RUBBER & REAL DUCKS GO VIRAL IN CHINA

COMMUNISTS AND OLIGARCHS HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOR.....

GREAT TAIWAN ARTISTS

Painter Chen Cheng-po (陳澄波, 1895–1947)

Chou Tzu-chao, Yilan

Doctor (2003)--film by Chung Mong-hong (鍾孟宏)

Chen Cheng-po (1936)

Parking--("Fourth Portrait," 2010)--film by Chung Mong-hong (鍾孟宏) 

CLOUD GATE

Beautiful photo by Liu Chen-hsiang

Lin Hwai-min to Receive the 2013 American Dance Festival Lifetime Achievement Award

The American Dance Festival, one of the most prestigious institutions for modern dance in the world, announced that the 2013 Samuel H. Scripps / American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to the renowned Taiwanese choreographer, Lin Hwai-min. The award celebrates choreographers who have made distinguished contribution to modern dance.

Previous awardees include Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Trisha Brown, Pina Bausch and William Forsythe.

DARKENED SCREEN

ROGER EBERT...the passionate, sensitive writer who inspired an army of young film directors to care about cinema as art, and have the courage to make their own personal creative films, has died of cancer. He leaves a gigantic unfillable hole in non-academic serious film criticism, cinema history, and critical awareness....Roger did not inspire me to direct films - Kurosawa, Bergman, and Fellini did - and I didn't always agree with his critical opinions (who cares), but Roger was the eyes and perception that kept me making films, despite the socializing politics and cold greed of Hollywood. Every director I ever talked with, from English-speaking countries, all cited Roger as their "guiding light". He was especially caring of film students and first-time directors who had talent but had no network of support. Now we all must continue to struggle forward, without a kind mentor, but with his powerful spirit by our side.

DELICIOUS!

40 Taiwanese foods I can't live without.....

http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/eat/40-taiwanese-food-296093

My favorites are: 1 - 7 - 14 - 17 - 20 - 21 - 23 - 30.
But I love them all!
And miss them already....

ART & ILLUSTRATIONS

Artists, illustrators, filmmakers, children's book designers, advertisers, and art students: This might be interesting and useful....effective and not effective examples of book covers,
art, and film posters for "Life of Pi".

TO OUR GRADUATES

Life, as told by Lee Ang

DESERVED FILM AWARDS

Taiwan gave out awards for best student scripts and films....

Taiwan has some of the most creative filmmakers, who all need much more support from the government, society, and Taiwanese audiences.

CONGRATULATIONS,  MICHAEL WU CHIA-HSU !

http://blog.sina.com.tw/movieseeds/article.php?pbgid=122285&entryid=628764

ENGLISH DOESN'T TRANSLATE WELL

My short Facebook comment ("Fighting songs are better than funeral songs!") in full support of the "Do You Hear the People Sing" terrific anti-nuclear protest and photos (posted by 曾智偉 and many others), upset some readers....I want to explain what I really meant:

I know some / many of my comments in English are often misunderstood, because I use New York-style dark or absurd humor to twist English words, ideas, and meanings. Sometimes readers may even be hurt or angry, when I use tongue-in-cheek (indirect) or ironic humor to be FRIENDLY and caring. I apologize, seriously. I do not know Chinese, and will never know the beautiful, complex subtleties of Chinese enough to use it creatively.....My positive anti-nuclear protest march comment (above) is an example. "Fighting songs" refers to anti-nuclear protests, AND resistance to the impending take-over (economic, cultural, political, military) of democratic Taiwan by dictatorial China....."Funeral songs" refers to the memorial to Chiang Kai-shek, the losing temporary conqueror of Taiwan, where the people are protesting, AND it refers to the fact that if the Taiwan government builds (allows the building of) another nuclear power plant, there will be a tragic "accident" (human failure or corruption) in the future, and many people will die.....I'm very sorry for any misunderstandings!

1st ENGLISH TAIWAN FILM DICTIONARY-ENCYCLOPEDIA

PRO-LIFE IN THE REAL SENSE

200,000+ peaceful Taiwanese, Hakka, Aborigine, and Han protestors in the Capital city, protesting against the building of yet another nuclear power plant on the pristine Taiwan coast, on a major earthquake fault, subject to tsunamis, yearly typhoons, greed, corruption, shoddy workmanship, and guaranteed human error....near Taipei, the largest city.

Unlike China, no army or police beat them ,or fired tear gas and bullets into the crowd.

Young and old, families, students, farmers, workers, fishermen, artists, sat down in front of the President Building, listening to fiery speeches, passionate songs, pleas from the heart, and terrifying scientific facts.

Controlled Western news media covered the story minimally, with headlines reducing the nearly 1/4-Million protestors to only "Tens of Thousands."

VETERANS' HOUSING DEMOLISHED

First, young men are forced by the Warlord to fight the People's Army (which later became the Madman's Guards, then the Oligarchy's Enforcers). Then, the survivors and maimed young men are given concrete bunkers to temporarily live in for 3 generations. Now the apolitical addicted Money Launderers evict them to die, destroying their aging communities, and sentencing their neighbors to invisible extinction.....Life is certainly not fair, at all, at all.

CONSTRUCTION / DESTRUCTION

DASI....A GOOD PLACE TO LIVE

LANTERN FESTIVAL

I TOOK THE TRAIN TO PINGXI…..The first time I sent a lantern to heaven to honor my mentor, film director Kurosawa Akira…..The second time I thanked Taiwan for the peacefulness of Pingxi, Tamsui, Hsimenting, Taipei 101, the Non-Violent Transfer from a 50-Year Old Dictatorship to Democracy, Hands Across Taiwan, and the Million-Person Sit-In, instead of Hajj, the Ganges, and soccer riots,….The third time I prayed that Taiwan would have a visionary, humanistic, effective President who would not sell Taiwan to China, developers, bankers, or controlled media corporations…..

NEW 228 PEACE PARK