Romantic yet sassy, ready to boogie with fervor while staying true to her Aboriginal roots, Mando-pop star Landy Wen (溫嵐) is a one-of-a-kind songstress who delights audiences with her many musical personas.
The diva will perform at Legacy Taipei on May 12.
A member of the Atayal tribe (泰雅族) born in Hsinchu, the self-proclaimed “pop ethnic music” star incorporated Aboriginal musical elements into Landing, her newest album, which peaked at number one on both G-Music and Five-Music’s Mando-pop charts after it was released six weeks ago.
Photo Courtesy of Seed Music
Formerly known more as a fledgling singer of hits such as Rooftop (屋頂) and Fool (傻瓜), rather than for her explosive star persona, Wen’s latest album has pushed her career to a new pinnacle.
“I want to appear on stage as a female Tarzan this time,” Wen told the Taipei Times. “It will be primitive, sexy and energetic.”
The pop siren counts Beyonce and Madonna as her musical influences. Not that Wen will ditch her roots as a ballad songstress, though. For the concert, she will deliver her KTV classics, such as Rooftop and Hell Angel (地獄天使), both penned by Jay Chou, (周杰倫), and revisit electronica hits such as D.I.S.C.O. from her synth-driven album Dancing Queen (2009).
“I plan to incorporate ballads and dance and Aboriginal music into all my future albums,” she said. “They are all parts of me.”
Besides romance, dancing and ethnic pride, Wen has also added familial love to her repertoire. Her latest outing includes the track Handprint (手印), a self-composed ode to family love.
Besides music, Wen has branched out into acting by taking on roles in movies such as the recent Aboriginal epic Seediq Bale (賽德克‧巴萊).
“Acting helps me polish my emotional delivery in singing,” she said. “It elevates my performance of poignant ballads to a new level.”
Wen said that her part in Seediq Bale bolstered her confidence and encouraged her to add Aboriginal elements to Landing.
“I want to bring joy and sorrow to listeners,” she said. “I want them to relive those spontaneous emotions in their lives when they hear my songs.”
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
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
“Taiwan’s Opposition Leader Comes to US With a Message Straight Out of Beijing” read a May 31 headline in the Wall Street Journal. Top US administration officials and members of Congress almost certainly read the WSJ, and if there was a bullet point takeaway that people in Washington should absorb ahead of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chair Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) arrival in DC on June 9, that headline is it. The last few columns have discussed this very topic, and the timing is not coincidental. While those top officials likely do not read the Taipei Times, judging by the number
RSS