US dance and
piano instructors praise Taiwanese students
By Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008, Page 2
“The bottom line is, if you can’t get hyper, then get off the dance floor.”—
Tiziano Hsieh,hip hop student
The key to helping Taiwanese students overcome shyness is to use lots of
encouragement and humor, said Michael Parks Masterson, an acclaimed US performer
and hip hop dance instructor at this year’s American Performing Arts Academy
program in Taipei.
“I encourage the students a lot and sometimes even use reverse psychology to get
them to do what I ask,” he said yesterday, adding that the Taiwanese dance
students he met were almost always able to step up to his demands.
This is Masterson’s second trip to Taiwan to teach at the academy, which has
returned to Taiwan after a successful first visit in 2006.
Compared with the students two years ago, Masterson said that participants this
year were “faster and smarter,” as a group of eight dancers demonstrated at the
press conference after only two hours of practice.
Another academy instructor and well-known American pianist John Ferguson praised
the students, calling them “talented and hardworking.”
He said that many classically trained young Taiwanese pianists tell him that
their teachers try to discourage them from playing jazz piano because “it’s bad
for their fingers.”
“The thing is, anything is bad for you if the techniques are bad,” he said,
adding that one of the things students would learn at the piano academy was how
to play the instrument in a more percussive style.
Cheng Wen-wen (鄭雯文), a classically trained pianist of 16 years from Penghu, said
although jazz piano is very different from what she was used to, “I am excited
to learn all varieties of music, especially from good teachers.”
Some hip hop dance students said that even though they only had Masterson as a
teacher for two days, they would sign up for the course next year if he comes
back.
“Masterson’s style is not mainstream hip hop, but more jazzy and old-school,”
said Kenny Kuo (郭文瀚), a high school senior.
“We might have been shy at first, but we have no problem getting all hyper and
excited,” said another hip hop student, Tiziano Hsieh (謝念羽). “The bottom line
is, if you can’t get hyper, then get off the dance floor.”
Students from the hip hop and piano academy will put on a free concert on Friday
night.
The Broadway academy students will perform next Saturday with excerpts from Guys
and Dolls, Rent and others musicals.
Group tells
sports fans to shout it out: ‘Go Taiwan’
By Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER, WITH AP
Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008, Page 2
A local newspaper reported yesterday that Taiwanese fans were planning to skirt
a ban on displaying the nation’s flag at the Olympics by waving the Myanmar flag
instead.
The Chinese-language United Daily News said fans would wave the Myanmar flag
because, like the Republic of China (ROC) flag, it features a star-studded blue
square at the upper left-hand corner of a red backdrop.
From a distance, the two flags look the same.
Under a protocol signed in 1981 between the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and
the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Taiwan competes under the name
“Chinese Taipei” and the ROC’s national flag and national anthem cannot be used
at competition venues.
Meanwhile, 10 members of the New Culture Team, a group affiliated with former
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), yesterday
launched a “Go Taiwan” campaign, encouraging the public to show their support
for the nation’s Olympic team by spreading the phrase online and through mobile
text messages.
At a press conference outside the Legislative Yuan, the group suggested that
users of instant messaging software change their screen names to “Go Taiwan!
Taiwan is innocent” to show that there is nothing wrong or illegal about using
the word “Taiwan.”
Cellphone users can also send text messages with the slogan to friends, the
group said, and bloggers can post articles and video clips with the slogan on
their Web pages.
The slogan should be a greeting for telephone and face-to-face conversations,
they said, encouraging the public to show their pride by getting together with
friends to watch the Games and cheer the nation’s athletes.
“We should cheer for our own team and shout out our feelings. Let’s shout ‘Go
Taiwan’ and cheer for the Taiwanese team without hesitation,” the New Culture
Team said.
The New Culture Team also voiced support for Cheerleading Squad for Taiwan
captain Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如), who was denied entry at Beijing airport on Saturday
on her way to cheer for Taiwanese athletes.
Yang told reporters upon returning to Taiwan that Beijing airport police
questioned her for one hour and went through her luggage before ordering that
she leave the country.
Fang Yen-hui (房彥輝), a member of the New Culture Team, condemned China for
rejecting Yang.
“The way China treated Yang and [fellow squad member] Lee Kun-lin (李昆霖) revealed
China’s true stance against ordinary people,” Fang said.
EDITORIAL:
Beijing only has itself to blame
Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008, Page 8
What would it have taken for China to avoid the onslaught of criticism that has
rained on its Olympic parade? Just days into the Games that China has spent
seven years preparing as a symbol of its rising strength and wealth, concern
about Beijing’s iron grip on basic freedoms continues to cast a shadow on the
celebration.
What has become a public relations disaster for Beijing might have been stemmed
with some key — if ultimately insincere — concessions to its critics. Instead,
the Games have again illustrated China’s poor understanding of what makes the
free world tick.
Even basic public relations in dealing with the West seem to elude its
decision-makers. China never stood to gain from blocking “sensitive” Web sites
at its foreign media center, a move that was bound to spark an outcry. The
majority of the thousands of international reporters covering the Games come
from countries with unfettered Web access. They very likely had no interest in
spending their time in Beijing browsing Falun Gong Web sites. Censoring the Web,
however, quickly turned Beijing’s fear of international news sites and
repression of dissident voices into a top story just a week before the opening
ceremony.
The ensuing clash between Beijing and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
— ending in the IOC backing down on uncensored Web access for reporters — only
hammered this impression into the minds of a global audience.
With the Games now in full swing, the furor over media restrictions shows no
sign of receding. Although Radio Free Asia received permission from the IOC to
send two reporters to the Games, Beijing let its Chinese-speaking correspondent
into the country, but blocked its Tibetan-speaking reporter. And despite reports
of unrest in Xinjiang, journalists are being denied access, while two Japanese
reporters were mistreated by police there last week.
China has been equally inept at presenting a positive face to Taiwanese
spectators. Where a little respect would have gone a long way in building trust,
Beijing instead rolled out the title Zhongguo Taibei in the lead-up to the
Games, blocked Taiwanese cheerleaders from entering the country and insisted on
referring to Taiwan’s “home team” advantage in Beijing.
From the day China bound itself to human rights pledges in exchange for hosting
the 2008 Olympics, a barrage of criticism from activists of its rights record
was inevitable. But offering even a few concessions would have helped China
convince observers that it is making gradual progress.
The Duihua Foundation, arguably the group that has made the most progress in
securing the release of prisoners of conscience in China, suggested Beijing
offer a gesture of progress ahead of the Games. An “Olympic pardon” of long-term
prisoners — freeing the remaining Tiananmen activists jailed since 1989 — could
make a lasting, positive impression, Duihua argued.
Instead, Beijing has stepped up its “war on terrorism” and clamped down even
more tightly on dissidents, particularly in the capital, carrying out a series
of “clean-up” detentions and arrests to silence domestic critics in time for the
Games.
Beijing must now deal with the consequences of its choice: an international
community that has only grown more skeptical and is concerned that, rather than
improving its record to meet Olympic pledges, China has backtracked on the
freedoms that it grants its population.
Taiwan must
play a waiting game
By Nat Bellocchi 白樂崎
Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008, Page 8
Since the change in Taiwan’s government in May, there have been statements in
the media about what the government plans to do, especially on cross-strait
relations. There has been a reopening of meetings between the two sides, which
is important. There has been an opening of charter airline flights and visits by
Chinese to Taiwan, neither of which has gained much economically.
Taiwan has continued to lay out a long list of issues it hopes to address with
China, however, understanding that Beijing will be completely preoccupied with
the Olympics until after Aug. 24. In the meantime, Taiwan has to deal with a
sluggish economy and a poor stock market performance. It has already allowed
many companies to invest up to 60 percent of their net worth in China. There are
still concerns even in the media that the government will soon lift a ban on
some investments by Taiwan’s semiconductor industry in China.
In addition, foreign firms with Chinese equity investment will be allowed to be
listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, lifting a long-standing rule that bars
companies with 20 percent or more Chinese equity from investing in Taiwan. The
government will also lift a rule that bars companies from using funds they
borrow or raise in Taiwan to invest in China.
A plan to allow Taiwanese liquid-crystal makers to set up panel factories in
China is also under consideration. At the same time, the Straits Exchange
Foundation openly discussed closer economic cooperation in the meeting with the
Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait in June. There were even
discussions on different economic agreements, including the Closer Economic
Partnership Arrangement that exists between Hong Kong and Beijing.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) complains that such serious matters
should not be launched so hastily on matters that could have impact on the
country and the people.
Taiwanese companies worry about Chinese investors’ methods of using the capital
generated in Taiwan back in China; that rules and regulations do not have real
comprehensive policies that cover Chinese investments in Taiwan (considering
that many if not most of the Chinese investors have connections to the Chinese
government).
While making changes in Taiwan that will please China, President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) often states the wish that the two sides can find a way of interacting in
international society.
Ma has frequently warned that if Taiwan continues to be isolated on the
international scene, there could be no significant progress in cross-strait
relations, but he continues to propose “viable diplomacy” and a “diplomatic
truce” in cross-strait relations.
At any rate, the Olympic Games have begun, and political issues regarding China,
including cross-strait relations, will have to wait until after Aug. 24 — at
least. Even then there could be problems within the Chinese government.
There have been many articles about what China will be like after the Olympics.
Two recent ones in the Wall Street Journal show the differences.
In James Mann’s “Reform Fantasy,” he said: “China has reached the point where it
no longer seeks to mollify or accommodate the international community’s
expressions of concern about human rights.”
The question, Mann said, was not whether China will be nationalistic, but what
sort of nationalism it will have. The Olympics should prompt the rest of the
world to start thinking about the implications of a China that is not opening up
in the way that was hoped.
In Bruce Gilley’s “China’s Democratic Acceleration,” he said: “No one expects
the Games to lead to regime collapse in China, especially not immediately. But
change? Yes ... By denying the Communist Party its moment of glory, the
dissonance created by the Olympic year will accelerate the values transformation
in China needed to erode the regime’s popular support.”
What these two sides suggest is about China and the differences in how the rest
of the world sees it. But Taiwan could have a different concern — how China will
see Taiwan.
It will be seen, however, after the Games are completed and talks between the
two sides start again.
Nat Bellocchi is a former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan and a
special adviser to the Liberty Times Group. The views expressed in this article
are his own.
