Taiwan madness

I am shallow. I don't want China and Taiwan to go to war because that might mean my darling Taiwanese band Mayday might never make records again, and SCV will be short of my favourite Taiwanese variety programmes to screen. Worse still, the members of Mayday might get conscripted and have to fight in the war!!! And die!!!

Oh man.

I was watching TVBS news on Channel 54 today, witnessing the unprecedented demonstration marches while trying to make out the hard-to-read Chinese words on the screen, out of the corner of my eye.

According to the newspapers, about 1 million Taiwanese were expected to take to the streets today to protest the anti-secession law passed by China. On TV, the marches looked too organised to be true. There were 10 huge groups, each labelled names such as "pro-freedom group", "anti-missiles group" and "pro-democracy group". Each group began their march from a designated area, inching towards the presidential hq.

The whole spectacle was like a carnival, much like The New Paper Big Walk (if you've ever been to one), but a hundred times grander. There was music, there were floats even! I saw one with missile replicas on top. Like a walkathon with old fogeys as contestants, the protestors chanted slogans before they were flagged off by a horn.

Chewing gum, fanning themselves with their flags and sauntering with their kids in tow, it seemed like an impending war was never an issue on their minds. It was just a big happy parade, minus the big band, pom poms and cheerleaders.

And I was actually scrutinising the screen to see if I could catch any Taiwanese stars I knew. Well, not like they would take to the streets. They might be banned from performing in China!

Anyways, back to my point about Mayday. If the music market in Taiwan was affected by a war one day, it'll be a sad day for me man.