On Saturday next week, Urban Nomad Film Festival begins proceedings with a party. The lineup includes Taiwanese American DJ Mochipet on his first visit to Taiwan. Hailing from San Francisco, the glitch-hop and dubstep artist is heavily into bass and dresses like a purple dinosaur.
He’ll be joined by Taiwan’s own Funky Brothers (who perform with between eight to 10 members on stage at any given time), DJ Marcus Aurelius, and the electro-diva grrrls of Go Chic, which has toured extensively and is producing an album in Berlin with the help of Canada’s foremost electro artist Peaches.
Headlining the night is Japanese art-dance-fashionista-freaks Trippple Nippples. Think Lady Gaga triplets crossed with gross-out band Gwar, and you still aren’t even close.
Photo courtesy of Takeru Kihara
The three lead singers of the band make their own costumes, which have included rotten spaghetti and latex dresses, and rice encrusted headgear and body armor, by hand.
“The process we take while we are making the costume, etc, is the most uncolorful, sweatshop-ish part,” said band member Orea Nippple. “It’s like Third World, but we love it so I guess we can’t complain.”
The group’s wild stage antics and messy costumes have had them kicked out of various venues. “You should think about how you could mess us up rather than worrying about how you can get away from getting messed up,” warned Yuka Nippple, who describes the group’s music as “headache and stomachache and strawberry ice cream.”
On Jan. 17, Beijing announced that it would allow residents of Shanghai and Fujian Province to visit Taiwan. The two sides are still working out the details. President William Lai (賴清德) has been promoting cross-strait tourism, perhaps to soften the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) attitudes, perhaps as a sop to international and local opinion leaders. Likely the latter, since many observers understand that the twin drivers of cross-strait tourism — the belief that Chinese tourists will bring money into Taiwan, and the belief that tourism will create better relations — are both false. CHINESE TOURISM PIPE DREAM Back in July
Could Taiwan’s democracy be at risk? There is a lot of apocalyptic commentary right now suggesting that this is the case, but it is always a conspiracy by the other guys — our side is firmly on the side of protecting democracy and always has been, unlike them! The situation is nowhere near that bleak — yet. The concern is that the power struggle between the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and their now effectively pan-blue allies the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) intensifies to the point where democratic functions start to break down. Both
Taiwan doesn’t have a lot of railways, but its network has plenty of history. The government-owned entity that last year became the Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) has been operating trains since 1891. During the 1895-1945 period of Japanese rule, the colonial government made huge investments in rail infrastructure. The northern port city of Keelung was connected to Kaohsiung in the south. New lines appeared in Pingtung, Yilan and the Hualien-Taitung region. Railway enthusiasts exploring Taiwan will find plenty to amuse themselves. Taipei will soon gain its second rail-themed museum. Elsewhere there’s a number of endearing branch lines and rolling-stock collections, some
This was not supposed to be an election year. The local media is billing it as the “2025 great recall era” (2025大罷免時代) or the “2025 great recall wave” (2025大罷免潮), with many now just shortening it to “great recall.” As of this writing the number of campaigns that have submitted the requisite one percent of eligible voters signatures in legislative districts is 51 — 35 targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus lawmakers and 16 targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The pan-green side has more as they started earlier. Many recall campaigns are billing themselves as “Winter Bluebirds” after the “Bluebird Action”
RSS