To her Taiwanese fans, Misia (米希亞) is best known for her singles It's Just Love, which is a Shiseido commercial theme tune and Everything, the theme song for a Japanese TV drama. She is one of few Japanese pop stars who has never performed on a TV show. In spite of this, she remains popular.
With seven studio albums under her belt, Misia has established herself as a live performing artist. Misia's live performances are better than her albums. In 2004, she became the first female singer to tour all five major stadiums of Japan. Now, The Tour of Misia 2007: Ascension, Misia's first oversees tour, is coming to Taiwan.
Best described as a combination of Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys, this R 'n' B diva is a rarity. With a not-so-camera-friendly face in a country where packaging is everything, Misia has climbed to the top of Japan's pop market with her powerful voice and a vocal range that sets her apart from most of her flashy peers.
PHOTO: BROKERS BROTHERS HAROLD
A talented singer, songwriter and pianist, Misia debuted in the Japanese pop scene with her first single Tsutsumi Komu Yo ni (深情包圍) in 1998, which peaked at 11 on the Oricon singles charts. Her first album, Mother Father Brother Sister, won her the Best Pop Album of the Year at the Nihon Gold Disc Awards and firmly established her as one of Japan's top musicians Japan.
Taiwan’s English education system is being pulled apart by three opposing forces. Bilingual Nation 2030 pulls students toward English and global communication. Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness pulls them toward digital judgment, verification and AI-mediated work. But Taiwan’s old exam culture pulls them back toward memorization, grammar drills, timed reading and correct answers. If the education system keeps using old exams to define success, it risks producing graduates who are neither genuinely bilingual nor genuinely AI-ready, but trained for tasks machines can already perform. The first force is Bilingual Nation 2030. Launched in 2018, the policy aimed to “help Taiwan’s workforce connect
It seems every few days one bumps into one of those “real man” comments in which Taiwan is urged to “face reality” or similar, and “make a deal,” with the speaker implying that soon it will be too late. “Deal” advocates always present themselves as having a superior grip on reality, and the manly ability to make the “hard choice.” Their testosterone-laden language often echoes that of Taiwan sellout advocates. Note that such commentary always specifies a process (“make a deal, work with, make progress”), never the end state of what occupation by a violent authoritarian colonialist state will entail. In
There are shadowy cabals plotting to sell out Taiwan to be annexed by China, by invasion if necessary. Fortunately, they are buffoons. In 2019, former Bamboo Union gangster and founder of the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), Chang An-le (張安樂, colorfully known as “White Wolf”), led a protest at the Legislative Yuan against comments made by then-premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) that in the event of an attack by China, he would never surrender, but would protect the nation by fighting to the end, even if he only had a broom. Chang had party members bring a wooden casket that they
June 1 to June 7 "If all Taiwanese were as afraid of dying as you, then what would happen?” Physician Shih Chiang-nan (施江南) reportedly said this to his wife Chen Chiao-tung (陳焦桐) after she urged him to stop intervening on behalf of Taiwanese soldiers stranded overseas after serving in the Japanese Army during World War II. Shih had clashed with high-ranking officials over the issue, engaged in several heated arguments with Taiwan governor-general Chen Yi (陳儀) and allegedly shouted at general Ko Yuan-fen (柯遠芬), chief of staff of the Taiwan Garrison Command, over