Much-respected senior musician Wen Hsia (文夏) yesterday criticized the government for what he called its empty promises to promote the music industry and failure to offer help to senior musicians.
Wen made the comments in front of a Government Information Office (GIO) official during a press conference in Taipei to announce this year’s Megaport Music Festival to be held in Kaohsiung on Saturday and Sunday.
At the press event, GIO Publishing Department director Chang Chung-jen (張崇仁) said the government has always been -supportive of the music industry.
“We don’t organize our own bands, we don’t write songs, but we’ve always supported publication of music, and sponsored music festivals like this one,” Chang said.
In response to Chang’s comments, Wen, who was also on the stage, said he has “heard the same thing over and over again for the past 50 years.”
“I wish the government would actually take action, not just give us empty words,” Wen added.
As Chang appeared to be embarrassed by Wen’s comment, Wen quickly defused the situation by saying that he believed that Chang was sincere in his words and was confident that the government would translate words into action this time.
The Megaport Music Festival, an annual event since 2006, is one of the biggest music festivals in southern Taiwan.
Festival spokesman Gary Chiang (江季剛) said the festival aims to provide a stage for bands in southern Taiwan, since bands from northern Taiwan are the mainstream in the pop music market.
“We always make sure that at least 50 percent of the bands playing in Megaport are from the south,” Chiang said.
This year, however, they are also designing the music festival to appeal to music lovers of all age groups and not just young rock fans.
“We’ve redone some well-known oldies, and invited the much--respected senior singer, composer and songwriter Wen Hsia to perform with a rock band,” he said. “We hope connect the festival to the location where it’s held, and also make it suitable for all age groups.”
Born into a wealthy family in 1928, Wen has dedicated his life to music. He studied music in Japan, plays several musical instruments and became a well-known singer, in addition to writing more than 2,000 songs.
Besides Wen, rock legend Wu Bai (伍佰) and singer Jeanie Hsieh (謝金燕) will also perform at the music festival.
The festival is organized by the Kaohsiung City Bureau of Cultural Affairs, the Kaohsiung City Cultural Foundation, and The Wall Music.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching