Taipei Fringe Festival to be held from Aug. 19 to Sept. 3

Taipei Fringe Festival to be held from Aug. 19 to Sept. 3

2023-07-14

Taipei Fringe Festival is an annual event held at a variety of public places in Taipei. It hopes to provide performing artists with a platform to showcase their experimental works. FTV reporter Stephany Yang takes us in for a sneak peek.

They take the stage with a thrilling belly dance. The Ko Ya Wen Belly Dance troupe aims to promote Turkish belly dance in Taiwan. It will be performing at this year’s Taipei Fringe Festival.

Another performance is by Grad Leung, a Hong Kong performer.

Grad Leung
Performer
I focused on how lower classed people in many ways they have no say. It is very difficult to voice out what they want, what they need, and what they don’t want, and how they don’t want to be hollowed.My piece focuses on letting the audience to think about it. Do I live in this situation?

Stephany Yang
FTV reporter
The Taipei Fringe Festival will be held at 31 places across Taipei City. One location will be at the Taipei Performing Arts Center.

Held by the Taipei Performing Arts Center since 2018, Taipei Fringe Festival invites artists to perform in public places across Taipei. This year, 135 groups will bring 590 performances. Their stage will include train carriages at Xinbeitou Station, the 11th-floor rooftop of the Taipei Performing Arts Center, the Shintomicho Cultural Market, and the Kishu An Forest of Literature. Performances range from drama, dance, music, musicals, and circus shows.

Wang Meng-chao
Taipei Performing Arts Center
We have opened a new space this year, the 11th floor balcony of the Taipei Performing Arts Center. In this hidden secret theater, you can watch an outdoor performance under the starry sky.

The Taipei Fringe Festival will be staged at 31 spaces across Taipei City from Aug. 19 to Sept. 3.

31個空間共590場演出臺北藝穗節將於8月登場

2023-07-14

一年一度的臺北藝穗節，每年都邀請藝術家前進臺北各大街區表演，除了提供藝術家盡情發揮想像力的展演平台，也希望能將藝術能量擴散至市民生活，一起來看看今年的亮點。

動感的肚皮舞演出，為記者會拉開序幕。致力於在台推廣土耳其肚皮舞的柯雅文藝術舞蹈團，將於臺北藝穗節上表演。

另一位表演者是來自香港的梁偉傑。

[[表演者梁偉傑]]
"我關注的是身處在社會底層的人，很多方面沒有發言權，很難說出他們想要什麼，需要什麼，不想要什麼，以及如何不想被當成無用的人。我的作品重點是讓觀眾去思考，我活在這樣的處境中嗎"

[[民視英語新聞記者楊怡安]]
"臺北藝穗節將於北市31個空間登場，其中包括臺北表演藝術中心”

臺北表演藝術中心從2018年起承辦臺北藝穗節，廣邀藝術家在台北各地的公共場域表演。今年共有135個團體帶來590場演出，演出場域包括新北投車站的火車車廂、北藝中心11樓天臺、新富町文化市場，以及紀州庵文學森林等地。演出形式涵蓋戲劇、舞蹈、音樂、音樂劇及馬戲團。

[[臺北表演藝術中心執行長王孟超]]
“我們今年又加開了一個新的空間，叫天臺，在北藝11樓是一個隱藏版的戶外劇場，在那邊，大家可以在星空下面欣賞戶外的演出”

臺北藝穗節將於8月19日至9月3日，於北市31個場地展開活動。

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These Uyghurs in exile accuse China of arbitrarily detaining their loved ones and carrying out other human rights violations in the Uyghur homeland, which they call East Turkistan.

Officially the region in northwest China is called Xinjiang.

Outside the White House, these Uyghurs say they want independence from China. They are also commemorating an event they will never forget in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, 14 years ago this month.

Aziz Sulayman
East Turkistan Government in Exile
Mass killed them, mass shoot them and their bloods stained all of Urumqi city, and all night they washed the blood with the pressure washer in order to hide their crime.

In 2009 unrest in Urumqi was sparked by violence at a factory in southern China. Six Uyghur men were accused of sexually assaulting two ethnic Han Chinese women, which led to brawling that left two Uyghurs dead. In Urumqi, Uyghurs took to the streets, demanding justice for the killings. Amanalla Kashgari says the Urumqi protest started peacefully.

Amanalla Kashgari
They wanted those criminals to be charged and a proper investigation to be carried out. However, instead of their voices being heard and sit down with the officials, they were brutally cracked down by the paramilitary.

According to Chinese officials, nearly 200 people died, most of them Han Chinese. But Uyghur activists say that there were many more Uyghur victims, and that China’s repression in their homeland continues to this day. Several countries, including the United States, have described China’s actions as genocide. In a statement to VOA, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu describes people who call the Xinjiang region East Turkistan as “separatist forces” that undermine China’s national unity. The statement says, “The issues related to Xinjiang are not about human rights. They are about countering violent terrorism, radicalization and separatism. The accusation of ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang is a flat-out lie of the century.”

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Activists call hypocrisy at organizers and attendants of housing justice rally

The pro-independence Taiwan Statebuilding Party and several NGOs are lashing out at former New Power Party legislator Huang Kuo-chang, who plans to hold a rally to promote housing justice and judicial reform this Sunday. The two main opposition presidential candidates and Hon Hai founder Terry Gou have all expressed interest in participating. The groups say Huang’s call for housing justice is hypocritical as he has 23 pieces of real under his name. They also suggest that China might be behind the rally in efforts to take down the ruling DPP.

The Taiwan Statebuilding Party along with various Taiwan nativist NGOs, do not approve of Sunday’s upcoming rally that’s ostensibly in the name of “fairness and justice.”

Chen Li-fu
Taiwan Association of University Professors
No one is opposed to housing justice, no one is opposed to judicial justice, but why is it occurring this year and led by these people? People are hoping to use this as political capital, this is being done with political interests in mind.

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Lin Wei-lien
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Wu Hsin-tai
Taiwan Statebuilding Party
If the Taiwan Statebuilding Party were to organize an anti-China rally, would we ask pro-China politician Wu Sz-huai to take part? Or if Taiwanese society wants to hold a #MeToo protest against sexual harassment, would they ask the perpetrators to join in? If the answer is “no,” then why ask Huang Kuo-chang, who has 23 real estate properties under his name, or Hou Yu-ih, a landlord king, or even Terry Gou, who has his own private jet, and says that urban renewal projects harm the rights of landlords? Why can’t they just be a bit more direct and say this is simply a rally against the DPP?

Aside from critiquing the many problems with the rally’s organizers, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party is also alleging that China is pulling the strings behind the scenes.

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This is an event aimed at stirring up populist sentiment, inciting hatred and creating confrontation. It’s an activity that caters to China and takes down a nativist Taiwanese administration.

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We hope all these young people will be able to see clearly and see through all this. These people in the past neglected the trust young people gave them.

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President Tsai Ing-wen signs her name on a canvas bag covering what is touted as Taiwan’s first self-made meteorological satellite, Triton. After the signing, officials stand in line to pose with it in farewell, as it will soon be shipped to French Guiana for its launch in September.

Tsai Ing-wen
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Today we meet a flower arrangement teacher who created a new life for herself after the age of 40. Having spent her younger years as a housewife, Tai Su-chen decided to find work as a florist and then open her own flower arranging business. Despite not having access to large amounts of capital, and lacking confidence with digital tools, Tai found her own way to a successful career. Now, she has an online following with her live-streamed flower classes, and is even getting into acting.

Tai Su-chen picks up her floral shears and gets to work. With a few deft snips, the bouquet quickly emerges.

She spins the turntable, rapt in concentration, to find the best spot for the next stalk. After many years as a housewife, Tai’s love of flowers led her to find work as a florist for the first time at the age of 41.

Tai Su-chen
Flower arrangement teacher
I was about 41 when I went to work as a florist. I started learning how to buy stock, how to arrange the flowers, and how to think like a manager. Later I started to think that opening my own store was not the path for me, because that needs a large amount of capital. So I started to build my own business at home.

Tai spent a year studying many skills, getting to grips with everything from stock to managing costs, as well as the art of flower arrangement itself, and how to market herself with analogue methods.

Tai Su-chen
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We’re already at a certain age, so can’t really use digital products very much. We don’t know how to send out messages about the classes we’re giving. So it was a flyer I wrote myself and then took to get copied at the printer’s, and I took a whole stack of these posters around and put them into each house’s letterbox. And some communities have security who won’t let you post flyers, so we got turned away.

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