Shiuan Liu (劉軒) was the dutiful son who took his father's advice: He got up early, did his homework on time, studied classical music at Juilliard and graduated from Harvard. His alter ego is SL, the party animal and producer who adds spice to the Taipei night scene and is on the verge of signing a record deal that could see him become the country's first native DJ star.
Though interesting in itself, Liu's transformation into DJ SL also mirrors the shift in attitudes that has occurred in the last 30 years, as Taiwan's young and upwardly mobile generation has moved from traditional Chinese values to a more global and contemporary outlook.
Most Taiwanese know SL's father, Yung Liu (劉墉). He was famous in the 1970s for being a TV news anchor and later wrote inspirational books that were required reading for most students and conscripts in the army. His most successful publications, however, were letters of advice from a father to a son and it is through these books that the public first became acquainted with the young Liu. They got to know him even better when he followed in his father's footsteps and became a published author himself.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
Though he was born in Taipei, SL moved to New York as a kid and only returned here full time in 2002, when he took a day job with an advertising agency. It was at this time that he capitalized on the experience he had gained with his college DJing and residencies in Boston and New York in the late '90s to create a new identity and introduce a more funky and jazzy house music to Taiwan, which was in the grip of techno and trance at the time.
"I had this public persona thanks mainly to my father, and I had to deconstruct my image here as a writer and also as a famous person's son," SL said. "It was a different kind of world. The kids who read my books were kind of good kids, who studied a lot and didn't go out much. I had this other life of electronic music that was exciting and appealed to my classical-music background."
His aptly named "Who's Your Daddy?" residency at 2nd Floor broke the grip of hard house and later, with DJ Saucey and the Citrus parties, he helped make deep house popular, edging it away from a grimy, "headshaking" mentality to something sexier and more attractive, particularly to women.
He began to establish himself as a DJ, playing alongside the world's best. He was also asked to play at fashion shows and launch parties for leading companies like Mercedes, Elite Model Look and the Grand Hyatt Taipei. He composed and arranged music for TV -- in particular MTV Asia's Style Awards show. Now he's moving onto the next stage, which is production.
"I'm fusing the East and West elements. I like to produce electronic music that has some Asian heritage. Much of the early house music came from the US, but the Brits injected their own sound into it, just like the New Yorkers put their Afro-Latin twist on things. And I would like Chinese house music to have its own sound."
"It's a work in progress. It's something I'm trying to get a handle on. Within a certain style of music you have certain stylistic parameters. Like, there's Afro-Cuban percussion and that seems to fit quite well within house music; but Chinese sounds and Chinese composition don't fit so easily into the structure. So, I'm looking at ways to make it fit. To make it cool actually."
As for the record contract, "I'm in the process of negotiating a deal. There are offers on the table at the moment. Taiwan is a great place to start because it has the sophistication and it still has the energy, you can start something small and people will take notice. The machine, ie record companies, isn't so `humongous,' so you don't have to be the record company product or just underground. I have to retain my artistic integrity."
"Today, being true to where you are from and your heritage is pretty important. You've got to remember who you are. I am Chinese, Taiwanese, Asian. I can imagine if I was to break into the Western market they will look at me as `the Taiwanese DJ,' or `Asian DJ.' It will be the music that convinces them to look beyond the ethnic boundaries."
Alan Hsia, the former manager of 2nd Floor and now manager of Luxy, is convinced that SL could be the first local DJ to break the glass ceiling and make it into the international market. "He is one of the few DJs who truly understands where its been, where it's at, and where it's going. His DJ skills, music production skill, talent, looks, sense of style, dedication, passion, great personality and charisma ... SL has it all."
DJ SL will be playing tomorrow at the Kenting Summer Festival, from 11pm to 1am, at the Dajien Mountain camp site area (大尖山露營區) in Kenting.
May 26 to June 1 When the Qing Dynasty first took control over many parts of Taiwan in 1684, it roughly continued the Kingdom of Tungning’s administrative borders (see below), setting up one prefecture and three counties. The actual area of control covered today’s Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung. The administrative center was in Taiwan Prefecture, in today’s Tainan. But as Han settlement expanded and due to rebellions and other international incidents, the administrative units became more complex. By the time Taiwan became a province of the Qing in 1887, there were three prefectures, eleven counties, three subprefectures and one directly-administered prefecture, with
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
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.
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
RSS