Thanks to the Internet, establishing a fan club has become a fashionable way of worshipping a foreign idol in Taiwan -- and the number of online fan clubs keeps increasing.
Take Taiwan's Yahoo! Kimo Web site (http://tw.club.yahoo.com),for example. A total of 13,110 fan clubs for foreign idols are listed. The most popular ones among adults are those for pop divas such as Madonna, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Janet Jackson. The younger generation has set up fan clubs for Avril Lavigne and other teen heros. An Eminem club has more than 5,652 Taiwanese members.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BMG MUSIC ITD
"Mariah's voice is so beautiful. That's why I love her so much. Taiwan's singers just can't compete with her," said A-lun (
"I first established MCTW.com (http://www.mctw.com) because there was no Taiwanese Web site about Mariah Carey in the past. Due to its limited budget and manpower, the record company did not want to do it either. So I set up the fan club by myself," A-lun said.
It costs him NT$500 a month, plus a lot of time, to maintain the club. But the 29-year-old says it's worth it because he can introduce his favorite singer to other Taiwanese people.
People may think that hero worship is just a game for teenagers. But in fact, many of these club members are currently in their 20s and 30s and have grown up with their idols' music.
"My motive was quite simple: I love Whitney, and I love Web site design. So I tried to combine them together," said Bryan Huang (
His club was founded over eight years ago by a group of enthusiasts. They started holding parties at a KTV or teahouse about twice a year during the summer and winter vacations and then developed the Web site.
"The best thing is meeting a lot of great people and sharing our passion for foreign music," said the 24-year-old club chairman Huang.
His club members have very backgrounds. From high school students and university lecturers to gym instructors, coffee shop owners, and company executive managers, these people have been closely connected through worshipping their hero.
"I have made friends with people from all kinds of backgrounds [through the club]. This has broadened my life," said Huang, who will become a graduate student at New York University this fall.
He admitted, however, that there is a downside -- apart from the money he spends on the club. "I spend way too much time online chatting with other club members, which affects my life sometimes."
For diehard Houston fans, this has been a most exciting summer, as they flew to Hong Kong, Bangkok, and even Berlin to worship their "Queen" on her mini world tour.
But being a fanatic like this can be quite expensive. Five maniacs from the fan club who recently flew to Hong Kong for her concert each paid as much as NT$8,500 for a concert ticket. They also paid about NT$10,000 for the airfare and hotel for the three-day trip, plus food and other expenses.
Lee Jen-yuan (李仁淵), a 32-year-old high school teacher in Chiayi County, is another Houston fan, who has spent over NT$500,000 on memorabilia connected with the US star.
"I have been a fan since Whitney launched her career. That's why I want so many products to do with her. I collect all the versions of her each of her singles from around the world.
"Sometimes I have dozens of single CDs for the same song, all of which I hardly ever listen to," Lee said. "Is it worth it? After spending so much money, I doubt it occasionally," Lee said.
Nevertheless, some fans view such idolization as an opportunity to make some bucks. A Houston single CD from her early career can now be sold online for 10 times its original price. If it's a rare promotional-only CD, the price can go even higher.
Why choose foreign singers over local stars? Some fans said the style of Taiwanese pop stars was the same, compared with the trendy, changing and colorful promotions connected with foreign singers. They also said they were influenced by their foreign idols because they like to speak English and want study abroad.
Many critics think that fan clubs and worshipping singers is a waste of time and money. But some experts say it's not all bad, as idols can also serve as a positive influence, especially for teenagers.
"We have to choose our heros carefully. Our role models are important to us, especially to young people," said Lin Chin-tsai (
"For adults, such idolization is not a big problem, as they are able to make judgments in a more realistic way," Lin said.
"[Idolization] is perhaps a result of the growing globalization of today, as people can easily receive the newest information about popular foreign artists through the Internet," Lin said.
Stars and their fans have always coexisted, as they are necessary to each other. As to whether it is a good or a bad thing, well, most diehard fans are happy about it -- except when they receive their credit card bills.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
RSS