Following the three, three-night raves, the one, four-day concert and the other assorted parties of April's Spring Scream weekend, one disillusioned party-goer lamented the condition of Kenting, noting how the southern beach town had been completely "raped by the plastic ravers and English-teacher-wanna-be-rock-stars."
Next weekend, a group of well-meaning and perhaps overly optimistic party organizers, DJs and electronica scene adjuncts hopes to repair some of the damage to Taiwan's southern peninsula with a special event called The Planting. Taking place next Saturday and Sunday on the Wang Shih Farm (
The event itself is almost set up like a weekend conference for rave industry insiders, with seminars, speeches, activities and of course a gala party. The "party" site will be divided into a main dance area and a subordinate chill-out zone. But the P.A. system of the main area will be used for both DJs and a line-up of speakers on environmental issues, who will deliver their various messages over subtle background beats.
One of the key issues to be addressed is noise pollution. Organizers claim that noise pollution, not drugs, is the reason about half of all parties in Taiwan run into trouble with the police. The environment is another major area of concern.
So far, The Planting has already been able to garner support from a few mainstream environmental groups, including T.J. Wu of the Green Formosa Front and Dr Niven Huang (
Of the 34 others who had bought trees by yesterday, DJs David Jr (Rock Candy), King, Fish, Monbaza, Hsiao Y (
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JIMMIE WING
The trees themselves are of the species terminalia catappa, better known as the tropical almond (
But more than just big leafy things, these tropical almond trees will also serve as tickets to the party -- in sapling form. They cost NT$500 in advance, or NT$800 at the door.
According to the party schedule, they will all be planted on the Wang Shih farm at around dawn Sunday morning. Those unable to attend the party can still buy trees, and following The Planting, digital photos of the saplings freshly rooted in the soil and bearing a placard with the donor's name will be e-mailed to them.
But will all this actually do any good? In contrast to the gushing optimism professed by most associated with The Planting, one source close to the event was still skeptical of all the dreamy intentions. He said: "Nobody's really certain if the discussions are just going to be a few people sitting around on the grass and talking ? [the entire event] might just be a bunch of ravers trying to ease their consciences."
So as they'd say on Rocky and Bullwinkle: Be sure to join us next week for "Trancers to tree-huggers," or "Bungle in the Jungle."
More information on The Planting, including where to buy advanced tickets and location and information is available on the Internet by visiting http://home.kimo.com.tw/the_planting/index.html.
June 24 to June 30 A curious article titled “Taiwan’s earliest UFO photo taken 29 years ago?” appeared in the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) on May 5, 1996. “That flying saucer was multi-colored,” read the pull quote. The black-and-white photo in question was taken in Taipei by Tsai Chang-hung (蔡章鴻) on June 28, 1967, but he says he never publicized it because he wasn’t sure what it was and worried about being ridiculed. With the establishment of the Taiwan Ufology Society (TUFOS, 台灣飛碟學會) in 1993 and increased reported sightings in the mid-1990s, Tsai felt that it was finally
Two news items over the past few days got only limited traction in the news media either locally or internationally, but to long-time Taiwan observers both were attention-grabbing. Connecting the dots, I came to the conclusion that though seemingly unrelated, the two very much are and signal a sharp escalation of a diplomatic war between China and a group of American-led nations over the status of Taiwan that has been building in intensity for some time now. Though there is a chance that the surfacing of a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 094 Jin class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine
The latest round of escalation by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in its conflict with the Philippines illuminates its plans for its numerous other territorial claims. Swallowing most of the South China Sea, annexing more than a tenth of Bhutan, grayzoning the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, these activities differ only in the specifics of their methods, the major factor being the presence or absence of the US. The US factor is the least predictable. The violence against Filipino vessels resupplying a Filipino ship in a Philippines EEZ, which surely must constitute piracy on the
President William Lai (賴清德) campaigned on continuity with the two terms of his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). In government, he has kept his word, and has continued her policies and picked some familiar faces from the Tsai administration to be in the new cabinet. While he may be carefully preserving her legacy in government, he has taken a torch to one of her key legacies inside the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that could potentially destabilize the party. In the previous two columns we looked at how individually, Lai’s cabinet picks are mostly worthy people. However, when looked at in aggregate,