Late afternoon rains didn't spoil MTV's Taipei Music Festival Saturday night, but MTV's VJs almost did. Deployed to hype a crowd estimated between 60,000 and 80,000, the best Katherine Wang (
Having already spent several minutes chanting Stanley Huang's (
PHOTO: AP
Huang was understandably reluctant to take the stage following an opening salvo fired by Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne. She played the five songs she was scheduled to sing, accepted an "award" designed to give various local figureheads photo time with the young superstar -- in this case Taipei City Deputy Mayor Yeh Jin-chuan (
PHOTO: AP
Not surprisingly, the media besieged Lavigne's every move during her stay in Taiwan. They met her at the airport Thursday night, followed her to Snake Alley night market that night, then met her officially at a Friday afternoon press conference where she wowed them.
She performed a two-song acoustic set with the help of one of the members of her band and showed that she's much more than just her mascara. Though provided a microphone, she didn't need one. Her voice was heard clearly even in the back of the Grand Formosa ballroom where the press conference was held. She was given an award -- surprise! -- and sat to answer some hard-hitting questions from Taiwan's media: Did she like Chinese food? Had she ever heard of spicy hot pot and would she be interested in trying it? Was she really as cool as she seemed, or was it just an act? Answers: "Sure," "No, so, dunno," and "Hunh?"
No wonder that by the time she took the stage Saturday night, she looked ready to get out of Taipei. Her face had a pinched expression, as if she'd maybe left something in her hotel room. Or it might have been the look of someone who'd just tried spicy hot pot for the first time.
But by all accounts, her Saturday night show and her press conference went off better than anyone else's. Japan's Naohito Fujiki (
Likewise, no one understood what South Korean soap-opera-star-cum-pop-singer, Rain, was crooning about, but he was at least much better looking than Fujiki and didn't demand to be addressed in a certain way. He garnered screams from the tens of thousands of 13-year-old girls in the crowd, then had to head home early to shoot his soap opera.
For the local acts, Jay Chou (
At the end of it all, more than 15 performers (a few of them musicians) played for three hours in what MTV billed as the "biggest music event this summer in Taipei." If that sounds a bit like MTV preening its pop plumage, it is. The growing success of both the Formoz and HoHaiYan festivals have ruffled feathers at the network and they seem eager to remind everyone that they're the "world's most valuable media brand."
Maybe next year they can have Katherine Wang chant that between sets. "All together now: World's most valuable media brand! World's most valuable media brand!"
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
Dec. 30 to Jan. 5 Premiering on Jan. 4, 1956, Xue Pinggui and Wang Baochuan (薛平貴與王寶釧) unexpectedly packed theaters for the next 27 days. Taiwan’s first 35mm Hoklo-language (commonly known as Taiwanese) movie beat out the top Hollywood blockbuster, Land of the Pharaohs, and the Mandarin-language Peach Blossom River (桃花江) in box office sales, kicking off a craze that lasted until around 1970. More than 800 Hoklo-language films were made despite government attempts to promote Mandarin. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) owned the nation’s three major production houses, mostly creating Mandarin films filled with anti-communist messages and patriotic propaganda. But most
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
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
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