misato Winchester and DJ Hiromi. Tomorrow it is crooner Lin Chiao-an (林喬安).
■ 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 tonight at 8pm and 7:30pm tomorrow
■ Admission is NT$500 for both nights, available through www.indievox.com
Post-rock bands Bugs of Phonon (聲子蟲) and CustoMood take the stage tomorrow at TCRC (前科累累俱樂部), a small venue for independent musicians and local artists in Tainan. Also tomorrow, Italian electronic duo Breathing Machines will perform with Taiwanese DJ Vice City and DJ Monga.
■ B1, 314, Simen Rd Sec 2, Tainan City (台南市西門路二段314號B1), tel: (06) 222 3238.
■ Shows start tomorrow at 7pm and 9pm
■ Admission is NT$300 and NT$250, available at www.indievox.com
Taiwanese shoegaze group Manic Sheep are currently touring Taiwan for their latest album Brooklyn. They will perform tomorrow at The Mercury (水星酒館), an indie rock club in Kaohsiung, with the Last Wave (最後大浪) will provide support.
■ 46 Liwen Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市立文路46號), tel: (07) 550-8617. On the Net: mercurybar.blogspot.tw
■ Show starts at 7:30pm
■ Entrance is NT$350, available at www.indievox.com
Indie rock band Mary See the Future (先知瑪莉) continues their cross-country tour tonight at In Our Time, a restaurant-cum-gallery located inside Kaohsiung’s Pier-2 Arts Center (駁二藝術特區).
■ 99, Penglai Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市蓬萊路99號), tel: (07) 521-0017
■ Show starts 7:30pm
■ Tickets are NT$700, available through www.indievox.com and tickets.books.com.tw
Psychedelic folk act Spell Lee (李漫), post-rock outfit Dr Geek (神經博士) and indie group The Harbor Plan (海港計劃) take to the stage on Sunday 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$350, available through www.indievox.com
After a two-year hiatus, Taiwanese math rock band Elephant Gym (大象體操) takes the stage tonight for the release party of its latest EP Rock (工作) tonight at Tiehua Music Village (鐵花村), an arts village in Taitung City. Tomorrow it is Puyuma crooner and guitarist Hao-en (昊恩), with Kuo Ming-lung (郭明龍) also on the bill.
■ 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.tiehua.com.tw
■ Shows start at 8pm. Music venue and crafts shops are open 2pm to 10pm Tuesdays through Sundays
■ Entrance is NT$350 tonight and NT$250 tomorrow, available online at tickets.books.com.tw
Classical
Latvian-Israeli cellist Mischa Maisky will give a concert on Sunday at Taipei’s National Concert Hall. The program includes Cesar Franck’s Sonata for Piano Violin in A major, as well as works by Charles-Camille Saint-Saens and Astor Piazzolla.
■ National Concert Hall, Taipei City
■ Sunday at 7:30pm. Tickets are NT$1,800 to NT$3,400 (NT$3,800 tickets are sold out), available through NTCH ticketing and online at www.artsticket.com.tw
Chinese Cellist Qin Liwei (秦立巍) and Chinese-American pianist An Ning (安寧) will perform on Wednesday at Taipei’s National Concert Hall, in a program that includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata No. 3 in A Major for Cello and Piano, Robert Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sonata in D Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 40 and Niccolo Paganini’s Variations on a Theme by Rossini.
■ National Concert Hall, Taipei City
■ Wednesday at 7:30pm. Tickets are NT$1,000 to NT$3,000 (NT$3,600 and NT$4,000 are sold out); available through NTCH ticketing and online at www.artstickets.com.tw
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
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
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would