Tua-Tiu-Tiann Photography Exhibition (大稻埕攝影展)

October 04, 2017 in Street, Personal, Photo Post, Taipei

The Tua-Tiu-Tian Internationl Festival of Arts (大稻埕國際藝術節) officially opened on Sunday, October 1st with an action-packed month of events which aims to not only showcase and promote the historic Dadaocheng area of Taipei, but also display many of the artistic talents that both Taipei and Taiwan have to offer to the world.

The month of events kicked off with the opening of the Dadaocheng International Photography Exhibition (外籍攝影師鏡頭下的大稻埕) which featured the work of both local and expat photographers and will remain on display for the entirely of the festival.

As I mentioned in my previous post about the Dadaocheng Photowalks, the photo exhibition had a focus on documentarian street photography-style photos that would help tell the story of the residents of Dadaocheng, the history of the area and also its revitalization over recent years.

To that effect, the curator of the event TC Lin organized several photowalks in August and September which led both foreign and local photographers around Dadaocheng to get shots to contribute to the event, network with each other and learn about the area.

The photowalks that TC arranged led us around most popular and well-known areas of Dihua Street (迪化街) but also much further down the road into areas that are not as commonly visited by tourists as well as areas that are only just recently starting to receive a bit of attention in terms of revitalization.

The first photowalk was more of an introduction to the event and a bit of a tour around the area for people who were unfamiliar while the second walk was more of us just walking around, taking cover from torrential downpours, chatting and taking photos.

As I mentioned in my previous blog about the photowalks, I typically spend most of my time at these events chatting with friends I haven’t seen for a while, so in order to get enough photos to submit to the event, I did a solo photowalk around the area in conjunction with a visit to the famous Dadaocheng Wharf on a day that turned out to have one of the prettiest sunsets of the year.

The exhibition opened last Sunday and attracted quite a few visitors as well as most of the photographers who took part in the event. It was a wonderful afternoon spent enjoying the company of friends new and old and enjoying the different perspectives of Dadaocheng that were put on display by photographers from all over the world.

Split up into two different venues including URS127 Art Factory (URS127玩藝工場) and URS27W Film Range (URS27W城市影像實驗室), the exhibition which will run for the entire month is open to the public free of charge.

A few days earlier TC contacted me and requested that I say a few words to the crowd about the event - At first I was a bit apprehensive due to how much I embarrassed myself at my solo photo exhibition a month or so earlier but ultimately agreed and did my best not to embarrass myself too much. Fortunately I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching the Dadaocheng area for my blogs about the City God Temple, Bao-An Temple, and the last few years of visiting the annual Dihua Street Lunar New Year Market.

In the gallery below, I’m sharing some of my photos that were featured at the exhibition with the original and an iPhone shot of the photo on the wall. With all the talent involved in the event I was both surprised and honoured that so many of my photos were chosen to be featured in both venues of the exhibition.

I want to thank TC Lin, Chenbl Chen and all the organizers of the Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of Arts who put together this event. I also want to thank the friends who came out to support us - especially those people who have followed my work for a while but haven’t had a chance to meet!

I'd also like to show my appreciation to some of the other photographers who took part in the event and contributed their work and vision to the event. Quite a few of those photographers are my friends, so if you'd like to know more about them, you may want to check out the following people: Darren Melrose, Brian Wiemer, Neil Wade, Dilip Bhoye, Filipe Rios, Tyson Skriver and Ken Dickson.

The exhibition will be on until the end of October, so if you are in Taipei and have any free time, you should definitely head over to check out the exhibition spaces as well as taking part in some of the great events planned over the next month!

Exhibition Period: 10/01 ~ 10/31 (展出日期:10/01 ~ 10/31)

Main Exhibition: URS127 Art Factory ( #127, Dihua Street. Section 1. Taipei)

主展場：URS127玩藝工場 - 台北市迪化街一段127號

Secondary Exhibition: URS 27W Film Range (#27, Yan-Ping Road. Section 2. Taipei)

展場二：URS 27W 城市影像實驗室 - 台北市延平北路二段27號

Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of Arts: Website | Facebook | Event Schedule

Best of 2016

January 01, 2017 in Personal, Photo Post, Update

My first shot of 2016 somewhere in the mountains in Hsinchu.

I don't think I've ever anticipated a year to end as much as I have with this year. I'm pretty sure most people will agree, 2016 was one for the record books in terms of just how absolutely relentless the year was. The final countdown to 2017 seemed as if the world was about to collectively release a sigh of relief!

Even though a lot of terrible stuff happened in 2016, I prefer to look at the positive!

In 2016, the world tiger population increased, pandas are no longer endangered, we are on the threshold of a cure for HIV, ISIS is on the run, the ozone is repairing itself and the social media ice bucket challenge proved to show that people power works by assisting in identifying the gene that is responsible for ALS!

It is easy to focus on the negative, but there is so much positive going on behind the scenes that no matter how many memes we see on social media complaining about 2016 being one of the worst in history, it was also a pretty good year! .

On a personal note, the year wasn't so bad for me - I've continued working hard on improving my photography and blogging skills, completed quite a few projects, updated the design of my site and added new features like the blog map and made finding information on the site much more easier than the original design.

In November while driving home one night though, my scooter slipped on some paint on the wet road and I destroyed one of the ligaments in my knee. The injury has slowed me down a little bit and I haven't been able to climb any mountains or travel too far because of it, but the problem seems to be improving, so I look forward to an even busier year in 2017.

This year for my 'best of' round up, I'm going to keep it simple. I'll just be posting five of my personal favourite photos from this year as well as five of the most popular blog posts according to my website analytics.

I hope that 2016 wasn't terrible for you and that the coming year will be a lot better for everyone!

My favourite Photos of 2016

1. Victory, Sweet Victory.

The year started out with one of the most important elections in Taiwan in quite some time - The landslide election victory of President Tsai Ying-Wen (蔡英文) and her Democratic Progressive Party was a direct result of the poor performance of former President Ma Ying Jeou which gave the birth of the popular Sunflower Student movement. The protests crippled the government due to its policies and ushered in a new era of youth-led activism in Taiwan.

2. The Retrospective General

I had made plans for quite some time to get to the City God inspection, an annual temple festival that pretty much shuts down downtown Hsinchu. The weather on the day of the festival however was terrible and my camera and I got absolutely soaked. I was lucky however to get up close and personal with a few of the infernal generals who were taking a break and getting some respite from the rain and they ended up posing for me. My favourite shot however was a more candid shot with one of the generals deep in thought.

3. Shifen Waterfall

Shifen Waterfall is a beautiful waterfall, but unlike most of the waterfalls I visit, it is a major tourist attraction and you have to wade through large groups of tourists to get the kind of shots that I got. I had avoided posting about the waterfall for a while, but over the summer was visiting quite a few waterfalls, so I thought why not? The day I went to the waterfall was beautiful until I set up my tripod to get this shot. The skies opened up and in typical Pingxi fashion the rain that ensued was of Biblical proportions. Despite being a tourist trap, the waterfall is one of the most beautiful in the country and the photos turned out quite well.

4. The "Wilds" of Zhongli

There has been a long running joke with some friends and I that Zhongli, the city I live in is known as the "wilds" due to the fact that it is apparently not as civilized as Taipei. The joke is based on a condescending comment made by an expat living in Taipei who had to suffer through a visit to Zhongli for work. The shot however was taken from the roof of an old building next to the Zhongli Train Station. I set my tripod up on the corner of the building and took several long exposure shots to capture the motion of the traffic going around the rotary and the trains coming in and out of the station.

5. Taipei Sunset

By now these shots of Taipei 101 from the famous Elephant Mountain have become synonymous with pictures of the city. There are so many photos from this vantage point that it has pretty much become cliche - yet also one of the few shots of Taiwan that is always going to be bought by someone. I add this shot in my list because it will be the last time you'll see a shot of the Taipei skyline like thiswith Taipei 101 rising above the rest of the crowd. Why the last time? The Nanshan Plaza, a 272m tall 45F skyscraper is set to be complete in the next year or so and its height has already started to ruin people's shots.

Here are a few extra shots from this year that I'm also quite fond of:

2016 Taiwan Election (2016總統大選)

January 18, 2016 in Photo Post, Taipei, Personal

The results are in, the people have spoken and the way in which they voiced their opinion through their democratic privilege was very clear and a direct criticism of the past eight years of governance. The ruling KMT was dealt a crushing defeat, the second embarrassing result for the party since November 2014 and has completely changed the political landscape of the country.

Polls before the election, which was held on January 16th, 2016, were quite confident of the result and for the most part they were right give or take a few surprises and upsets. Despite a low turnout for the election, the people who did vote voiced their opposition to KMT's way of doing things and the way President Ma Ying Jeou (馬英九) has governed the country for the past eight years.

The party was given a majority in the legislature in 2012 to go with the presidency and was still unable to enact any real positive reforms or initiatives that would positively effect the people of this country. The presidents economic "6-3-3" policy was a massive failure and as time ran down on his presidency he became more introverted and ignored the will of the people. In the legislature, the party attempted to secretly push through legislation and pass party-centric education textbook reforms which erupted in massive country-wide protests, a citizen takeover of the legislature and discontent even within their own ranks.

Still after all of the turmoil of the past few years, the KMT has yet to realize it's mistakes and atone for them. They still view theirselves as the 'natural ruling party' and the most righteous party at that. In the aftermath of the election we have seen legislators who have been unseated blame other factors for their loss while not addressing their own faults. This unrepentant attitude in addition their poor governance is why the Taiwanese electorate dealt them such a crushing blow.

The KMT attempted to make this election about relations with China. They believed that they were the only party capable of communicating with the Chinese and that closer relations with Taiwan's largest neighbour would benefit the people of this country. This argument however wasn't really based in reality as economic policy over the past eight years has done a lot to bring the two countries closer, but has done very little to positively affect the livelihood of the people of Taiwan.

The dismal economic situation has led to a lot of hopelessness for the younger generation (which doesn't identify with China) and the thought of yet another KMT government would only cause them further distress. Young people came out and they campaigned, they voiced their opinions and they formed new political parties to combat the polarization of Taiwanese politics. The young people of Taiwan are extremely intelligent and well versed in democratic principles - They knew that if they were to have any hope for a brighter future that things would have to change. And that they would have to be more active in the political process to ensure change was coming.

"Hope" is what the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (民主進步黨) and its presidential candidate Tsai Ying Wen (蔡英文) campaigned on. The people of this country, both young and old were looking for hope and they saw that in this shy academic who ran on a platform of constitutional reform and a fresh take on economic policy which is based on forming (and reforming) partnerships with all of Taiwan's regional neighbours rather than focusing on just one.

Eight years of anger released in a moment of happiness!

The victory party, which I mentioned in my previous post about Taiwanese Democracy was held in front of the DPP headquarters in Taipei and was an amazing event that I'll probably never forget. I've been a resident of Taiwan for over a decade and despite the fact that I can't vote, I still share a lot of the same concerns as the youth of the country.

The crowd was a healthy mix of young and old and was quite exuberant. Every time a party heavyweight came out to make a speech they clapped, waved their flags and made a lot of noise.

I arrived early enough to squeeze myself into the middle of the crowd to get in the thick of things. I'm actually a bit claustrophobic at times, but I put that aside for a while and did my best to enjoy the experience and put myself in a place where I could get shots of what was happening on stage and also shots of the people in attendance.

There was a large screen behind the stage that was projecting realtime results of the election and every time something happened the crowd erupted. The first major surprise was that Hau Long Bin (郝龍斌), deputy chairman of the KMT, former Taipei Mayor and a KMT princeling lost his bid for a legislative seat in Keelung. His loss also ushered in his resignation as the deputy leader of the party. The crowd erupted at the amazing victory and the hosts came out on stage to thank and bow to the people of Keelung for their support.

Shortly after that at around 7:00pm, KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) appeared on screen and conceded defeat as he was by that point losing by over three million votes. The crowd went wild seeing a man who staged a hostile takeover of the party candidacy from its former candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and ran a negative campaign (with personal attacks on Tsai and her family) on stage admitting defeat. During his concession speech he said he would resign as chairman of the party and work hard in his position as mayor of New Taipei City.

At that point it was just a matter of time until the new president appeared to claim her victory. A notice appeared on the large screen that the president-elect would hold an international news conference at 8:30pm and then make her acceptance speech shortly thereafter. This gave the crowd some time to celebrate and enjoy some live music, speeches from DPP heavyweights and watch the legislative results pour in.

How the new legislature will look on February 1st. (Source: @formosaphile)

The party secured what they referred to as a "home run" in the southern counties and quickly started gaining seats in the north. The crowd however expected that and seemed to pay most attention to two seats in Taipei, one in Taichung and another in Hualien that if won would be emotional victories for the nation, the party and its allies.

The first of those was that of Huang Kuo-Chang (黃國昌), one of the leaders of the Sunflower movement and a founding member of the New Power Party (時代力量) as well as a former professor of law at Taiwan's prestigious Academica Sinica. Huang's victory proved that the Sunflower student movement (太陽花學運) was more than just a mere youth protest movement but a force for positive political change in the country.

The crowd then gasped with amazement when political newcomer Hung Tzu-Yung (洪慈庸) won a seat for the New Power Party in Taichung. Hung is the older sister of Hung Chung-Chiu (洪仲丘) a military conscript who died while being punished for bringing his cellphone onto the base a few days before he was about to discharged. His death sparked mass protests across the nation and served as a lightning rod for the youth of the country who felt that the current state of affairs in the country did not represent their values.

If the KMT isn't defeated, Taiwan cannot get better.

The crowd then exploded with applause when Freddy Lim (林昶佐) unseated a 20 year veteran of the Legislative Yuan. Lim, the lead singer of the death metal band CthoniC (閃靈樂團) and former chairman of Amnesty International's Taiwan chapter became an international news sensation with his political aspirations, long hair and tattoos. Freddy seemed to be the perfect candidate for the New Power Party because of his past work with the student movement and with human rights initiatives. The party focuses on transitional justice advocating for human rights, civil and political liberties as well as maintaining Taiwan's independence and sovereignty. (Check out this Freddy interview by Taiwan Reporter)

Finally, Hsiao Bi-Khim (蕭美琴) a member of the DPP won a hard fought battle in Hualien in a district that has always voted for the KMT and was thought to be un-winnable. Her campaign was fought extremely well despite attacks from the KMT and Christian groups who attacked her for her perceived homosexuality and stance on same-sex marriage. Hsiao brings to the table an excellent knowledge of foreign affairs and she will be a great asset for the new government as it looks to expand trade opportunities with other countries.

At the end of the night, the KMT lost the presidency and the majority they held in the legislature. The DPP will take control of the legislature in February with 68/113 seats in the legislature with their allies in the New Power Party holding 5. The KMT will have 35 seats and will serve as the opposition party, something they will reluctantly have to get used to after over five decades of power.

The Democratic Progressive Party and the President's acceptance speech.

When the president finally came out, the crowd erupted with cheers of "總統好" (Hello President) The emotion of the moment got the better of quite a few people who had tears in their eyes while smiling and waving their "Light Up Taiwan" (點亮台灣) flags. The new president had a very unifying acceptance speech and promised to do her best to fulfill her role as president of Taiwan and work every minute of the day to ensure a better future for the 23 million people living here. She promised to work hard to bridge the gaps of political polarization in the country and work together with opposition parties to protecting national sovereignty and make Taiwan a stronger, more united nation.

The following is a translated excerpt from her acceptance speech and has been being spread around social media since the victory:

Today, we have accomplished something important for Taiwan. We have told the world that Taiwan is a democracy, and democracy is in Taiwan.

The great thing about Taiwan is that everyone has the right to choose their own future.

Everyone should respect this freedom. This election has proven to the world that Taiwanese are a free people. No one should have to apologize for their national identity.

Dignity, solidarity and confidence are the new Taiwan.

We are more brave after today.

At the end of the evening, music was playing, people were cheering and the crowd was shouting "We are Taiwanese, We are Taiwanese, 我們是台灣人" lead by legislator and MC of the night Hsu Kuo Ying (徐國勇) who remarked to the people around the world who were watching that "With our votes, we proved that we are a sovereign and independent nation!" before adding: "This is our nation."

The international news media seems to have covered the election with the same China-centric stupidity as usual, so I just want to close this post with a reminder that President-elect Tsai isn't "Pro-Independence", she is "Pro-Taiwan" and Taiwan is not a "renegade province", it is a free liberal democratic nation where the people take have a voice in their future. The media may have a gun to its head, but it is the responsibility of a free press to print facts and not propaganda.

Below is a list of links that provides more responsible information about the election and better analysis. As it is still quite early and the dust is still settling, I'll make sure update the links as more responsible analysis and commentary becomes available.

I'd like to close this by saying that I'm extremely proud of Taiwan for experiencing yet another peaceful transition of power and I'm hopeful that change is coming to the country I love.

蔡總統加油！臺灣加油！

Part One - Democracy in Taiwan

Solidarity Taiwan - Election Analysis | Wikipedia Coverage |