Tags: butoh | dance | pinti | tainan | video | yuyi

In 2009, I joined a butoh troupe.  During that year we went to many different natural settings where we filmed our performances. In August 2010 I went with Yuyi to Anping Village, near her home town in Tainan County, where she performed her last dance of the summer.  This video is my homage to her, and includes my first musical score.

Read more: Georgia Crawl with Lotus

Tags: colombian | electronic music | fabian torres | fao | guqin | live music | musician in taipei | tabla

In this short interview, Fao explains us what brought him to Asia and what moves him in music creation. He also gives us a glimpse of his eclectic talent by interpreting a guqin piece and a composition of his own mixing tabla and electronic music. Fao will give a concert of guqin on September 11 (19:00) at the "Salon for the Art of Guqin" (n.29 Bo ai rd, Taipei City) and he will also be performing at the Peacefest in Hualien (September 17, 18, 19).

Read more: From noise music to guqin

Tags: conference | ethics | fudan | global ethics | interreligious dialogue | schlensog

On May 11th, 2010, the Inaugural International Forum on "Dialogue among Civilizations and Global Challenges" was held to open the new Xu-Ricci Dialogue Institute at  Shanghai's Fudan University. Dr. Stephan Schlensog, the Secretary General of the Global Ethic Foundation, Tübingen/Germany, gave his speech on “Global Ethic as the Basis for the Dialogue of Civilizations”.

Read more: Towards a global ethic

Tags: asia | benoit vermander | buddhism | christianity | identity | islam | new religious movement | post-colonial identity | prayer | religious dialogue

There is no need to underline the dizzying diversity of Asia’s religious landscape. I do not intend here to attempt even a preliminary sketch of the patchwork of faiths and traditions that extend from Pakistan to Japan… I just would like to point out some general trends that have emerged in the last two or three decades, trends that have been partly reshaping the setting of Asia’s religions. Also, I would like to reflect on the challenges that these trends are creating. Furthermore, I’d like to suggest a few possible answers that Christianity could articulate in response to current developments, provided that Christians wish indeed to become “peacemakers” as the Sermon on the Mount calls them to be. Such responses may also...

Read more: Is Asia Pacific? Interreligious conflicts, dialogue and inventiveness in today’s Asia

Tags: buddhism | china | chinese history | confucian thoughts | dao | fudan university | religion | religious dialogue | ricci institute | ritual | xu-ricci dialogue institute

In this video Professor John Lagerwey examines the boundary between the state and religion in China.  Importantly, he identifies the problems that arise when attempting to understand Chinese religiosity through a Western religious framework, rather than through a Chinese cultural one.

This video is an excerpt from Professor Lagerwey's presentation on 11 May 2010 at the "Dialogue among Civilizations and Global Challenges" forum hosted by the Xu-Ricci Dialogue Institute at Fudan University, Shanghai.

Professor Lagerwey is the Professor for Chinese Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Read more: The boundary between religion and the state in China

Tags: formosa | fraud | psalmanazar | roy berman | tale

One of the more entertaining characters I’ve run across in my studies of Taiwan has been George Psalmanazar, one of the famous hoaxers of all time. Born around 1680, nothing factual is known about his early life, even his country place of birth, although he later claimed it to be somewhere in southern France, which was allegedly corroborated as likely by those who had heard his French dialect, while doubted by those who were familiar with his ability to impersonate such dialects.

Regardless of where he spent his early years, upon completion of his education Psalmanazar began traveling around Europe, attempting to scam his way to Rome by impersonating an Irish pilgrim. Upon realizing that Ireland was neither exotic enough to elicit...

Read more: George Psalmanazar, the famous fraud of Formosa

Tags: architecture | island | lise darbas | matsu | taiwan

Have you ever heard of Matsu?

Most of the people I have met in Taiwan or abroad who never been to Matsu refer to it as a military island or think of the famous Chinese Goddess of the Sea: “Mazu” (馬祖). Unfortunately not many people know about this beautiful and quiet island (actually, Matsu is an archipelago of 19 small islands, divided into four townships*), which belongs to Lienchiang County (連江縣) of the Republic of China (ROC). Matsu is situated in the Taiwan Strait, only 10 miles (16 km) away from China, close to Fujian province, but 120 miles (193 km) away from Taiwan. I was astonished to see at Nangan harbor how very close China is to Matsu, just 40 minutes by boat.

My first trip to Matsu was during the Chinese New...

Read more: A glimpse into Matsu’s island