Miramar Resort Protest Concert July 28

[dulan drift]

On Sat, July 28, a major concert will be staged to protest the illegal construction of the Miramar Resort on Shan Yuan Beach in Taidong County. Having been frustrated by the collusion between the Miramar Group and the Taidong Council that has seen them 'over-rule' Supreme Court decisions declaring the project illegal, a huge show of strength is needed at the concert to build on the mounting public pressure to protect this magnificent piece of coastline from rampant Kending type development.

For anyone who was thinking of taking a holiday in Taidong, then you might consider doing it on the weekend of July 28. Apart from anything you will get to see the best of the best of Taiwan's east coast performers and there is free camping on the beach.

Getting down here at this time of year can be problematic, but it's been announced that an offical protest bus will be available to take people down and back. The cost is only $750 for a round trip, which is less than half the price of the train - on which it is virtually impossible to get a seat anyway.

Dept Taipei: July 28, 8am
From: Taipei Central Station, East Door, no.3
Return to Taipei: July 29, 11 am

The bus runs direct to the protest site at Shan Yuan Beach in Taidong county.

To be sure of getting a seat, you will need to book. Here is the link: https://e-info.neticrm.tw/civicrm/event ... et=1&id=72
Unfortunately it's only in Chinese, so if you're illiterate (as I am), then you will need to grab someone to help you book.

Here's the FB page: http://www.facebook.com/Taidong.protestconcert?sk=wall

If anyone needs any further info about the event then let me know and I'll do my best to answer.

[Mucha Man]

You guys are really organized on this. Great work.

[dasaint]

Let me just add that there's a Hot Air balloon festival going on right now in Taidong so you could also drop by and see that.
http://www.argophilia.com/news/2012-tai ... sta/26464/

[Kea]

There was a report on news (channel 51, whichever station that is) 2 days ago about this situation. It was reasonably informative from what I could gather, and had some protesters discussing the history. The news report didn't mention the upcoming protest, so it could be a good idea to contact the station and ask them to re-run the segment and add on any further views they missed, plus give notice about July 28th.

Good luck.

[dulan drift]

There was a report on news (channel 51, whichever station that is) 2 days ago about this situation. It was reasonably informative from what I could gather, and had some protesters discussing the history. The news report didn't mention the upcoming protest, so it could be a good idea to contact the station and ask them to re-run the segment and add on any further views they missed, plus give notice about July 28th.

Good luck.

Thanks MM and Kea.

Regarding the news report, you're right, it would have been nice to have had a mention of the concert, but there will be a press conference to promote it at some stage. I tend to not get involved in media stuff because basically this is an aborignal based movement and suspect a 'foreigner' telling Taiwanese how to run things is probably not a good move. Not that I wouldn't necessarily like to!

Here's a list of the Performers. You may not recognize them but it includes some big names, especially amongst aboriginal performers. Hopefully will also include a fire twirling crew from Taipei.

部落美男子 Vangsaran
小魯凱樂團Kids of Drekai
阿里要*拉沃與朋友們 Adiyaw and his friends
瘦皮猴對青菜過敏 (this is jiamulang and Pasulange's band, but havent got the english name yet... )
Alvaro and Friends
拷秋勤 Kou Chou Ching
吳志寧 Zulin Wu
以莉高露 Ilid Kaolo
達卡鬧 Dakanow
ciacia何欣穂+奇哥 ciacia+Chico
輕鬆玩 Relax-ONE
胡德夫 Kimbo
龍哥 Long-Ge Kuo
阿發 A-FA
Pia Pia
阿洛．卡力亭．巴奇辣 Ado’ Kalitaing Pacidal
美乃滋 Mayonnaise
DJ Damage(aka安智)
台東震天宮駕前官將首 Guan Jiang Shou of Zhen Tian Temple in Taidong
巴奈&那布Panai&Nabu
黑妞Hey new
王榆鈞 Yujun Wang


Illid Kaolo - winner of Best New Singer, Best Aboriginal Singer, and Best Aboriginal Album at the last Taiwan Golden Melody Awards.

[Mucha Man]

Really wish I could go but have a deadline August 3 and can't take the time off.

[dulan drift]

Really wish I could go but have a deadline August 3 and can't take the time off.

MM, I'm sure you'll be there in spirit. And even though you can't make it, you could always sneak in a mention of the situation regarding the East Coast in LP next time you update for Taiwan - that wouldn't go astray either! It has been decided to make this concert an annual event now.

[Mucha Man]

Really wish I could go but have a deadline August 3 and can't take the time off.

MM, I'm sure you'll be there in spirit. And even though you can't make it, you could always sneak in a mention of the situation regarding the East Coast in LP next time you update for Taiwan - that wouldn't go astray either! It has been decided to make this concert an annual event now.

Will do. I already wrote about the illegality of the resort last time. Will likely write about the issue of overdevelopment in a box to highlight it. Should be updating next spring.

[dulan drift]

The July 28 concert was a red letter day (and a bit of a red envelope day as well as towel sales when through the roof) for the movement. What started as a few artist types camping on the beach has evolved into a mass movement of people coming together. And that takes the whole thing another step closer to that tipping point of public pressure that will ultimately see this abomination against nature torn down.

The highlight for me was the rap band. Whose name in English i haven't been able to ascertain, but apparently the Chinese sounds a lot like the Taiwanese word for 'hand-job'.

Glad to have got the building of the talu'an footage because it's since been swallowed whole by the sea during typhoon Saola (along with all of the stuff that the hotel had put on the beach).
As a friend said, when you go down to look at the site, you almost wonder if it was all just a dream, because only a few days after the event, it was all gone, and the beach was distributed with debris - but not even our debris, completely different debris from somewhere else.
It represented a lot of hard work by a lot of people, so there's some sadness there to be sure, but strangely, not as much as what i thought there would be.
In fact, the general feeling is that there's almost a kind of poetry to it.
It was constructed from wood and bamboo, it served its purpose, and now it has returned to nature.

It's like the building was an 'offering to the Gods'.

Amidst weeks of rain and the threat of typhoons (including a torrential downpour on the morning of the concert), many silent prayers were somehow answered with one perfect day where over 1000 people came together to stage the biggest environmental protest in Taiwan's history. (Congratulations Miramar Hotel on setting that new record!)

As for the talu'an, we will rebuild.

[Nuit]

It was a great event, and well timed to avoid Saola. Thanks for helping to make it happen. Listened to some fine acts, kid got turned over by the east coast surf for the first time, nice atmosphere. Camped on the beach right below the hotel monstrosity.

Hopefully some good will come of it all - great to see so many people there.