In a competition in which mainstream artists with strong sales dominated, Adia (
The best album went to newcomer Jay Chou (
Na Ying (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
In the eyes of the music industry, where money is the bottom line, the male nominees are small potatoes compared to the women. "Females have much higher recognition," said Perry Ko (
Taiwan's top seller at Tower Records in 2000 was Faye Wong (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
"The market for female singers is much, much bigger than the market for the guys," said Ko. "There's kind of a weird split. Female pop singers get both guys and girls buying their albums, but male pop singers only get women buying the records."
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
In a predictable award ceremony, in many categories, winners seemed to be selected on their record sales, with mainstream artists pushing out less famous names. A massive crowd attended the gathering, held for the first time in the event's 12-year history in Kaohsiung. The broadcasting rights for the event, which for the last three years have been held by TVBS, were taken for the first time by ETTV.
In an early surprise, Sun Yan-zi (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Occasionally lapsing into English, the Singapore native said she was "surprised," "very happy," and that she appreciated the support and friendship of the other nominees.
Sun's fame has grown rapidly over the last two years, and a career comprised of only two CDs and a string of TV commercials has been sufficient to make her a star.
The conservatism of this year's Golden Melody Awards was further revealed by Chiang Hui's (
According to Ma Nien-hsien (
Sticky Rice was praised at the beginning of the award ceremony by Kaohsiung mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) as "representing a new element in Taiwan." Despite this, the trend toward picking big names was working against the group. Last year, there had been criticism that many of the winners were relatively unknown in the mainstream, and this year judges seem to have gone out of their way to pick only those groups that have been moving CDs in the stores.
Speaking after receiving their award, Ah Hsin (
While there were good crowds attending the event, some members of the public did give voice to the idea that such mainstream festivals did not altogether reflect their musical interests. "I like Jay Chou (
Liu Chia-chang (劉家昌), one of Taiwan's most prolific writer of golden oldies, received a lifetime achievement award. As the writer of the hit In Praise of the Republic of China (中華民國頌) and other patriotic songs, he spoke about how, under the DPP government, people now tiptoe around the name "Republic of China." This caused some embarrassment for the presenter of the award, the deputy director general of the Government Information Office.
Another usually minor category was for Best Classical Music, in which category the soundtrack for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was knocked out of the competition because it was not pure classical music, according to the judges. Officials said that a new movie soundtrack category may be incorporated in next year's event.
Nov. 11 to Nov. 17 People may call Taipei a “living hell for pedestrians,” but back in the 1960s and 1970s, citizens were even discouraged from crossing major roads on foot. And there weren’t crosswalks or pedestrian signals at busy intersections. A 1978 editorial in the China Times (中國時報) reflected the government’s car-centric attitude: “Pedestrians too often risk their lives to compete with vehicles over road use instead of using an overpass. If they get hit by a car, who can they blame?” Taipei’s car traffic was growing exponentially during the 1960s, and along with it the frequency of accidents. The policy
Hourglass-shaped sex toys casually glide along a conveyor belt through an airy new store in Tokyo, the latest attempt by Japanese manufacturer Tenga to sell adult products without the shame that is often attached. At first glance it’s not even obvious that the sleek, colorful products on display are Japan’s favorite sex toys for men, but the store has drawn a stream of couples and tourists since opening this year. “Its openness surprised me,” said customer Masafumi Kawasaki, 45, “and made me a bit embarrassed that I’d had a ‘naughty’ image” of the company. I might have thought this was some kind
What first caught my eye when I entered the 921 Earthquake Museum was a yellow band running at an angle across the floor toward a pile of exposed soil. This marks the line where, in the early morning hours of Sept. 21, 1999, a massive magnitude 7.3 earthquake raised the earth over two meters along one side of the Chelungpu Fault (車籠埔斷層). The museum’s first gallery, named after this fault, takes visitors on a journey along its length, from the spot right in front of them, where the uplift is visible in the exposed soil, all the way to the farthest
The room glows vibrant pink, the floor flooded with hundreds of tiny pink marbles. As I approach the two chairs and a plush baroque sofa of matching fuchsia, what at first appears to be a scene of domestic bliss reveals itself to be anything but as gnarled metal nails and sharp spikes protrude from the cushions. An eerie cutout of a woman recoils into the armrest. This mixed-media installation captures generations of female anguish in Yun Suknam’s native South Korea, reflecting her observations and lived experience of the subjugated and serviceable housewife. The marbles are the mother’s sweat and tears,
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