A presidential citation was awarded posthumously to late Taiwanese composer Tyzen Hsiao (蕭泰然) on Saturday in Los Angeles to recognize his contributions to Taiwan’s music scene.
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles Director-General Steve Hsia (夏季昌) presented the citation to Hsiao’s family on behalf of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at a memorial service for Hsiao.
Hsiao was praised in the citation for his “rich” and “diverse” music that blended techniques from Western classical, romantic, impressionist and modern music with Taiwanese styles.
The late composer was also touted for his dedication to music education and for his humble personality.
To remember Hsiao, local musicians are to play several of his well-known pieces at a memorial concert at the National Concert Hall in Taipei on April 5, the Ministry of Culture announced.
Hsiao died aged 77 at his home in Los Angeles on Feb. 24.
Dubbed “Taiwan’s Rachmaninoff,” Hsiao studied music at National Taiwan Normal University and at Musashino Music University in Japan, before relocating to the US in 1977.
While in the US, Hsiao actively rearranged Taiwanese folk music, while also composing many new works. However, because of a work that advocated the overthrow of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime, he was put on a black list and banned from returning to Taiwan from 1980 until 1995.
He is known for his fusion of Taiwanese and international music traditions and composed a number of works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, solo voices, orchestras and choirs, with many of his vocal works set to poems written in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese).
Hsiao is best known for his 1947 Overture, composed in remembrance of the 228 Incident in 1947.
He was a recipient of prestigious awards, including a National Award for Arts, a National Cultural Award and a Golden Melody Award.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,