Fans of Taiwanese pop singer Chang Hui-mei (
Chang was forced to cancel a performance in China on Saturday night due to a protest by students from Zhejiang University (
Chang was previously blacklisted by China for singing the national anthem at President Chen Shui-bian's (
Fans, angry with Chinese opposition to Chang, unleashed anti-China sentiment on chatrooms and discussion boards online yesterday, some calling for boycotts and other saying that A-mei should just forget about China and focus on singing in Taiwan.
Other fans, however, argued back that Saturday's situation had nothing to do with Chinese entertainers and that they should be left alone.
On her return to Taiwan Sunday night, Chang was low-key about the cancelation, saying that she was saddened by the Chinese response and that she was just trying to fulfill her obligations as an entertainer.
Chang, who has other performances planned for China this summer, said on Sunday that she plans to keep to schedule.
Calls to Chang's record company yesterday were met with the terse reply that "everything has already been said."
Politicians from different parties also voiced their opinions yesterday.
The concert cancellation was an uncalled for political move, said People First Party lawmaker Sheu Yuan-kuo (許淵國). Chang's performance at Chen's 2000 inauguration was the highest honor that could be granted a musician, and has nothing to do with Taiwan's independence, he added.
Democratic Progressive Party caucus Director-General Tsai Huang-liang (
Also see story:
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS