When student activists stormed and occupied the Legislative Yuan in March 2014, professional and amateur photographers and videographers flocked to the scene to capture what came to be known as the Sunflower movement. Among these were a small number of expats, some shooting for foreign media outlets, others covering it for personal interest. The occupation lasted for 23 days, with the students leaving voluntarily on April 10, 2014.
“Some of us were on the fringes looking in, some of us occasionally dipped in deeper, and some were right in the middle of it from the start,” says filmmaker Tobie Openshaw, who was shooting for a few news organizations.
Openshaw adds that expats provide a different angle since many were less concerned or aware of the politics involved, instead paying more attention to things like police behavior and the impressive infrastructure put together in a short time to support the protesters such as the food deliveries, charging stations, recycling and so on.
Photo courtesy of Kenny Paul
“For the most part, we were amazed, pleased and moved,” he says, especially compared to how such events turn out in their home countries.
To commemorate the 5th anniversary of the movement, Openshaw has put together a photo exhibition at the Red Room featuring his shots along with work by five other expat photographers and Jiho Chang (張之豪), who actively participated in the occupation. Chang was among the 22 activists sued by the government; the charges were later dropped. Openshaw and Chang will be giving talks at Sunday’s opening, with ample time reserved for questions and discussion.
■ Opening on Sunday from 4pm to 10pm, Red Room (紅坊國際村), 177 Jianguo S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市建國南路一段177號). Exhibition runs through June 14
■ On the Net: www.facebook.com/events/981591572230753
The canonical shot of an East Asian city is a night skyline studded with towering apartment and office buildings, bright with neon and plastic signage, a landscape of energy and modernity. Another classic image is the same city seen from above, in which identical apartment towers march across the city, spilling out over nearby geography, like stylized soldiers colonizing new territory in a board game. Densely populated dynamic conurbations of money, technological innovation and convenience, it is hard to see the cities of East Asia as what they truly are: necropolises. Why is this? The East Asian development model, with
June 16 to June 22 The following flyer appeared on the streets of Hsinchu on June 12, 1895: “Taipei has already fallen to the Japanese barbarians, who have brought great misery to our land and people. We heard that the Japanese occupiers will tax our gardens, our houses, our bodies, and even our chickens, dogs, cows and pigs. They wear their hair wild, carve their teeth, tattoo their foreheads, wear strange clothes and speak a strange language. How can we be ruled by such people?” Posted by civilian militia leader Wu Tang-hsing (吳湯興), it was a call to arms to retake
This is a deeply unsettling period in Taiwan. Uncertainties are everywhere while everyone waits for a small army of other shoes to drop on nearly every front. During challenging times, interesting political changes can happen, yet all three major political parties are beset with scandals, strife and self-inflicted wounds. As the ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is held accountable for not only the challenges to the party, but also the nation. Taiwan is geopolitically and economically under threat. Domestically, the administration is under siege by the opposition-controlled legislature and growing discontent with what opponents characterize as arrogant, autocratic
When Lisa, 20, laces into her ultra-high heels for her shift at a strip club in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, she knows that aside from dancing, she will have to comfort traumatized soldiers. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, exhausted troops are the main clientele of the Flash Dancers club in the center of the northeastern city, just 20 kilometers from Russian forces. For some customers, it provides an “escape” from the war, said Valerya Zavatska — a 25-year-old law graduate who runs the club with her mother, an ex-dancer. But many are not there just for the show. They “want to talk about what hurts,” she