The Yellow Crane Tower (黃鶴樓) of Wuhan, in China's Hubei Province, is the stuff of legend. First built during the Three Kingdoms (三國) period, over the centuries poets have waxed philosophical about it, architects have pondered its various styles, and historians have used it as a point of departure to discuss China's many dynasties.
Under the witty pen of Taiwanese comedian Wu Jau-nan (吳兆南), however, the Tower serves as part of a joke that a teacher is trying to convey to two dim-witted pupils. The dialogue is one of six taking place between a teacher and his students in Spring Sun Performing Arts Troupe's (春禾劇團) latest cross-talk performance called Wujiandao (吳間道), beginning tonight at Novel Hall.
Cross talk (相聲) is a style of Chinese comedy that employs complex wordplay in monologues or dialogues to mock a particular person or the preoccupations of society.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SUMMIT BRAIN NEW PRODUCTION AGENCY
With Wujiandao, Spring Sun takes aim at Taiwan's obsession with fame, money and the Chinese classics.
In one dialogue, the teacher uses the popular television series One Million Star (星光大道) as an example to teach students how to become famous. Another discusses how classical Chinese forms are used in modern writing.
Wujiandao will be performed at Novel Hall (新舞臺), 3-1 Songshou S Rd, Taipei City (台北市松壽路3-1號), today and tomorrow at 7:30pm and tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm. NT$400 to NT$1,200 tickets are available through NTCH ticketing.
Nine Taiwanese nervously stand on an observation platform at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport. It’s 9:20am on March 27, 1968, and they are awaiting the arrival of Liu Wen-ching (柳文卿), who is about to be deported back to Taiwan where he faces possible execution for his independence activities. As he is removed from a minibus, a tenth activist, Dai Tian-chao (戴天昭), jumps out of his hiding place and attacks the immigration officials — the nine other activists in tow — while urging Liu to make a run for it. But he’s pinned to the ground. Amid the commotion, Liu tries to
The slashing of the government’s proposed budget by the two China-aligned parties in the legislature, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), has apparently resulted in blowback from the US. On the recent junket to US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, KMT legislators reported that they were confronted by US officials and congressmen angered at the cuts to the defense budget. The United Daily News (UDN), the longtime KMT party paper, now KMT-aligned media, responded to US anger by blaming the foreign media. Its regular column, the Cold Eye Collection (冷眼集), attacked the international media last month in
A pig’s head sits atop a shelf, tufts of blonde hair sprouting from its taut scalp. Opposite, its chalky, wrinkled heart glows red in a bubbling vat of liquid, locks of thick dark hair and teeth scattered below. A giant screen shows the pig draped in a hospital gown. Is it dead? A surgeon inserts human teeth implants, then hair implants — beautifying the horrifyingly human-like animal. Chang Chen-shen (張辰申) calls Incarnation Project: Deviation Lovers “a satirical self-criticism, a critique on the fact that throughout our lives we’ve been instilled with ideas and things that don’t belong to us.” Chang
Feb. 10 to Feb. 16 More than three decades after penning the iconic High Green Mountains (高山青), a frail Teng Yu-ping (鄧禹平) finally visited the verdant peaks and blue streams of Alishan described in the lyrics. Often mistaken as an indigenous folk song, it was actually created in 1949 by Chinese filmmakers while shooting a scene for the movie Happenings in Alishan (阿里山風雲) in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), recounts director Chang Ying (張英) in the 1999 book, Chang Ying’s Contributions to Taiwanese Cinema and Theater (打鑼三響包得行: 張英對台灣影劇的貢獻). The team was meant to return to China after filming, but
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