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.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS