For a city that has gained fame its 24-hour lifestyle, Taipei’s first venture last year into the international nighttime festivals that are the annual Nuit Blanche arts extravaganzas was a bit a mess.
The idea behind Nuite Blanche, the first of which was held in Paris in October 2002, is to turn a city into a massive art gallery for a night, exposing contemporary art to a wider audience and encouraging people to explore areas of a city where they might not often go.
Scores of cities around the world now host their own Nuite Blanche on the first Saturday in October.
Photo: CNA
Last year’s Nuit Blanche Taipei (臺北白晝之夜) was in the old part of the city, centering around the North Gate (北門) and stretching down to the 228 Peace Memorial Park (228和平公園).
However, a lack of adequate controls and signage meant that large crowds of people roamed somewhat aimlessly, clustering in certain spots, creating traffic hazards as they spilled off the sidewalks and blocked roadways. Many found it difficult to follow the supposed paths from one exhibition or performance to another.
Another complaint was that while the event was to run from 6pm on Saturday until 6am on Sunday, most of the live performances ended well before midnight.
Photo: Liberty Times
Organizers, who include the Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs and several curators, appear to have tried to apply the lessons of last year to this year’s schedule as they moved the whole event from the west side over toward the Gongguan area (公館) and centered it around National Taiwan University, the Taipower Building on Roosevelt Road and the Taipei City Hakka Cultural Park (客家文化主題公園).
However, once again the live shows will end by midnight, although the DJ parties and art installations will go on until 6am.
Organizers are billing Gongguan as “the intersection of independent spirits and multiculturalism,” and say this year’s program is grouped under three major themes: “Electronic Treasure on the Royal Palm Boulevard,” “Independent Treasure on the Streets of Wen-Luo-Ting, and “Cross-cultural Treasure of the Dreamers.”
Graphic: TT and Nuit Blanche Taipei
There are seven main performance areas this year, up from last year’s five, with 2km route that runs from what is being called the Royal Palm Stage, Za Central Forum to the Audio-Visual Battlefield, Electric Stage of Circus Marathon, Nuite Blanche Village of Literature and Arts, Glorious Dazzling Stage Truck and ending at the Cross-Cultural Stage of Dreamers.
There will be art installations, including more of Akibo Lee’s (李明道) robots, performances by foreign and Taiwanese artists such as former Cirque du Soleil performer Chen Hsing-ho (陳星合), musicians ranging from the Taipei Chinese Orchestra (臺北市立國樂團) to the Muddy Basin Ramblers to Aboriginal performers to the solar-powered robot band SIAMSIAM to a “Battle Jam,” far too much to cover in this limited space.
However, the organizers have created a great Web site (nuitblanche.taipei) in Chinese and English, with maps, list of programs and schedule, a transportation guide and an app.
However, it is not just the Gongguan area that will be hopping on Saturday night. More than 30 museums and cultural facilities will open till midnight, including the National Palace Museum, the Presidential Office Building, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Taipei.
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