In 2009, Mayday’s concert ‘DNA Unlimited Edition’ at the Kaohsiung Municipal Stadium drew 55,555 attendees — breaking Taiwan’s concert attendance record. The set concluded with three encore performances, including nine consecutive Hokkien-language songs.
In 2009, the Taipei County Tourism Bureau decided that the Ocean Music Festival would adopt a ‘fresh, healthy, professional’ approach — for the first time, the Health Bureau did not distribute condoms at the event, and the sale and consumption of tobacco and alcohol on-site were prohibited.
The Taipei Digital Arts Center, operated by the Digital Art Foundation beginning in 2009, is one of the few arts institutions in Taiwan explicitly dedicated to digital art. The ‘*Noise Magazine* Café’ within it, curated by Wang Chung-kun, is also one of the main performance venues for Lacking Sound Festival and other sound art events.
Chandala Commune (K Society) was founded in 2009 by Chang Yu-sheng, then a doctoral candidate in political science at National Chengchi University. ‘Chandala’ is the Hindu term for the untouchable caste — those who are completely other or alien, beyond the four rungs of the caste hierarchy.
On November 3, 2008, when Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Yun-lin visited Taiwan for the Chiang-Chen talks, police actions — including the seizure of ROC flags — and security measures that infringed on basic civil liberties, combined with restrictions in the Assembly and Parade Act, prompted NTU sociology professor Lee Ming-tsung to launch the Wild Strawberry Movement online.
Yannick Dauby and Hsu Yen-ting collaborated in Chiayi County to build a sound database — the Chiayi Sound Project. They traveled through the countryside recording the local sounds of Chiayi County and constructing an archive.
The Taiwanese film Cape No. 7 was released in 2008. Its treatment of emotions from the Japanese colonial era resonated widely with audiences, while its band-centered storyline sparked a wave of band-themed films and television dramas.
Following Taiwan’s first democratic transfer of power in 2004, the KMT candidate Ma Ying-jeou’s election in 2008 constituted the second transfer of power — regarded as an important milestone in Taiwan’s democratic development.
Beginning with the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007: in March 2008, Bear Stearns — the fifth-largest U.S. bank — was acquired by JPMorgan Chase; in July 2008, IndyMac Bank failed; in September 2008, the ‘two housing giants’ crisis erupted; on September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, devastating the American and global economies.
In 2008, artist Wang Fu-jui, while teaching at the Arts and Technology Center of Taipei National University of the Arts, organized the ‘Ultra Sound’ (超響) series over three consecutive years — focused on the performance presentation of sound media, demanding more refined possibilities from works at a time when many small performances were positioned merely as ‘experimental.’