Hugh Lee (
Legend follows much in the same vein as Lee's last production, Far Away from Home (
In Legend, Lee has returned to his favorite device of having a play within a play, counterpointing the comedy of an inept film crew shooting a story set in a brothel during the Japanese occupation period, with the melodrama of the story of how the young kamikaze pilot doesn't die and comes back 60 years later as the customer of a young hooker whose boyfriend is the nephew of his first love.
PHOTO: IAN BARTHOLOMEW, TAIPEI TIMES
Lee once again comes to grips with Taiwan's current predicament and the history that created it in a commercially viable format. With each new show, he seems to say, "Do you remember how it once was?" In the case of Legend, the world of the "Moon Flower Garden" brothel is lovingly created, as are the conventions of the sexual morality of a bygone age.
With this historical distance, Lee manages to be reasonably convincing, but when the story is brought into the present, Lee's lack of dramatic register becomes more clearly apparent, and his scenes as the elderly airman remembering love and happiness of his youth are rather strained. There is so much earnestness that the subtle shadings and complex shadows of memory are lost.
That Lee has managed to maintain the production of original new shows is indeed encouraging. On this occasion Ping-Fong will be performing in the smaller space of the Metropolitan Hall, whose greater intimacy may benefit this show. There will be 15 shows in Taipei before moving south for the traditional islandwide tour.
The Legend of a Lecher opens tonight at the Metropolitan Hall and will run through May 2. Shows are at 7:30pm with 2:30pm matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets for Taipei are NT$500 to NT$1,800. Tickets are available through www.artticket.com.tw.
For many people, Bilingual Nation 2030 begins and ends in the classroom. Since the policy was launched in 2018, the debate has centered on students, teachers and the pressure placed on schools. Yet the policy was never solely about English education. The government’s official plan also calls for bilingualization in Taiwan’s government services, laws and regulations, and living environment. The goal is to make Taiwan more inclusive and accessible to international enterprises and talent and better prepared for global economic and trade conditions. After eight years, that grand vision is due for a pulse check. RULES THAT CAN BE READ For Harper Chen (陳虹宇), an adviser
Traditionally, indigenous people in Taiwan’s mountains practice swidden cultivation, or “slash and burn” agriculture, a practice common in human history. According to a 2016 research article in the International Journal of Environmental Sustainability, among the Atayal people, this began with a search for suitable forested slopeland. The trees are burnt for fertilizer and the land cleared of stones. The stones and wood are then piled up to make fences, while both dead and standing trees are retained on the plot. The fences are used to grow climbing crops like squash and beans. The plot itself supports farming for three years.
The breakwater stretches out to sea from the sprawling Kaohsiung port in southern Taiwan. Normally, it’s crowded with massive tankers ferrying liquefied natural gas from Qatar to be stored in the bulbous white tanks that dot the shoreline. These are not normal times, though, and not a single shipment from Qatar has docked at the Yongan terminal since early March after the Strait of Hormuz was shuttered. The suspension has provided a realistic preview of a potential Chinese blockade, a move that would throttle an economy anchored by the world’s most advanced and power-hungry semiconductor industry. It is a stark reminder of
The last couple of weeks spectators in Taiwan and abroad have been treated to a remarkable display of infighting in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over the supplementary defense budget. The party has split into two camps, one supporting an NT$800 billion special defense budget and one supporting an NT$380 billion budget with additional funding contingent on receiving letters of acceptance (LOA) from the US. Recent media reports have said that the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) is leaning toward the latter position. President William Lai (賴清德) has proposed NT$1.25 trillion for purchases of US arms and for development of domestic weapons
RSS