Was Jesus a real person? How did Taoism influence Chinese landscape painting during the Tang and Song dynasties? Can we control the climate?
These questions are among the hodgepodge of topics that have been covered by Taipei Discussion and Learning, a group that meets every Sunday night at Cafe Bastille on Wenzhou Street (溫州街) to hear lectures and then engage in question-and-answer sessions.
Taipei Discussion and Learning’s events are free and open to all, and speeches are given by experts and non-experts, none of whom are paid.
Photo Courtesy of Taipei Discussion and Learning
Anyone can give a talk, provided that they come up with a written 200 to 300-word abstract, fill out an application, and show that they have material for a 30-minute presentation, says organizer and cofounder Ethan Kegley.
“We’re totally open,” he said. The group lists philosophy, science, anthropology, globalization, alternative medicine and political issues as its main interests, but any topic is fair game, Kegley says, as long as the speaker is not trying to “sell something” or proselytize about religion.
The event grew out of weekly meetings in a Taipei park between Kegley and Taipei Discussion and Learning cofounder Aleksandar Stamatov, a Macedonian expat. The two friends would get together to drink beer purchased at one of the convenience stores across the street and talk about philosophy — Stamatov is a doctorate student in Chinese philosophy at National Central University in Jhongli (中壢).
Kegley, an English teaching expat from the US, says that he kept “bothering” Stamatov with questions about philosophy as well as his own interest in science, and Stamatov says he decided it would be nice to make their conversations more “official” by forming Taipei Discussion and Learning.
Anywhere from a dozen to 25 people have been showing up at the weekly meetings since they began two years ago, according to Kegley.
Though the atmosphere is casual — the meetings are similar to a small college seminar — the event has a fixed format. The speaker gives a 30-minute talk, and then takes questions from the audience in another 30-minute session, which is led by a moderator. So far, most talks have been in English, but Kegley is hoping to eventually have more speeches given in Mandarin.
There is some crossover between the subjects discussed at Taipei Discussion and Learning meetings and the popular online TED Talks lecture series, which Kegley cites as one of his inspirations.
Taipei Discussion and Learning is decidedly “not professional” in contrast to TED, Kegley says. Indeed, the group’s speeches, judging from those posted online on its YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/taipeiforum#p/a), lack the pizzazz of TED presentations. Some speeches have the seriousness and substance of an academic lecture, while others are amateurish. But for the organizers of Taipei Discussion and Learning, what matters most is enthusiasm.
“I want people to come away with a
hunger for more information and I want them to [be inspired to] give a speech themselves,” Kegley said.
This week’s edition is titled Pseudo-Science, Scientific Denialism and Skepticism. Further information can be found on Taipei Discussion and Learning’s blog.
March 10 to March 16 Although it failed to become popular, March of the Black Cats (烏貓進行曲) was the first Taiwanese record to have “pop song” printed on the label. Released in March 1929 under Eagle Records, a subsidiary of the Japanese-owned Columbia Records, the Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) lyrics followed the traditional seven characters per verse of Taiwanese opera, but the instrumentation was Western, performed by Eagle’s in-house orchestra. The singer was entertainer Chiu-chan (秋蟾). In fact, a cover of a Xiamen folk song by Chiu-chan released around the same time, Plum Widow Missing Her Husband (雪梅思君), enjoyed more
Last week Elbridge Colby, US President Donald Trump’s nominee for under secretary of defense for policy, a key advisory position, said in his Senate confirmation hearing that Taiwan defense spending should be 10 percent of GDP “at least something in that ballpark, really focused on their defense.” He added: “So we need to properly incentivize them.” Much commentary focused on the 10 percent figure, and rightly so. Colby is not wrong in one respect — Taiwan does need to spend more. But the steady escalation in the proportion of GDP from 3 percent to 5 percent to 10 percent that advocates
From insomniacs to party-goers, doting couples, tired paramedics and Johannesburg’s golden youth, The Pantry, a petrol station doubling as a gourmet deli, has become unmissable on the nightlife scene of South Africa’s biggest city. Open 24 hours a day, the establishment which opened three years ago is a haven for revelers looking for a midnight snack to sober up after the bars and nightclubs close at 2am or 5am. “Believe me, we see it all here,” sighs a cashier. Before the curtains open on Johannesburg’s infamous party scene, the evening gets off to a gentle start. On a Friday at around 6pm,
A series of dramatic news items dropped last month that shed light on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attitudes towards three candidates for last year’s presidential election: Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), Terry Gou (郭台銘), founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It also revealed deep blue support for Ko and Gou from inside the KMT, how they interacted with the CCP and alleged election interference involving NT$100 million (US$3.05 million) or more raised by the
RSS