The Golden Melody Awards have gradually been shifting from their focus on the big stars, and last night's show served to confirm this trend
By Ho Yi
In an evening dominated by alternative acts, Jay Chou (周杰倫) picked up his award for Best Single Producer, but it was independents who won big. Folk rock outfit Sodagreen won the coveted Best Band award, but even in the prestige categories such as Best Producer, independents dominated. And even in categories that are the exclusive realm of the big labels there were upsets, with South Korean Nicky Lee beating out six-time nominee David Tao for the best male Mandarin singer.

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Clubs around Taipei are appealing to customers by offering all-you-can-drink specials at rock bottom prices
By Noah Buchan
South Korean student Jin Ying-shi, 24, takes a swig from his beer, his third of the evening, as he looks around at the crowd of revelers.

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Francesco Borrello, who heads up the Grand Formosa Regent Taipei, sees potential all around him, but laments the lack of a guiding light in Taiwan's tourism industry
By Ian Bartholomew
Francesco Borrello has a passion for the hospitality industry. As a veteran hotel manager who has been part of the industry boom that has seen places like Dubai, Bahrain and Yemen develop from oil-dependant desert outposts into centers of luxurious living, he is no stranger to the challenges that face Taiwan in its ambition to become a hub for international tourism.

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For the child goddesses of Nepal, the sacred and mundane make an uneasy combination
By Neela Banerjee
Even by the standards of the luminaries who sweep through Washington, the little girl in front of Lafayette Elementary School almost 10km north of the White House was special.

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These urbane and humorous memoirs are a revelation of the eternal weirdness of the human spirit
By William Grimes
Kang Zhengguo (康正果), a poet and student of literature, loved to write. The watchful guardians of the Chinese Communist Party made sure he got plenty of practice. His favorite forms were the lyric poem and the diary. Theirs was the confession, and Kang turned them out by the dozen throughout his life, expiating one supposed crime after another by denouncing himself as a reactionary element, a deviationist and whatever else was on the political menu that day.

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The great comedian has been funny for nearly 50 years, but his humor still has the power to amuse, even though its a little shopworn
By Janet Maslin
When Truman Capote became an Oscar-worthy movie character and In Cold Blood bounced back onto bestseller lists, The New Yorker sportingly published yet another Woody Allen instant classic. Titled Above the Law, Below the Box Springs, it mimics the absurd solemnity and keen attention to minutiae that color self-important crime reporting in rural settings, lampooning a style well known to New Yorker readers.

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FICTION

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