The 20th Golden Melody Awards’ (金曲獎) ceremony handed out honors in artistic and traditional music categories at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館) on June 6 with 72 works selected from 1,508 entries competing in 14 categories.
One of the surprise winners was sax player Tung Shun-wen (董舜文). The first-time nominee beat veterans Matthew Lien and Gerald Shih (史擷詠) to pick up the Best Arrangement Award for his jazz album One Day (歡日記).
First-time winner Li Ching-fang (李靜芳) welled up when her independently produced Taiwanese opera album was announced as the Best Traditional Opera Album Award.
Highly esteemed for his modern compositions, composer and educator Lu Yan (盧炎), who died of cancer last year aged 78, was honored for his contribution to Moving Sound (聲動), produced by Music Forum (十方樂集). A compilation of works by contemporary composers in Taiwan, the album was also awarded top honors in the Best Classical Album category.
With seven accomplished musicians and music groups vying for the award, the hotly contested Best Performance gong went to guzheng (古箏) player Ren Jie (任潔). China’s renowned kunqu (崑曲) artist Wen Yu-hang (溫宇航) received the Best Traditional Interpretation Award, while Taiwanese erhu (二胡) player Mia Wang (王明華) took home the Best Crossover Music Album Award for her mold-breaking renditions of jazz numbers.
The Lifetime Contribution Award went to Wu Jau-nan (吳兆南), the revered maestro of Chinese stand-up comedy, or cross talk (相聲), who promotes and studies the ancient folk art.
This month Taiwan received a brutal Christmas present as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) passed all three of its desired amendments, making recalls of elected officials more difficult, gutting the Constitutional Court and altering the budgetary allocations to local governments. The nation at present has no ultimate authority to determine the constitutionality of government actions, and the local governments, largely controlled by the KMT, have much greater funding. We are staring into an abyss of chaos. The amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法), if they become law (as of this writing President William Lai
When the weather is too cold to enjoy the white beaches and blue waters of Pingtung County’s Kenting (墾丁), it’s the perfect time to head up into the hills and enjoy a different part of the national park. In the highlands above the bustling beach resorts, a simple set of trails treats visitors to lush forest, rocky peaks, billowing grassland and a spectacular bird’s-eye view of the coast. The rolling hills beyond Hengchun Township (恆春) in Pingtung County offer a two-hour through-hike of sweeping views from the mighty peak of Dajianshih Mountain (大尖石山) to Eluanbi Lighthouse (鵝鑾鼻燈塔) on the coast, or
Charges have formally been brought in Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) bribery, corruption and embezzling of campaign funds cases. Ko was briefly released on bail by the Taipei District Court on Friday, but the High Court on Sunday reversed the decision. Then, the Taipei District Court on the same day granted him bail again. The ball is in dueling courts. While preparing for a “year ahead” column and reviewing a Formosa poll from last month, it’s clear that the TPP’s demographics are shifting, and there are some indications of where support for the party is heading. YOUNG, MALE
Something strange happened in former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) second term: She remained popular. According to My-Formosa.com polling at the time, she scored high on trustworthiness and satisfaction with her governance spiked at the beginning of her second term, then in the remaining three years stabilized into a range of the upper forties to mid-fifties. This is especially remarkable since her second term was marred by several scandals, which resulted in an electoral drubbing for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the 2022 local elections — the worst result since the party’s founding. Most politicians around the world would salivate
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