Now that weeks of drought have gotten everyone hot and sweaty, it's about
time for the summer's first massive beach rave. It comes from an assembly of
local Taipei DJs who - with the possible exception of April's Spring Scream
weekend - are emerging from a winter spent in black-lit dance clubs. The
party is called La La Pa and it happens at Wanli Seaside Resort
(萬里海水浴場) tomorrow from 3pm until sometime around 9am on Sunday.
DJs for the party have been drawn from most of Taipei's major clubs,
including Blueman (Texound), David Jr (Rock Candy), Victor and @llen. It's
almost like some sort of coalition for the promotion of better living
through glowsticks. The above will all play at the main dance area on the
beach, where the music will go from 10pm to 7:30am. Affording relief from
the elements as well as the morning glare, there will be an indoor lounge
featuring music from DJs Linchiang(林強), Nina and others from 9pm to 9am.
The venue itself is a pay beach on the northeast coast about 7km north of
Keelung. Events during the day tomorrow include hip hop DJs and extreme
sports displays, which are possibly grouped together because the people
involved all wear the same kinds of clothes. For transportation, there will
be free buses from Taipei, departing tomorrow every 40 minutes from noon to
midnight from in front of the United Daily Building (聯合報大樓), located on
Chunghsiao E. Rd. near the corner of Keelung Rd. Admission is NT$800 at the
door or NT$600 in advance. Advance tickets are available at Tower Records.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
RSS