Located at the heart of Taipei’s historic Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area the Xiahai City God Temple (霞海城隍廟) is not exactly famous as a performance venue for electronic music.
However, fans of electronic and indie music gathered outside the small clearing in front of the temple yesterday as the electronic supergroup Sam-seng-hian-ge (三牲獻藝) held a performance to mark the release of their eponymous album.
Blending in traditional musical elements with electronic beats, the album samples heavily from ceremonial music played during an important religious procession that commemorates the city god’s birthday, held on the 13th day of the fifth lunar month each year — which typically falls around June.
Photo provided by Sam-seng-hian-ge
Founded by award-winning multimedia artist Blaire Ko (柯智豪), the group finds inspiration in traditional performance arts, folklore and history, using their music to celebrate the local cultural heritage.
The group also includes electronic producer and guitarist Cheng Ko-chun (鄭各均) — more commonly known as Sonic Deadhorse (音速死馬) — and electronic music pioneer Huang Kai-yu (黃凱宇), also known as DJ Fish.
The group said that holding a performance in front of a temple was in accordance with their goal of forging more connections between modern performances and traditional aesthetics.
Dadaocheng’s colorful history is narrated through songs in the album, such as the song Ting-e Kau-piann (頂下郊拼), which recounts the birth of Dadaocheng after its founders fled from the neighboring Wanhua area (萬華) in the mid-19th century, as a result of conflicts between different settler groups.
Ko said that as a local who grew up on Dihua Street (迪化街), where the temple is located, it was important for him to return to the Xiahai City God Temple to express his gratitude to the deity.
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:
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