The young audience exclaimed when the dancers of Cal Y Canto dance group wheeled a giant goldfish kite to swoop over them, aghast with wonder. Cal Y Canto‘s performances at the New Taipei City Children’s Art Festival had created a following for themselves. Their performances between July 14 to July 20 at the Children’s Art Festival regularly gathered a crowd of youthful audience every night at 8:30pm. The dancers saw their free for all performances for children as a way to “recover the public space"...
As the judge announced, "America's next drag superstar is - Nymphia Wind!", the room of filled with anticipation and excitement. Nymphia, wearing her iconic all-yellow outfit and high ponytail, covered her face and kneeled down dramatically, overwhelmed by her victory. Born in the United State and raised in Taiwan, Nymphia, otherwise known as Leo Tsao, developed a passion for making clothes and dressing up as a teenager. She transformed her teenage enthusiasm into a thriving career and made history for queer people in Asia by becoming the first drag queen of East Asian heritage to win RuPaul's Drag Race. Her victory sparked discussions about Taiwanese drag culture, LGBTQ+ rights, and Asian representation across the globe. This article explores how Nymphia evokes the exoticized fascination of Asia in the Global North through her performances and recodes this fascination into tools that empower queer people in Asia...
The aesthetics of presidential inaugurations often reflect the image that incoming presidential administrations hope to convey, with regard to everything from performances to the meals eaten at the presidential banquet. This was the case with the Lai inauguration today, as could be seen from the performances that preceded the inauguration...
With Taiwan continuing to thrive as a “bubble of normality” while much of the world seemingly burns around it, one unlikely group to benefit from Taiwan’s control of the coronavirus is the island’s stand-up comedians. The global comedy industry has taken a huge hit, with the majority of the world’s comedy clubs shuttered due to the pandemic...
On August 11th, New Bloom editor Brian Hioe interviewed theatre/performance maker and music composer Jaha Koo, during his visit to Taipei to perform in the Taipei Arts Festival. The following is a transcript of their conversation, which has been edited for clarity...
Leah List is one of the organizers of “Artists Bridge the Gap”, an upcoming event aimed at providing support to those affected by the current refugee crisis in the Middle East...
