Spirited drumbeats from the Middle East will come alive this month at three performances by musician Ma Chun-jen (馬?人) to promote the launch of his new book, Essential Guidebook of Rhythmic Intelligence Beyond Middle Eastern Music and Dance (中東樂舞節奏聖典).
Ma, a former war reporter, first set foot in the Middle East in the summer of 1996, at the height of the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War. He was on his way back from the battlefield one day when he heard the sounds of music and singing drifting from the Tigris River.
Journalism brought Ma back to the Middle East several more times. But amid violent conflict, it was his discovery of musical traditions that inspired a deeper engagement with the region.
Photo courtesy of Ma Chun-jen
Since 2007, Ma has traveled through Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries to study percussion. In Essential Guidebook, he translates those experiences into the first Chinese-language book about Middle Eastern musical and dance rhythms.
These rhythms are moving, complex and culturally unique. Aside from being a technical guide to musical theory and instruments such as the goblet-shaped doumbek and tar frame drum, Essential Guidebook also discusses the development of Middle Eastern musical and dance rhyhms from an anthropological perspective.
Over the next three Saturdays in Taipei, Ma will combine his book promotions with rare live performances. Tomorrow’s event is at the Art Focus Salon (新月藝文沙龍) while the event on August 17 is at Cafe Doux (敦南朵爾). Both have a registration fee of NT$100.
On August 24, Ma will join forces with French musician Alban Coueffe, who plays a lute instrument called the oud, at the Art Reading Cafe (青田藝集). The registration fee is NT$150.
■ Tomorrow, 4pm at Art Focus Salon (新月藝文沙龍), 25, Tianjin St, Taipei City (台北市天津街25號). Register at: pse.is/KRMRE
■ August 17, 4pm at Cafe Doux (敦南朵爾), 13, Lane 63, Dunhua S Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路二段63巷13號). Register at:forms.gle/rjxZ2o8Jo7HGfLtq6
■ August 24, 3pm at Art Reading Cafe (青田藝集), 4-1, Qingtian St, Taipei City (台北市青田街4-1號). Register at: reurl.cc/EAYNa
Last week I had an experience that I suspect has become quite common for foreigners living in Taiwan: talking to a Taiwanese who was an ardent fan of soon-to-be-former US President Donald Trump. As I was heading for the stairs to my apartment, my landlady stopped me, eyes alight, with an idea for what to do about storing my bike downstairs. The conversation eventually veered into politics, and for a full 35 minutes she held forth on the manifold greatness of world-savior Donald Trump. She’s neither unkind nor a fool. Pro-Taiwan, she detests former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese
Jan. 18 to Jan. 24 Viewers couldn’t believe their eyes when the Taipei First Girls’ Senior High School marching band appeared on television in 1981. None of the girls were sporting the government-mandated hairstyle for female secondary school students, which forbade their hair from going past their neck. Some even had perms. The students had been invited to perform in the US, which the government saw as an important affair since the US had severed official ties two years earlier. The idea was that sending a group of girls with the same permitted hairstyle would appear contradictory to
Benjamin Chen (陳昱安) didn’t know how intense a hackathon could be. “You literally work non-stop. You don’t eat breakfast, you don’t eat lunch because you really need to finish the product,” the 10th-grader from Taipei American School says. “You feel the adrenaline rushing… It’s refreshing, I was like a new person.” Chen became fascinated by these round-the-clock competitions to create technology or software products, and participated in 10 more before he decided to start one that focused on his twin passions of economics and technology. He says there are many hackathons that delve into social and environmental issues, but few have
The town of Baolai (寶來) is located along the Southern Cross-Island Highway in the upper reaches of Kaohsiung City. After suffering a devastating setback at the hands of Typhoon Morakot, the town’s tourism industry is finally showing signs of recovery. While the town itself has many commercial hot spring offerings for tourists, the adjacent Baolai River also has at least five different wild hot springs available to those with a more adventurous spirit. SHIDONG AND WUKENG Just before entering the town of Baolai, make two right turns to reach the bridge across the Baolai River. Immediately after crossing this bridge, there is
RSS