"We are all crazy": Malaysian violin maker reflects on a life in tune with the music
'We are all crazy, all the luthiers in this workshop are all crazy. We just love our work too much.'
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ABC News
21 hours ago
- ABC News
Zero Day Attack TV series envisions fallout of imagined Chinese invasion
A newly-elected president makes an extreme sacrifice under great political and military pressure. A local fisherman, struggling after a typhoon destroys his livelihood, acts for the enemy. A couple deliberate over whether to finalise their divorce as conflict looms — and if they should flee to China. All these scenarios are explored in a new TV series in Taiwan, which dramatises the days leading up to an imagined invasion by Beijing. "You are able to capture little snippets of humanity in this potential moment of threat," Janet Hsieh, who plays President-elect Wang Ming-Fang in the anthology's first episode, said. Inspired by the likes of Black Mirror, the series — called Zero Day Attack — consists of 10 episodes, each directed by a different person. The premise of each chapter strikes close enough to Taiwan's current reality to unsettle viewers who have been living with the threat of Beijing simmering closer and closer to the surface for years. The Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan is part of China, despite the fact the party has never ruled the island, which is governed by a democratically elected president and legislature. Beijing has derided the series, with Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang accusing the ruling Democratic Progressive Party of "peddling anxieties and attempting to provoke war". "The film is plunging Taiwan into the flames of war," he said. What it has done is prompt discussions about everything from the political motivations behind the series through to what citizens would do if a war were really to break out. "In Taiwan, it's quite rare for productions to confront this kind of subject matter so directly — in fact, there's often an unspoken agreement to avoid it," actor Kaiser Chuang, who plays a central figure in the series' ninth episode, said. "We're not necessarily here to provide the answers — film and art rarely do — instead, we want to prompt people to think. "I see this series as a valuable opportunity to tear away the veil of 'don't talk about politics'. Funded by the Taiwanese government's culture ministry as well as a controversial and hawkish local billionaire Robert Tsao, the series is lucky to have been made. More than half of the crew asked to be anonymous in the credits for fear of reprisals and impacts on their career while some staff, including a director, pulled out of the production, showrunner Cheng Hsin Mei told Reuters. "Participating in such a production carries the risk of being blacklisted, so some crew members took part under pseudonyms," Taiwanese film critic Tang-Mo Tan told the ABC. "Many said the drama is seemingly designed to slowly stoke public fear, influence the [next] recall vote … and openly support [President] Lai Ching-te's 2028 re-election bid," Chinese state run-TV network CGTN reported. As a Taiwanese-American, Janet Hsieh is lucky she doesn't feel any such pressure on her career. Well known locally as the host of travel show Fun Taiwan, this turn to a high stakes political thriller is a major new challenge for Hsieh. Her character is a complex one, a young, newly-elected president, who comes to realise that the party — including her father — expects her to be a puppet. In one jarring scene, the president-elect's father scolds her about her manners while addressing the party's chairman. "She has pressures and stress coming from all over the place," Hsieh said. "Whether it's internal, within her party, within the government, within her family, with her father, it's coming at her from every single angle, and she has to kind of navigate this in a political and in a personal way." The series delves into the myriad of ways China could — and in some cases already does — squeeze Taiwan, well beyond military action. Episodes explore the connections many organised crime gangs have back to China and how temples are vulnerable to infiltration. "My character is someone who becomes infiltrated, he originally works in aquaculture in a rural area, essentially a fisherman, but after a devastating typhoon disrupts his livelihood, he becomes involved with people connected to infiltration activities," Chuang tells the ABC. "Infiltration, by its nature, works subtly — it gradually alters your values, your judgement, even your sense of national identity and awareness of crisis, until you grow numb to it." Hsieh describes Zero Day Attack as a series that — in a first for Taiwan — is tackling the elephant in the room. So far it has secured release in Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia, and its distributors are working to get it into more international markets, including Australia. "[This threat is] just always there, but yet, no drama has ever dramatised it before," Hsieh said. "I really hope that this series isn't about polarising. The message isn't about choosing one side or the other or even pushing a certain value or thought on anybody. "It is bringing out a subject that is on the forefront of everybody's minds, presenting it in a way that is saying: 'Look, here it is. What do you think about it? Let's talk about it.'" Last year a 17-minute trailer was released and created a lot of hype, and in central Taipei at least, it seems a lot of people are interested in watching the series. "The atmosphere in the trailer was quite intense," local Wang Shengfu said. "It really gave me the sense that a cross-strait conflict might actually happen. "Taiwan's political divide is quite clear-cut, works like this could spark discussion but I also think there's a chance that politicians might use the show to promote their own political agendas." That has already happened. Mr Tsao has also funded other resilience efforts, including the Kuma Academy, where many Taiwanese citizens go for "civil defence" classes. "This film isn't meant to scare people, we simply hope it helps everyone be a little more prepared for situations that could potentially happen," Mr Tsao told reporters at the premiere of the show's first episode at a cinema in Taipei's trendy Xinyi district. "In fact, many foreign journalists visiting Taiwan find it puzzling, they see how nervous the international community is for us, but wonder why the Taiwanese themselves don't seem worried at all. "This film also aims to strengthen people's psychological resilience — meaning, when something happens, we don't panic and we know what to do." Chinese state media reporting on Zero Day Attack has accused it of being "built on [President Lai Ching-te's] fear and distortion". President Lai is loathed by Beijing, which calls him a "dangerous separatist". "Many said the drama is seemingly designed to slowly stoke public fear, influence the [next] recall vote … and openly support [President] Lai Ching-te's 2028 re-election bid," state run-TV network CGTN reported. Very recently Mr Tsao backed a mass recall motion, seeking to unseat more than 30 legislators from the main opposition party the Kuomintang. This came after months of political gridlock and division in the parliament, where the KMT, in alliance with a minor party, has the majority. In the days leading up to the July 26 vote, the KMT released a parody of Zero Day Attack. While seven lawmakers are yet to be voted on, the majority of the ballots took place late last month, and not a single person was successfully recalled. Taipei resident Chen Hongzhu predicts this political polarisation will impact the viewership of Zero Day Attack. "Some of my friends with different political views tend to look into whether the creators have any political affiliations before deciding whether they're willing to trust or to watch," she says.
SBS Australia
a day ago
- SBS Australia
Surprise Chef（MF 570）
LISTEN TO SBS Japanese 04:51 Japanese Listen to SBS Japanese Audio on Tue, Thu and Fri from 1pm on SBS 3. Replays from 10pm on Tue, Thu and Sat on SBS1. Listen to past stories from our podcast. Download the free SBS Audio App and don't forget to visit SBS Japanese Facebook and Instagram page!
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Booming Asian music markets provide new opportunities for aspiring musicians
For generations of aspiring Australian musicians, there was a simple recipe for success: pack your bags and move to the UK or US. This rite of passage helped forge the careers of many Australian superstars, from AC/DC and Nick Cave to Sia and Iggy Azalea. But the dominance of Western markets is being challenged by the growing prestige and influence of the music business in Asia. The shift can be seen on streaming service Spotify, where the most-followed artist is no longer US pop superstar Taylor Swift, but Indian singer Arijit Singh. And it's changing how artists and educators think about where the opportunities lie for international acclaim. At the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney, the curriculum has been shaped with Asia in mind. The college has spent years building ties with institutions in countries including South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and India. They bring in practitioners from across Asia to hold workshops; there's even talk of a trip to Seoul to learn about K-pop. Senior academic lecturer Chris Fields said music education in Australia was catching up with long-standing industry trends. "So moving away from the Western classical system necessarily, especially amongst jazz curriculums." At a practical level, students explore core musical concepts through multiple, multicultural lenses. "Rhythm and melody, these things are kind of universal but the way that traditions deal with them can be vastly different," Mr Fields said. Huge populations, rising incomes and increased digital connectivity are all helping the music business across Asia grow. In 2024, 45 per cent of all global revenue from the physical sale of recorded music, such as CDs and vinyl, came from Asia, according to the International Federation of Phonographic Industry's Global Music Report. North America and Europe still remain the biggest regional markets once digital products, such as streaming and downloads, are included. The US is still the biggest single market but Asian countries have cracked the top 10, with Japan ranked second in the world, China fifth and South Korea seventh. Music labels such as Warner and Universal are investing in the region, while Western artists collaborate with Asian idols. In the past two years, Lady Gaga performed with Korean girl group Blackpink, Ed Sheeran with Singaporean singer JJ Lin and Usher with Malaysian artist Yuna. Several Australians or those with strong ties to Australia have also built careers in Asia, particularly in the K-pop scene. Rose from Blackpink grew up in Melbourne; Bang Chan and Felix from Stray Kids, lived in Sydney; and Jake from Emhypen moved to Brisbane when he was nine. Pop singer-songwriter Satsuki moved from Sydney to Osaka, Japan, almost a decade ago. Big cities and good transportation make touring much more economical in Japan and artists can also rely on a revenue stream that has dramatically disappeared in the West: CD sales. "I didn't have any CDs at the start because I didn't have any use for them," Satsuki said. "The fact that we still sell them, that we still have CD stores is, I think, incredible. "People love having physical media and physical cover art, lyric books and all that kind of stuff." Satsuki said Japan also had an "incredibly interesting and very diverse" music industry. "Take BabyMetal, for example," Satsuki said. "They're fronted by these three, very cutesy girls that sing in a cutesy way, but also have this very, authentic metal band supporting them. "That kind of combination, I don't think you really see in the West and I think it allows people to explore different types of genres and looks and images." Asia also has opportunities for those who want to build a career behind the scenes in the music business. The film and TV industry is blossoming in many Asian countries, and someone needs to compose the soundtrack of the latest K-drama or Bollywood hit. Mr Fields said there were also opportunities to write for video games. "And if you think about the diversity of environments, playing scenarios and all these types of things, having a global perspective on sounds and ideas and these other things is critical," he said. "I've done some session work for movies in India. I know people that compose here for movies being released in India, in the US, in Brazil. "Composition and performing is global now." First-year student Ivana Yue is looking to build a career in sound design, especially for musical theatre. Her cross-cultural work reflects her background; she grew up in Hong Kong but attended an Australian International School. "My favourite thing to do is to take patterns and melodic repetitions and themes from Asian-inspired music and put it into Westernised orchestral pieces. "I also love using different Chinese scales as well, and even Japanese scales." Finding success as a musician is rarely easy, regardless of whether you look East or West. Cultural barriers, language constraints and protectionist attitudes can make it tough to crack into a foreign market. And while some countries may be reluctant to embrace outsiders, cultural exchange helped shape one of the biggest success stories in the region: K-pop. University of Malaya associate professor Jimmyn Parc said when modern K-pop emerged in the 1990s, it incorporated many elements from Western music. "There were a lot of things from United States, hip hop and reggae, and people actually complained a lot," he said. "They said, 'This is not Korean. We should not accept these kinds of things.
