4 posts tagged “taiwan”
Taiwan's public television station has a gripping new drama called 危險心靈, or Dangerous Minds. Not up to the standards of the Michelle Pfeiffer movie or even the American television drama, in Taiwan's crowded field of melodramas it shines. What makes this show special is the caliber of the acting and the subject matter. The story centers on a ninth grader (final year of jr. high)who falls afoul of a pigheaded instructor and is then forced to transfer to a different homeroom (a huge deal in Taiwan). If you can read Mandarin you can learn more here. The tv series is adapted from a popular novel (a brief description from that page):
一個十五歲國中生奮勇面對人生的第一場大挑戰。
如果可以的話，小傑很希望一開始他沒有在導師的數學課看漫畫。就因為看漫畫，他被罰坐在教室外，而隨後一連串意想不到的吵鬧、對質、抗議……也愈演愈烈，就像連鎖反應般停也停不下來。但當時，他一點都不知道那只是災難的開始……
(rough translation: a 15 year old jr. high student fearlessly faces life's first big battle Xiao Jie wishes he never had read a comic book in his homeroom teacher's math class; he did, he was punished, and unimaginable consequences followed: chaos, protest......but at the time he had no idea of the catastrophe in store for him)description here.
No, not the band. Though they certainly deserve a blog post (or two). Another (!) typhoon is going to his Taiwan, the second in as many weeks. Forget about buying vegetables anytime soon. Prices will double or triple after this. If you live south of Xinzu then no school or work. If you live in Taipei (like me) then you get the torrential rain (mmm, torrents) minus the chance to watch it from home. Global warming? Nah, just a coinky-dink.
Reading the English language newspapers here is a bit of an effort. They almost never cover any of the local news if it puts Taiwan in a bad light. And with the amount of sleaze and corruption in the government here (both local and national), that means that a lot remains unreported. There was a fairly shocking case a few weeks ago that was being run over and over on the local nightly news. Even the Taiwanese version of Fox News (TVBS news) was covering it. Nothing in the English papers. I picked up a tabloid (lots of those available here) and scanned it for the meat of the story. To my surprise, I could read about ninety percent of the story. Guess you pick up what you need to when living in a foreign culture.
