David on Formosa

Thousands of people attended a Free Tibet Concert (西藏自由音樂會) held in the Xinyi District of Taipei yesterday. When the concert began at 1:30pm under blue skies and a scorching hot sun the crowd was quite small. However, by the late afternoon the crowd swelled.

The line up of bands represented some of Taiwan’s finest indie music. From start to finish the bands were:  KoOk, Enno Cheng (鄭宜農), Shoo Band (恕樂團), Chang Jui-chuan (張睿銓), Aphasia (阿飛西雅), Panai (巴奈), Dog G (大支), Fire Ex (滅火器), ChthoniC (閃靈) and LTK Commune (濁水溪公社).

Many young people attended the concert and Freddy Lim said in a speech that he wanted to show that the youth of Taiwan have ideas and a voice. Although the concert was about Tibet, a number of other important human rights issued were mentioned by performers. There were a few flags of East Turkestan (aka Xinjiang) in the crowd and the violence and oppression there was often mentioned. Read more »

Director and stars of A Place of One’s Own at the Taipei Film Festival L to R: Jack Kao (高捷), Lou Yi-an (樓一安), Lu Chia-hsin (路嘉欣), Mo Zi-yi (莫子儀)

Seeing films at the Taipei Film Festival recaptures the excitement of going to the movies. The cinema is packed and there is a great sense of anticipation before the film begins. It is also special to know that the director and stars of the movie are in the audience too. So it was last night when I went to the screening of A Place of One’s Own (一席之地), directed by Lou Yi-an (樓一安), at the festival.

A Place of One’s Own is a movie that captures the spirit of rock and roll and all its ups and downs. The two stars are Mozi (莫子), played by Mo Zi-yi, who is struggling with his career as an independent musician and a burden of debt. His girlfriend Kasey (凱西), played by Lu Chia-hsin, has a much more successful commercial musical career. Mozi’s pride makes him refuse to use Kasey’s success as a means to boost his own career. Read more »

The Taiwan Association for Human Rights (台灣人權促進會; TAHR) and Forum Asia have released a joint statement calling on Taiwan to respect and protect freedom of assembly by dropping charges against two prominent human rights defenders and amend the Parade and Assembly Law (集會遊行法) in accordance to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The two human rights defenders are Lin Chia-fan (林佳範), President of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR), and Lee Ming-tsung (李明聰), Vice-Chairperson of Amnesty International (AI) Taiwan and assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at NTU. Lee and Lin were charged under Article 29 of the Parade and Assembly Law for their involvement in two separate protests in November 2008. Lee was involved in a sit-in outside the Executive Yuan on 6-7 November that marked the beginning of the Wild Strawberry Movement (野草莓學運). Lin led a demonstration at the Legislative Yuan on 19 November calling for amendments to the Parade and Assembly Law. Read more »

Aphasia at The Wall on 14 June 2009

Summer has well and truly arrived and it brings with it an awesome line up of summer music events. Music festivals and other special events will see several major international acts perform as well as a huge number of Taiwanese bands. The events are not just limited to Taipei either, there are also festivals in Yilan, Kaohsiung and Miaoli. I have listed the events in chronological order.

The Grass Festival (第三屆草地音樂節) is on 4-5 July at the  Daxi Elementary School in Yilan County. It has an awesome line up of Taiwan indie bands over the two days including Aphasia (阿飛西雅), LTK Commune (濁水溪公社), 88 Balaz (八十八顆芭樂籽) and Kou Chou Ching (拷秋勤).

The U-Loud Music Festival (有料音樂祭) has events in both Kaohsiung and Taipei. On 4 July it’s on at Pier 2 Arts District in Kaohsiung (高雄駁二藝術特區). The line up includes three Kaohsiung bands KoOk, Shy Kick Apple (害羞踢蘋果) and Fire Ex (滅火器) along with Clione-Index from Japan, Silverbus, Chang Jui-chuan, Orangegrass (橙草) and Sugar Plum Ferry (甜梅號).
Read more »

At the beginning of the screening of Taipei 24H (台北異想) there was an ad featuring Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin promoting Taipei City as a site for film production. Hau introduces some locations in the city before ending the ad by announcing an NT$2.5 million dollar subsidy for film makers making films in Taipei through the Taipei Film Commission.

I am not sure if there was a direct connection between the ad and Taipei 24H, which was produced by PTS (公共電視). However, Taipei 24H was also something of a showcase for Taipei as it is seen by local film makers. It also highlighted a diverse range of talents and ideas. Read more »

Austronesian Taiwan: Linguistics, History, Ethnology, Prehistory was first published in 2000 and has been out of print for past few years. A new edition of the book was published to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Shung Ye Museum and the exhibition of artifacts from Japan’s National Museum of Ethnology.

The new edition was edited by Dr David Blundell, my thesis advisor at NCCU, with assistance from Chris Anderson and the people at SMC Books. I also played a small role in the editing process.

Austronesian Taiwan is a wonderful collection of papers on the Austronesian speaking peoples of Formosa. It is a great reference for anyone who would like to learn more about the rich culture and history of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. The book gives many insights into the value of Austronesian languages and their associated cultures as  living heritage and as a cultural resource for Taiwan and the world. Read more »

The end of this semester marked my completion of the coursework requirements in the Master’s of Taiwan Studies program at NCCU (國立政治大學). The classes I took this semester were Political Development of Taiwan and International Relations of Taiwan. They were both great classes — Taiwan presents a vast amount of rich subject matter on these topics.

In International Relations I gave a presentation on “Taiwan and the Pacific Island Nations”. This topic is very worthy of further research, particularly looking at Taiwan’s relations with the Solomon Islands and the effects of China’s growing influence in the region.

On Monday I presented my thesis proposal to my thesis committee. The thesis looks at the current situation of indigenous rights in Taiwan based on a case study of the Smangus Beech Tree Incident. The proposal was passed and now I need to work hard on writing my thesis over the summer.

Although the semester is over next week there is a conference of the Society for East Asian Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association at Academia Sinica. A group of students from the Taiwan Studies program are presenting posters with the theme of “Latitude 121° East: Locality in Our Time”. My poster is titled “Indigenous Rights in Taiwan and the Smangus Case”.

The 11th Taipei Film Festival (台北電影節) is on from 26 June to 12 July. This year the film festival venues are all conveniently located in Ximending. Most screenings will be at the Shinkong Cineplex (新光影城) and Zhongshan Hall (中山堂). There are also some outdoor screenings at the Taipei Cinema Park (台北電影主題公園) and a special exhibition about director King Hu (胡金) in the Red Theatre (紅樓).

The festival’s Taipei Award acts as a showcase for Taiwanese cinema. The award has been expanded this year to include individual awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Editing. The line up for the awards starts with Yang Yang (陽陽), directed by Cheng Yu-chieh (鄭有傑). It is the first film produced under Ang Lee’s “Pushing Hands Project” and is also the opening film of the festival. I reviewed the black comedy Parking (停車) last year. The other films in the Taipei Award are Ayu (遺落的玻璃珠), A Place of One’s Own (一席之地), Finding Her (查無此人), Miao Miao (渺渺), No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti (不能沒有你), Somewhere I Have Never Travelled (帶我去遠方) and the animated film Port of Return (靠岸).

The City Voices section this year focuses on Berlin. There is also a section for films from Latin America. There are several films on the theme of deafness screening in support of the upcoming Deaflympics. They are Beyond Silence, Talentime and  Island Etude (練習曲), a 2007 Taiwanese film about a young hearing impaired man who cycles around Taiwan.

Please check the festival website for exact times and dates. Most films have Chinese and English subtitles, but check to be sure. Tickets are available through www.artsticket.com.tw or venue box offices. I will post reviews of some films in the coming weeks.