The taike (台客) brigade was out in force at last weekend's TK Rock Concert (2007台客搖滾嘉年華) in Taichung as local popsters, rappers and rockers vied for a piece of grassroots vogue. Despite intermittent showers, a crowd of around 30,000 bopped to Aboriginal diva A-mei (阿妹) who demonstrated a taike square dance (方塊舞), Bobby Chen (陳昇), who wore a boy-scout outfit and The Chairman (董事長樂團) who were accompanied by the divine dancing Eight Generals (八家將).
Hailed as taike ambassadors, foul-mouth rapper duo MC Hotdog and Chang Chen-yue (張震嶽) won rounds of applause with their obscene version of Chairman Chou's (周董) lyrics. Indie outfit Soda Green (蘇打綠) were on top form after having garnered seven nominations for this year's Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎), scheduled to take place next month.
Outside the main stage, poll-dancing girls fired up the dampened taike crowd with their exposed buttocks and tricks that included rubbing their mammalian protuberances on a male audience member's face. Not before long, the slightly X-rated show caught the attention of local police who issued a warning against the indecent public acts. The resourceful girls upped the ante with a three-way wrestling bout. A happy ending for everyone, except, perhaps, taimei feminists, if that's not an oxymoron, and taike gays.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Whereas the festival embraced a Taiwanese identity loudly and proudly, local girl outfit S.H.E and their record company HIM (華研唱片) were labeled turncoats by our sister paper Liberty Times (自由時報) as their new song Mandarin (中國話) lavishes praise on the Chinese. The company struck back by denying the paper's reporters access to the band's press conferences.
A media war soon broke out when the Apple Daily (蘋果日報) trumpeted its pro-Mandarin opinions while the Liberty Times circulated an online adaptation of the song called Taiwanese (台灣話).
Nationalism was the last thing on VIP shoppers' minds last Friday at the Breeze Center's (微風廣場) exclusive shop-till-you-drop evening that excludes ordinary members of the public. Thousands of honored clients and their platinum credit cards were invited. Starlets and models strutted through the mall and within six hours, NT$260 million had been spent. How the other half lives.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Chinese-language media have been speculating on the possibility of a rekindled romance between old flames Maggie Cheung (張曼玉) and her rumored former lover Tony Leung (梁朝偉) as the pair was spotted dinning together in Hong Kong last week. Obviously having dinner together, in the eyes of the Chinese-language media can never be an innocent affair. Returning to her hometown to attend a local bank's celebration feast as an honored guest, the star tried to dodge questions about the supposed love square between Leung, Carina Lau (劉嘉玲), Terry Gou (郭台銘) and Leung. She decided to play dumb when asked about the dinner date by reporters.
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
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