The soundtrack for the movie Ripples of Desire (花漾) composed by folk musician Chen Ming-chang (陳明章) won the best world fusion album award on Saturday at the Golden Melody Awards for artistic and traditional music in Taipei.
“Thank you director Zero Chou (周美玲), for giving me a chance to blend nanguan (南管) into a film,” the singer-songwriter-producer said after winning the award.
The album blends sounds from Taiwanese string instruments with those from nanguan guitars, lutes, dulcimers and oriental drums.
Photo: CNA
Nanguan is a Chinese classical music style that originated in Fujian Province, China.
The movie is about the life of two young courtesans on a remote island populated by merchants, pirates and other outcasts 300 years ago.
The Golden Melody Awards, billed as the biggest music awards event in the Chinese-speaking world, are divided into two ceremonies, one for artistic and traditional music and one for popular music categories. The award ceremony for the second category is scheduled to take place on July 6.
The jury award on Saturday night went to father-and-son pair Peng Shuang-sung (彭雙松) and Peng Wen-ming (彭文銘), who were praised for their dedication to the digital preservation of music for more than two decades.
Since 1975, they have purchased the copyrights to more than 6,000 albums, covering Hakka, folk and Aboriginal music and traditional instruments, and spent time categorizing and digitizing the albums, without ever making money from their efforts.
The best faith album went to Poetic Mantras by Ma Chang-sheng (馬長生), and the best folk music album and best musical arranger awards went to Limitless — The Circle of Seasons by the Chai Found Music Workshop.
Vali by acappella group SURE won the best singing performance and best album packaging awards, while The Rose in the Wilderness, which consists of piano pieces composed by the late Kuo Chih-yuan (郭芝苑), grabbed the best album producer award.
Award-winning singer-songwriter Huang Shan-liang (荒山亮), Canadian world music singer-songwriter Matthew Lien and Okinawan singer Rimi Natsukawa performed at Saturday’s ceremony at National Dr Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.
A total of 67 works were selected from 1,595 entries to compete in 15 traditional and artistic music award categories this year, according to the Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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