Doubts cast on charges of Ecstasy use at arts district

The SunSon Theater (身聲演繹社), questioning the motives of their accusers, yesterday dismissed claims by politicians that drugs were involved in one of the theater's events that took place Saturday night at Taipei City's Huashan Arts District. (華山藝文特區).

"The claims of city councilors are incorrect, because neither Ecstasy or marijuana were consumed at the event that night," Ng Leonson (吳忠良), the director-general of the theater, said at a press conference that was held to respond to the accusations.

"We strongly dispute the fact that city councilors have politicized the event with false accusations against us without any solid evidence whatsoever. They simply assumed -- incorrectly -- that Ecstasy was involved, based on the way people danced in video footage," Ng added.

Ng was referring to footage shown by DPP Taipei City Councilors Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) and Yen Shen-kuan (顏聖冠) at a press conference on Sunday, depicting scenes of people dancing by a fire, with some of the men dancing without shirts.

Claiming that the way they danced indicated drug use, Wang said that, according to an informer, Ecstasy and marijuana were used at the gathering of 200 to 300 people, "many of them foreign."

Chu Chien-hui (朱劍輝), better known as Shiao-Chu, the bassist for pop-singer Wu Bai (伍佰) and his China Blue band (中國藍), refuted the claims.

"One thing I know fore sure, there were no drugs at the scene," Chu told the Taipei Times. "And the crowd was not `mostly foreign,' either."

"It [the event] was simply a healthy, musical get-together for music-lovers to enjoy and meet friends," Chu added.

According to Ng, what took place on Saturday night was a free-admission event called "Fire Drum Circle," which featured drums as the main musical element and a campfire as decor.

Chang Ho-ching (張鶴金), chairperson of the Association of Culture Environment Reform Taiwan, a private organization entrusted by the Council of Cultural Affairs to manage the Huashan Arts District, said that, although the event was originally scheduled to end at midnight, it was pushed back until around 4am because people kept coming.

"Having long musical events is nothing special in other countries, and this is a direction the Huashan Arts District is trying to head toward," Chang said

During the press conference, Chang showed footage of the event showing a number of police patrols arriving at the event.

"If there was any drug-taking going on, then why would the police walk away without doing anything?" Chang asked.

Chang reaffirmed the group's position that as long as the law prohibits it, the Huashan Arts District would not allow drug use at its events.

"The false claims of these politicians has created misunderstanding and has caused great damage to the arts scene as a whole," Chang said.