Maybe, just maybe, the naive notion that music, including even the saccharine tunes of Mando-pop, is safely outside the realm of politics will be tossed out the window after Chang Hui-mei's (
The controversy stirred up when Chang, who's better known as A-mei (阿妹), was basically chased out of Hangzhou by a gaggle of banner-waving students. There was, however, some anxious speculation early this week as to which Taiwanese singers may be next to suffer a blockade on performances and endorsements in China, including Lee Hom Wang (王力宏), Jay Chou (周杰倫), Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), Mayday (五月天), Richie Ren (任賢齊), Alec Su (蘇有朋) and Wu Bai (伍佰) all of whom have been accused in at least one Chinese venue of being DPP supporters. Strangely, no one mentioned Samingad (紀曉君), who sang the national anthem at this year's inauguration. Then again, practically no one's ever heard of Samingad even though she's one of Taiwan's best singers who gained what little fame she has the hard way -- by singing in bars at night and holding down day jobs.
PHOTO :TAIPEI TIMES
As a contrast, and for an example of the easy path to success, look to the new hot band F.I.R., which appeared out of nowhere and is now sitting cozily atop the charts in Taiwan. Their ascendancy has been so vertical even fans are wondering how genuine they are. The Great Daily News (
Holding on to the bottom rung of the pop charts is Jordan Chan (陳小春), whose latest album Black Hole (黑洞) is getting some apparently ineffectual non-stop promotion on Taipei's city buses. Pop Stop caught up with Skot Sukuyama, who arranged one song on the album and was involved in the making of the album from its early stages almost half a year ago, to ask why Jordan's album just isn't taking off. "Basically, it sounds like Frankenstein looks," he said.
While working on the album, the producers provided Sukuyama with some interesting and rather telling guidance on the sound they were hoping to achieve. "They said, `We want it to sound like an elephant and The Matrix," and I was like, "An elephant is an animal and The Matrix is a movie. It doesn't make any sense."
But that's what they wanted.
So that's what they got: an album jam-packed with clashing styles that simply don't come together in a very musical way.
Things looked bad this week for Rock Records, as well, which was featured in a front-page story of Wednesday's Apple Daily (
A spokesman for the label is reported as saying the affair will be cleared up within a week.
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday delivered an address marking the first anniversary of his presidency. In the speech, Lai affirmed Taiwan’s global role in technology, trade and security. He announced economic and national security initiatives, and emphasized democratic values and cross-party cooperation. The following is the full text of his speech: Yesterday, outside of Beida Elementary School in New Taipei City’s Sanxia District (三峽), there was a major traffic accident that, sadly, claimed several lives and resulted in multiple injuries. The Executive Yuan immediately formed a task force, and last night I personally visited the victims in hospital. Central government agencies and the
Australia’s ABC last week published a piece on the recall campaign. The article emphasized the divisions in Taiwanese society and blamed the recall for worsening them. It quotes a supporter of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) as saying “I’m 43 years old, born and raised here, and I’ve never seen the country this divided in my entire life.” Apparently, as an adult, she slept through the post-election violence in 2000 and 2004 by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the veiled coup threats by the military when Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) became president, the 2006 Red Shirt protests against him ginned up by
As with most of northern Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) settlements, the village of Arunothai was only given a Thai name once the Thai government began in the 1970s to assert control over the border region and initiate a decades-long process of political integration. The village’s original name, bestowed by its Yunnanese founders when they first settled the valley in the late 1960s, was a Chinese name, Dagudi (大谷地), which literally translates as “a place for threshing rice.” At that time, these village founders did not know how permanent their settlement would be. Most of Arunothai’s first generation were soldiers
Among Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) villages, a certain rivalry exists between Arunothai, the largest of these villages, and Mae Salong, which is currently the most prosperous. Historically, the rivalry stems from a split in KMT military factions in the early 1960s, which divided command and opium territories after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cut off open support in 1961 due to international pressure (see part two, “The KMT opium lords of the Golden Triangle,” on May 20). But today this rivalry manifests as a different kind of split, with Arunothai leading a pro-China faction and Mae Salong staunchly aligned to Taiwan.
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