Pop singer A-mei (阿妹), who gave a free concert in Taipei on Sunday to show her support for same-sex marriage and other gay rights, said she believes all forms of love should be respected.
“Some people might resist this idea out of a lack of understanding. We can use this [concert] as an opportunity to help people gradually understand,” A-mei told reporters before the show.
“Love and music can block out a lot of unnecessary things,” the 41-year-old Aborigine singer said. “No matter what we think, when we stand here listening to music together, being moved, calling out or swaying with people we don’t know, we are on some level affected.”
Photo: Wang Wen-lin, Taipei Times
Close to 20,000 fans flocked to the free outdoor concert at Huashan 1914 Creative Park, despite the cold and wet weather.
The star performed more than 20 songs for her fans, many of whom held rainbow flags, a symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
The cost of the concert, estimated at about NT$3 million (US$100,149), was covered by A-mei herself, her agent said.
Thousands of fans left messages of appreciation on the Sina Weibo microblogging site and the singer’s Facebook page after the concert.
“Thank you A-mei and a team filled with love. A moving night. We all cried!” wrote Nelson Chen, a Taiwanese man who with his partner fought a court case last year for the legal recognition of his same-sex marriage.
A-mei’s concert came as the same-sex marriage debate has heightened.
A draft bill to legalize same-sex marriage and allow married gay couples to adopt children cleared its first reading in the legislature in October.
However, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Taipei to protest the bill last month.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS