Taichung City TaiKe Tourism Season 台中市台客觀光季

April showers bring...what is it again? Oh, yeah - TaiKe Rock 'n Roll! Taichung has designated May as TaiKe Tourism Season (Chinese link). What is TaiKe? Let Red A answer. What is TaiKe Tourism Season? Let the city government explain: The Season coordinates multiple life and recreational arts in the City into the delicate presentation of all-aspects and colorful innovations.

Who cares about - or understands - that? May 5th and 6th will see the main attraction of the Season. TaiKe rock featuring Wu Bai and China Blue (English Wu Bai site, and a Chinese one - sign up required). Look at the dude. He is TaiKe. I freely admit I love the guy and band. I used to listen and learn the lyrics so I could sing along until someone took (or hid) my CD. Here's a video of a typical Wu Bai Taiwanese song. And here is a classic, not his, but his cover is the most famous. This is the song that I sang to my wife, the lovely Petra Sue Lynch, when I proposed to her over the telephone from the States - Love You 10,000 Years (愛你一萬年). The video has the lyrics. Learn them and impress your Taiwanese spouse or whoever needs impressing.

P.S. - Garland, I want you to watch the Love You 10,000 Years video and give me your opinion. Tell me what you think, you won't hurt my feelings cause if you don't like it I'll say you're wrong.

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And now, a joke. First in Chinese and then in English with explanation (mandatory of all Chinese-language jokes for non-native speakers).

為什麼800壯士變成300壯士?

因為伍佰跑到去開演唱會 (You may now laugh.)

Why did the 800 warriors become the 300 warriors?

Because Wu Bai left to give a concert.

Explanation: The 800 warriors are China's version of the Spartan 300. In 1937 a group of 800 Chinese soldiers withstood thousands of Japanese for four days as the invasion of Shanghai began.

Wu Bai (伍佰), the singer mentioned above, has the same pronunciation as the characters for the number 500 (五百).

Get it? Did you laugh? I didn't. But every Taiwanese that I've told the joke to did laugh - about 5 people. It was originally told to me by my 6th-grade student and I don't know if she was repeating a joke she heard or if she made it up.