Balloon artist Sung Chun-lin (宋俊霖) on Wednesday took the first prize in a twisting competition held by US balloon maker Qualatex for his piece Taiwan Blue Whale.
The 2m long blue-and-white piece was made using 170 balloons and took the artist 15 hours to complete.
Qualatex holds the balloon twisting contest annually, setting different rules for color combinations each year. This year the contest, themed “Navy Color Quest,” asked participants to design their submissions around navy-blue balloons.
Photo courtesy of Sung Chun-lin
Sung said he was inspired to make a whale model as the whale is the symbol of the Formosa Alliance (喜樂島聯盟) — a political organization that calls for a referendum on Taiwanese independence and the nation’s participation in the UN.
The whale is one of Sung’s favorite animals, and symbolizes freedom and dreams, he said, adding that he never imagined that the animal would help him realize his own dream of winning an international competition.
Sung started from the tail, folding the balloons while looking at a picture of a whale, he said, adding that judging the angle of the tail was the hardest part.
The challenge in making the head was in shrinking several balloons and having them converge on one point, which involved a lot of trial and error, he said.
Sung used different twisting and cladding techniques to make his submission, and while they were not the most difficult balloon modeling techniques to execute, they require precision, he said.
Sung, 25, graduated from National Taipei University of Education’s Department of Digital Technology Design. While acting as a director for a group of illusionists, he asked well-known balloon artist Chiang Mu-cheng (姜牧呈) to teach him balloon modeling.
He learned basic models from Chiang and the rest through self-study using books and YouTube before spending a year in Japan’s Gunma Prefecture to take more advanced classes. He then spent a year in Australia busking before returning to Taiwan.
While he earned good money in Australia, he wanted to build a career as an artist in Taiwan, where he has roots, he said.
Aside from his win in the US, Sung said he has also submitted a balloon animal to a domestic contest: a Papilio maraho — a long-winged butterfly indigenous to Taiwan.
All of his original designs are inspired by Taiwanese animals, including the Formosan black bear, he said.
Sung next plans to make balloon versions of the Formosan Sika deer and the Formosan landlocked salmon, he added.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai