by admin on March 3, 2010
When I saw this article the other day on how there is a plan to bring a Universal-like(key word being like) theme park to southern Taiwan my snark meter went off the scale. I’ve been here too long and heard to0 many idealistic glorious plans only to see them all become glorious mud fences in their execution.
Firstly, the best of the local amusement parks are mediocre with the worst being totally lmae and that si the majority of them. Here in central Taiwan the big myth for years was how Disneyland was coming to Houli where there is a huge tract of TaiSugar land(TaiSugar being the largest property owner in Taiwan and also owned by the government of Taiwan). Of course I never believed that knowing only too well that Disney was way to savvy to locate there. However, the real possible deal was with Warner Brothers. They actually sent people here and were getting close to going forward when the whole thing was submarined in red tape because a favor was owed to Yang Tien Sheng who really wanted to do a racetrack but was surreptitiously floating a plan for his own amusement park on that site. His racetrack dream probably took too much power of positive thinking and payoffs, much more than he had budgeted no doubt and was scotched. We did in fact get the underwhelming Mala Bay Yamay Resorts a water park not quite on steroids-yawn. No pizazz or sizzle of an internationally successful entertainment company to wow the rubes. No Disney not even a Warner’s. Sad because the Taiwanese are such family people and don’t mind spending money on their families. It’s too bad they get so few quality options locally and usually have to go overseas to enjoy something decent.
So here we are again(full story here):
“We will build a theme park next to our film studio. It will something like Universal Studios, ” said Tsai Yueh-hsun, who is currently turning his award-winning police drama Black and White into a full-length motion picture.
“We have already sent people to Universal Studios and other theme parks to learn from their expertise, ” the director of Taiwan’s first Hollywood-style TV drama said during a recent interview with Taiwan’s Chinese-language daily Liberty Times.
OK color me cynical not even guardedly optimistic that this thing even if it happens and I sense it probably will, should just be another empty box or fizz-less can of soda. One can only hope…
by admin on March 1, 2010
..what did they say? Well here in Taiwan with four seats up for grabs in the National Assembly the DPP got 3 while the ruling KMT only got 1. The DPP are claiming this as a mandate”
Su Chia-chuan, said the results were a demonstration of voters’ trust in the opposition party.
Well maybe or at least partly. I feel more strongly it is a trend which is due probably more to the immediacy of mass communications via the Internet than political strategy superiority of a given party or candidate. We live in the era of what I like to call “mayfly politics.” Where you win your election and need to hit the ground with your feet running as fast as a broadband connection. The stop watch starts ticking the moment you win and the people don’t have patience for anything anymore. So if you can’t maintain whatever spin, or momentum, or charm that got you elected you will be replaced by the other guys just like with the Democrats losing a seat that was fixed in granite it was so secure: Ted Kennedy’s to Scott Brown.
Who knows maybe what the people of Taiwan will get is something better than what they were offered. Sadly, I feel what the Internet makes ever clearer everyone is playing the same old game and money is hard to beat anywhere.
by admin on February 22, 2010
Waking up like a previously sleeping Tiger. Each year I get to go through two sets of separate but un-equal year end holidays: one for the west and one for here in Greater China. To say this is distracting would be an understatement. It can be fun although having 9 out of 11 days of cold rain and grayness is not entirely my idea of fun. The Blockbuster man was the winner this holiday with 15 rentals from us.
I’m exhilarated I have work to do in these challenging economic times and am about to go visit with one of my factory partners on a new order. I hope everyone has a great Year of the Tiger as we all try to make a little more sense of our new age and present reality.
I hope Taiwan and China’s relations continue to improve as well as China with the rest of the world. Hopefully there will be a little more Peace and Understanding happening although that will surely be spun and manipulated for someone’s political agenda.
Adult reality is so complicated and can cause headaches. I want to go back to a more innocent time. Like when the characters in the picture would have amused me, but alas…
by admin on February 11, 2010
Today over on Peking Duck I read some disturbing news about one of my favorite authors from pre-Internet days: John Naisbitt. He wrote Megatrends which was kind of like the Freakenomics of its day, answering many questions you’d never think to ask but were fascinated knowing the answers to. I had no idea he and his wife were even living in China.
According to the Duck’s post they are coming out as “we really drank the koolaid” everything in China that is official must be good cheerleaders. That is sad. I know John and his wife are both very intelligent people with their spheres of influence. I’m not purporting that they be China haters since there is so much to be impressed by over China, historically and of late. However, it’s sad how many people will turn a blind eye to some significant problems or become a tour guide and point you to the fake Disneyland town diorama like Pyongyang has for the outsider to glimpse their contrived utopia.
I would truly love to see China demonstrate it’s greatness as a world citizen and leader but know that nothing is gained when we pretend the elephant isn’t in the room. It is encouraging to me that 1,000 brave souls from Shanghai have ventured to Beijing to protest the demolition of their houses to make way for the World Expo grounds. Hopefully they’ll be given some consideration by the government and a fair and reasonable plan can be made.
I wonder how the Naisbitt’s would handle,”Quake activist jailed for 5 years?”. It seems rather appalling when the man was speaking on behalf of the tens of thousands of unfortunate souls who lost lives, livelihoods and property in the devastating earthquakes.
I look forward to China’s increasing role as a world power and hope that there will be more and more meaningful dialogs with the Chinese government and it’s greatest resource-the one billion plus people that it represents.
