Taiwanese pop diva Jody Chiang (江蕙) yesterday apologized to her legions of fans for the ticketing fiasco surrounding her final live performances, and said that she planned to add 10 more dates to the original 16 farewell concerts.
“I have heard the thousands of voices expressing anger and dissatisfaction. I’m so sorry, and I make a bowing apology to everyone here,” Chiang wrote on her Web site.
Chen Tzu-hung (陳子鴻), Chiang’s agent, announced yesterday that all 160,000 tickets for the 16 concerts had sold out
Photo courtesy of Kuang Hong Arts Management
In order to satisfy overwhelming demand, Chen said 10 more concert dates are planned.
“We are set to make new ticketing arrangements, and these will not be sold by Kuang Hong Arts Management,” Chen said.
Each ticket for the original concerts is priced at NT$6,800, however scalpers are selling them for 10 times the price and even higher on the black market, according to media reports.
Affectionately called, “Second Sister (二姊)” by her fans, Chiang, who has released 60 albums and won 11 Golden Melody Awards, announced last Friday that she would end her four-decade-long singing career with 16 farewell concerts to be held from July to September, 12 of which are set to be held in Taipei and four in Greater Kaohsiung.
The news resulted in a wild scramble by fans for the tickets.
Kuang Hong has been the main target of anger after its Kham Ticket online sale system which repeatedly crashed, frustrating fans. Fans have also been enraged by waiting in lines, some for up to three days, and still being unable to obtain tickets.
On the first day of ticket sales on Monday, about 350,000 people tried to log onto the Kham Ticket Web site to try and buy tickets, causing the system to crash and leaving stores without a connection. The demand was described as “unprecedented.”
News of the chaos has been detailed in press headlines and on television screens this week, as the waiting crowds in front of Kuang Hong’s building fought and shouted at each other, and the situation nearly degenerated into a riot on several occasions.
Police had to keep order, with the Department of Consumer Protection and other government agencies promising to crack down on scalpers.
The National Police Agency issued a press statement yesterday to announce the opening of investigations into illegal ticket touts, warning people not to buy tickets through unauthorized platforms, as more than 20 people have been cheated by fraudulent scalpers.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture on Wednesday night said that it had instructed the governments of Taipei and Greater Kaohsiung to handle the controversy in accordance with the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法), adding that it would hold discussions with ticket sellers as it considers establishing a related mechanism to address the controversy.
Additional reporting by Abraham Gerber
Unlike most countries, Taiwan cannot use its country’s own name to compete in the Olympic Games or other major international sports events. Instead, it participates under the name “Chinese Taipei,” a name that causes confusion and sparks curiosity among many people, including an American director who explored the topic in his new documentary. Garret Clarke, the director of the 20-minute documentary What’s in a Name? A Chinese Taipei Story, said in an recent media interview said that he was motivated to make the documentary because he finds the name “Chinese Taipei” to be “weird.” The dispute that eventually created the name dates back
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to
The trailer of a new TV series portraying a Chinese attack on Taiwan has prompted a wave of emotional response and discussion in the nation. The teaser for Zero Day (零日攻擊), a Taiwanese production partly funded by the government and is expected to air next year, has given many viewers a sense of urgency. Its release this week coincided with annual air raid drills to prepare the nation’s 23 million residents in the event of an invasion by the Chinese military. “I burst into tears watching this. I feel heavy-hearted, and it is scary. However, this is what we need to face