Arts and Culture

Review: Path Of Destiny (不得不上路)

Brian Hioe
Yang Chun-Kai's “Path of Destiny” would be a deft evocation of the challenges facing preservation of indigenous tradition in Taiwan. Namely, even in those rare cases in which young people actively aim to participate in traditions which may soon be lost, the trend may be irreversible. And given inescapable social tensions between modernity and tradition, adherence to tradition demands great personal sacrifice.... Read More
Arts and CultureEnglishFilm and TelevisionSeptember 20170 Comments 05 min read

Continued Debates Over The Role Of Classical Chinese In Taiwan

Brian Hioe
The defeat of a recent push by language and literature scholars to reform the teaching of Chinese in Taiwan has had surprising implications. Namely, despite the defeat of a push by the Association for Taiwan Literature to reduce the amount of classical Chinese currently taught in Taiwanese, this drew comment from high-ranking Chinese government officials including An Fengshan of the Taiwan Affairs Office. It seems, then, that the debate over the teaching of classical Chinese in Taiwan has become significant enough to draw attention from China... Read More
Arts and CultureEnglishLiterature and PoetrySeptember 20170 Comments 06 min read

Recent Debates About Teaching Of Classical Chinese In Taiwan

Brian Hioe
A recent statement by the Association for Taiwan Literature calling on the Ministry of Education to change the education curriculum in Taiwan to focus less on traditional Chinese classics and instead to draw on materials more suitable to contemporary Taiwan is the end result of a series of debates in past months about differences between Taiwanese and Chinese literature, as well as language learning in Taiwan... Read More
Arts and CultureAugust 2017EnglishLiterature and Poetry0 Comments 08 min read

文化與政治無關？你所不知道的日本時代台灣唱片業

詹斯閔
2017 年初，剛上市就紅遍世界的電腦遊戲《返校》選用《月夜愁》、《望春風》等台語歌曲作配樂。2017 年，金曲獎最佳台語男歌手由台南歌手謝銘祐奪得，他在專輯《舊年》裡也大量運用日本時代台語流行歌元素。究竟日本時代的台語流行歌藏有什麼瑰寶，值得一提再提？... Read More
Arts and CultureJuly 2017Music中文0 Comments 01 min read

Review: Small Talk (日常對話)

Brian Hioe
Small Talk, directed by Huang Hui-Chen, is in many ways a remarkable film, but it is also an incredibly unsettling one. Small Talk is a highly personal film, as a documentary detailing Huang’s relation with her mother, Ah-Nu. In particular, Huang’s relation with her mother, who works as a Daoist priestess, is troubled because of Ah-Nu’s emotional distance, as well as that Ah-Nu, a lesbian, had two daughters from an abusive marriage... Read More
Arts and CultureEnglishFilm and TelevisionMay 20170 Comments 06 min read