Taipei LGBTs march proud and loud in Asia's largest gay parade

News
29 Sep 2008

by Jason Tan
It was all cheers, noise and flamboyance when Asia's largest pride parade took to the streets in Taipei last Saturday. Fridae's Taipei correspondent Jason Tan witnesses yet another significant milestone in the community's history.

Pre-typhoon rains apparently failed to dampen the spirits of Taiwan LGBT Pride Parade last Saturday with the largest ever turnout of 18,000.

This is a new record compared to last year's 15,000 participants, again cementing the Taiwan march the largest in the region.

Despite occasional rains brought by Typhoon Jangmi which lashed Taiwan the following day after the parade, huge crowds - in rain coats or with umbrellas - streamed into the Taipei City Hall Square around 1pm, an hour before the parade started.

"People started to call in the morning to ask if the parade would be called off, but we told them: the march was on - rain or shine," said William Shen, aka "Gofyy," president of Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association, the event's co-organiser.

And he was right.

Marchers in wheelchairs, beefcakes clad only in tiny swim trunks, and a sizeable amount of expatriates were all spotted at the parade, which started to march along Ren Ai Road, An He Road, before pausing at Zhong Xiao East Road - a busy shopping/dining district similar to Singapore's Orchard Road, or Hong Kong's Causeway Bay.

Parade floats, which carry drag queens and half-naked macho men, proudly broadcast to the passersby and shopkeepers along Zhong Xiao East: "We are gays and we are proud!"

Twenty two-year-old Tony, who hails from Switzerland and arrived in Taipei two weeks ago to study Mandarin, was excited about his first Asian parade.

"I have joined parades in Europe and there were loads of fun," he said.

"I heard President Ma Ying-Jeou (then Taipei mayor) showed face to support the gay parade in Taipei before, so I am looking forward to this event."

Yes, paraders' spirits were high and its flashy carnival atmosphere grabbed media attention, but Taiwan LGBT community has indeed come a long way.

When the parade started off in 2003, only 500 people took part. The number grew to 3,000 the second year and 5,000 the third.

"The parade is a platform to educate the community, training them to be confident and proud of who they are," Gofyy said. "We want them to live and breathe as anyone else, and make their views heard by the society."

Indeed, over 80 LGBT groups signed up this year, doubled from last year's 40-plus, the organisers said. And title of the parade, for the first time, was changed from "Gay Pride" to "LGBT Pride," extending reach to bisexuals and transgenders in the family.

"Bi the Way," Taiwan's first-and-only bisexual group formed in June last year, is determined to let the society aware of their presence this year.

"People would think that bisexuals like us are enjoying lots of 'choices.' But if we tell our gay friends that we may fall for the opposite sex, they would despise us," Chen Lo-Wei, one of the founding members, told Fridae.

"We are being sidelined... Therefore, the parade gives us an avenue to find strength and support," she added.

Observers such as Hongkonger Denise Tang, applauded the progress of LGBT movement in Taiwan.

"In Taipei, we have LGBT-related parade, seminars, media outlets and supporting groups... These make the community vibrant," said Ms Tang, an assistant professor of Graduate Institute for Gender Studies at Shih Hsin University in Taipei.

Whereas in neigbouring Hong Kong, declaring that "I am gay" would require tremendous courage in the largely conservative population, she added.

Highlights of the event included the significant moment when a 90-metre long, 4.5-metre wide rainbow flag covered through the parade crowds. After that, marchers gathered again at the Taipei City Hall Square around 5pm, and the second half of the party had just started.

Invited performers including singer Chou Hui and drag queen/entertainer Topper took to the stage to vow support for the community. Performing in the parade for the fourth year straight, Topper wowed the crowds with flashy drag queen outfits and as usual - before stripping to only tops and hot pants to conclude the event.

"I had goose bumps seeing so many people here... They have their own views and they are not afraid to voice it out loud," said Angela Hsu, a 19-year-old college student who turned up to do project research with her fellow classmate.

These three to five years, when more of her friends dating the same sex, she started to contemplate on the sexuality issue and the importance of breaking stereotypes.

"We all will eventually fall for someone. And by then, whether it's a he or she, it doesn't matter," she added. - Text by Jason Tan

''Love of Siam'' catches on in Taiwan

26 Sep 2008
by Jason Tan

Why would five Taiwanese dig into their savings of NT$1 million (US$31,000), just to screen Thai flick The Love of Siam in theatres in Taiwan? Fridae's Taipei correspondent Jason Tan finds out more.

It was a warm Christmas in Bangkok last year. Taiwanese tourist Kyan Zheng and friends decided to catch a movie there and chanced upon The Love of Siam.

"I could relate to the movie as if it were telling my own story," he told Fridae when the movie opened in Taipei on Sept 19.

The Thai film, which combines family drama and a teenage romance between two boys (played by Witwisit Hiranyawongkul and Mario Maurer who is of Thai-German heritage) who had lost touch but reunited in later years, touched Zheng so much that he and four other friends decided to pull money together to make it into the big silver screen.

They had to invest US$15,000 to repurchase copyrights from a local movie distributor, who decided not to release the movie on concerns of a sluggish box office market.

Generally, major Hollywood productions would fare well in Taiwan, despite a ticket price of NT$270 (US$8.50). There are a handful independent theaters that screen non-mainstream foreign titles, including those on LGBT issues, but box office takings tend to be unpredictable and typically lacklustre.

These five friends - who happen to be colleagues - are determined to make the movie accessible to the public. They made use of their network in their advertising firm, pitched proposals to different movie houses, produced promo billboards and wrote publicity material for the screening.

They had even managed to fly actor Witwisit Hiranyawongkul and director Chookiat Sakveerakul from Bangkok to hold a meet-the-fans autograph session last Saturday on Sept 20.

"It is all hard work... We are all inexperienced in distributing a movie, but it is worth it," said Wendy Chen, one of the five who have brought the film to theatres.

All the bills add up to NT$1 million (US$31,000) in total, meaning they each have to shoulder NT$200,000.

But their efforts have not gone unnoticed.

Three hundred toys, replicas of a toy featured in the movie and remade for Taiwan's premiere, were nearly sold out before the first screening. Over 1,000 tickets were also pre-sold in the first week, an achievement considering Thai flicks aren't really crowd pullers in Taiwan.

Now, box office is their least consideration as these five young executives are ready to part with some of the investment - if not all.

"We knew that some have watched the movie on the Internet, but we want to make it into the big silver screens for public viewing," Chen said.

Opening on 146 screens in Thai cinemas last November, The Love of Siam was the No. 1 film at the Thai box office that weekend and dominated domestic film awards last year. It won Best Picture category in all major awards: Thailand National Film Association Awards, Starpics Magazine's Starpics Awards, Bangkok Critics Assembly Awards and Star Entertainment Awards.

Bangkok Post commentator, Nattakorn Devakula, said the film contained important lessons for Thai society. "The point that the film attempts to teach viewers - and a largely conservative Thai society - is that love is an evolved form of emotional attachment that transcends sexual attraction of the physical form."

When director Chookiat (flanked by actor Witwisit) met fans in Taipei, he told the audience what gave birth to the tear-jerking title: "I wanted to find out what is love. And if two boys have feelings for each other, does their love count?"

The two and a half hour story intended to connect to the audience by also touching on the love of family, parents and siblings, he said.

Indeed, one moviegoer was moved by the film's depiction of "love in all forms."

"I saw the music video in Thailand and it aroused my curiosity of the movie," Lin, a 25-year-old, told Fridae while queuing up to get the poster autographed in Ximending - a hip-and-happening teenage hangout in downtown Taipei.

So when he learned of the movie premiere in Taiwan, he was eager to purchase tickets to feel the big screen impact.

http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/2008/09/26/2128.love-of-siam-catches-on-in-taiwan?n=sea&nm=jason+tan

Beijing, the cheap and IT way

Don’t worry if you don’t have deep pockets. Wowed by the technological conveniences available, JASON TAN shows how you can still have a good time in Beijing


GREAT Wall, Summer Palace, bird’s nest... Yes, the Olympics fever may have receded from Beijing, but it doesn’t deter me from experiencing the China capital for the first time.

I am wowed by not only the magnificent ancient and Olympics architectures, but also the technology convenience in place, which enables me to travel two weeks within my budget.

It is a relaxing, no-frills trip and travelling within my limited budget is the priority of my first trip to Beijing. As I am travelling from Macau, using www.ctrip.com – one of the largest travel booking websites in China – solved the flight and accommodation issues. (Other major sites such as Elong.com are another option).

Ctrip, for one, offers tremendous useful information such as discounted domestic flights, hundreds of hotel choices and introduction on hot destinations. No wonder its business is prospering with a base of 20 million members.

Thanks to tie-ups with 28,000 two to five-star hotels worldwide, Ctrip members enjoy discounts with online hotel bookings.

My decent, neat single room at the busy Guloudongdajie is at 170 yuan (RM88) a night — far cheaper than the walk-in rate of 230 yuan.

The website’s search engine also allows you to easily narrow down hotel choices by choosing areas to stay in, preferred pricing and members’ ratings.

Cheaper Connection
Buy a local SIM card... outside of the airport. Using a local SIM card will save us money compared with international roaming.

You need not hit the telecom counters as soon as you set foot in the airport where the China Mobile SIM card on sale is 120 yuan (with stored value of 50 yuan).

If you can patiently wait until the bus rolls into the city centre, you can easily get one for 90 yuan (50 yuan stored value) or even lower at most news stands/grocery stores/convenient stores, etc. Top up your card when the credit runs low as incoming calls are charged a fee.

Getting Around
Another way to travel real cheap is to hop onto the local transport. Taking a cab (flag-down rate is 10 yuan) to the Great Wall is convenient and comfy, but it will not allow you to get a taste of local life (like getting used to people shoving and being sandwiched against one another during peak hours).

Get yourself the IC transport card. With this card, I pay only 4.8 yuan for a one-hour bus trip to Badaling of the Great Wall (fare is 12 yuan without the card). It also allows you a cheaper fare of 0.4 yuan on public buses compared with one yuan in cash payment.

There are eight subway lines (including the airport express) crawling around Beijing. Signs and broadcast of each station are in Chinese and English, so it shouldn’t be a big issue to navigate around these lines after a few rides.

And the plus (or minus) side is that you can experience the “post Olympics” feature if you take the subway. All commuters are required to have their bags go through the electronic security machines – exactly the same as the one in the airport – a measure set up in June last year for Olympics. There are at least two staff members manning each entrance to make sure no explosives or radioactive materials make their way into the trains.

Swim Like Phelps
Speaking of the Olympics, you can dip into the pool that Michael Phelps swam at the 2008 Beijing Games. National Aquatics Centre, aka Water Cube, boasts the latest in green technology currently used to save significant amounts of energy.

Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) is a light-weight polymer foil, around 250-microns thick. It is stretched thin and then folded to create giant air pockets that allow light to pass through while trapping and storing heat. Some 3,000 such air bubbles have been created in three layers for use in the walls of the Cube.

One of the pools – so called a warm-up pool – is open to public for a “test swim”. So I join the locals and expats for a dip, hoping to relive the Olympics excitement. The admission ticket is 50 yuan but loitering in the facilities after two hours will incur a penalty.

After passing through security checks (again), we are required to pay another 20 yuan to get a deep water pass. In Beijing, swimmers have to go through a 200m swim test to obtain the pass if they want to swim in deep water pools. This warm-up pool is two metres deep.

The sensor technology of the lockers is fairly impressive. The elastic band you carry has a number to the locker. There is a small magnet-like button on the band and its built-in sensor will open up the locker door for you. Much cooler than the common key-lock system!

Swimming buffs, hurry though. The Cube’s test swim ends in mid October. No official word on what will happen after that.


http://travel.nst.com.my/Current_News/TravelTimes/article/Outbound/20090825092248/Article/index_html

Hugo Chang: Attitude speaks

December 1, 2008

By Jason Tan

If you hang around California Fitness in Zhongxiao East Road in Taipei, you may bump into Hugo Chang – a beefy, sunny big boy with poster boy looks. He may be HIV+ but he doesn't let the illness get him down.


Chatty, witty and candid, Hugo Chang didn't hide his personality when meeting Fridae's Taipei correspondent Jason Tan.

“If it weren't for the fact that I am HIV positive, I could still be an arrogant, self-centered guy and easily have my way with guys – thanks to the cute looks some say I possess,” admitted 32-year-old Hugo.

“I have to stand out and shatter the stereotype that all HIV/AIDS patients are dreadful,” he said.

It was a hot, passionate affair when he gave a blow job – minus the protection – to a man while he had an ulcer in the mouth. Later, few feverish nights sent him to the emergency room, and the blood test showed that he was HIV positive. It happened in 2000, when he was 25 years old.

“People ask if I hate him for infecting me. But I wasn't forced into the act, so I had to shoulder half of the responsibility. Maybe it is my destiny and it prompted me to look at things differently. In a way, I am lucky,” he said.

He came clean about his being gay and HIV positive to his family, colleagues and the public. While it’s obvious he has got the whole package (and proves it in a Jan-Feb 2006 issue of Good Guy magazine), he is more than a just a pretty face. In 2005, he became the spokesman of a local AIDS prevention campaign in which he was the poster boy and he said: “Don't I look as good as Takeshi Kaneshiro in the shot?” He went on a popular TV talk show hosted by public gay TV personality Kevin Tsai to talk about LGBT issues and being a macho-yet-vulnerable man.

To Hugo, coming out wasn't a particularly difficult decision.

“This is my attitude in life, and being gay or HIV positive doesn't change the way I treat my friends. If you can't accept the fact that I am gay or positive, so be it,” he said.


In this interview, Hugo bared all again - this time his soul - to talk about becoming certain of his sexuality in senior high school, getting infected with HIV and his decision to take a road less travelled.

æ: You wrote in your blog that you became aware of your sexuality in your teens, what was it like then and when did you come out to your family?
Hugo: It was in junior high school that I started to find myself curious about men's bodies. But I was timid as it was the days of limited information on LGBT issues. I was certain of my sexuality when I went into senior high school and before I reported for military training (which is compulsory for all Taiwanese males when they turn 19); I came out to my sister. She told me that our family would stand by me; but if I really opted to go this path, I had to be ready for the pressure and challenges usually not faced by heterosexuals.

æ: How did you find out about your HIV status?
Hugo: After a casual sexual encounter in 2000, I developed fever which lasted 15 days. I was admitted to the emergency room on the eighth day and the basic blood test came out ok. But I told the doctor I was gay and asked him to do a HIV test. (In Taiwan, doctors have to gain the patient’s consent before testing for HIV). The test came back negative due to the window period and I did another test. The fever continued and I was hospitalised for a week. I was told to pick up another report in a month's time.

I had a whole month to contemplate on the outcome; there was a 50:50 chance of me getting infected. If the result came back positive, I had to prepare for the challenges ahead. I would be a lucky folk if I wasn't infected and I told myself I would take extra precaution in my future sexual encounters. But it was not to be.

I went to pick up the report in the middle of a work day, and told my colleagues to wish me luck. In the hospital, after being told that the test had come back positive, I only uttered an “Ah”. I wasn't taken aback as I already had a whole month to prepare for the worst. I called my sister and asked her to tell my mother and brothers. The pressure was tremendous and I couldn't bear to tell my mother in person. My brother told me that she cried nearly a month but she didn't reproach me. She asked if she wasn't being a good enough mother.

æ: What made you decide to go public about your infection?
Hugo: These days, Taipei is more LGBT friendly. But I think there could have been some breakthroughs. I had evaluated the situation about my family and workplace and decided that the time was ripe for me to jump out and speak for the HIV/AIDS community. [Note: Hugo became the spokesman for Taiwan's AIDS prevention campaign in 2005 when the heatlh authorities wanted to promote the awareness on Dec 1, World AIDS Day.] Harnessing the power of media would reach more people than just coming clean to only my friends.

Going public was relatively easy as I had moved out of my family home after my military training, so fewer neighbours could recognise me and point fingers at my family.

If you have a positive attitude, most people wouldn't discriminate against HIV patients. I did prepare for the worst after telling the company what happened to me. I already worked there for three years, so I thought I would at least be compensated if I got fired. (Laugh) After appearing for the HIV/AIDS campaign, my friends were worried that my landlord would kick me out, or neighbours boycott me, or restaurants refuse to sell me food, but all these did not happen.

In general, I didn't really face discrimination except being rejected by some of the guys I tried to pick up. (Laugh)

æ: How did your colleagues react to the news?
Hugo: Some people think that all HIV patients are frail and/or those have ulcerous skin. I want to be proof that AIDS isn't that dreadful. I chose to took the medicine as soon as I tested positive although my viral count was low.

At the time, I would put the bottles of pills on the office desk, and I had to swallow 12 to 16 pills a day according to different schedules. Sometimes I have difficulty sticking to the precise intake timetable due to hectic office work, but now things are better as I only need to take the pills twice a day - in the morning and at night. To some patients who may vomit or have diarrhea after taking the pills, I would only experience nausea but now the situation is better as my body has gotten used to the medication after eight years.

Sometimes when my colleagues ask what those pills were for, I would joke and say: “They are for my HIV, so that I could live longer and share your workload.” Probably because I am working in a media company [Hugo works in a TV station doing computer animation], so people here are open minded. And I had worked there for three years before the infection, so they already knew me as a person.

My boss even asked me if overseas treatment was more advanced, and if yes, he was willing to send me abroad. I was moved and consider myself to be a lucky guy.

æ: How does Taiwanese society and government today see HIV positive people?
Hugo: In Taiwan, patients have to apply for a special medical card to get full medicine subsidy from the government. The medical bill every month for a single patient could run up to nearly NT$20,000 (US$610), so it is a heavy burden for the government.

The government is still focusing on the education of AIDS prevention among adults. But another area of concern is of HIV positive babies. How could they adjust to school life given the stigma? People are still uncertain about the transmission ways of HIV/AIDS, even among LGBT community. But they are no longer that fearful/ignorant of the disease. I am trying to maintain a positive lifestyle and looking at my best. I want to prolong my lifespan now, so that when those days really come in the future, it would be the time I depend on my family.

æ: Why did you decide to strip for Good Guy magazine in 2006?
Hugo: After the AIDS awareness campaign, the publishing company approached me and wanted to do a story on HIV/AIDS and asked me to be the cover guy. I was then 28 years old, thinking that if I didn't do it then, I might regret that I didn’t for the rest of my life! I did struggle as I was required to do full frontal shots. Then again, it did satisfy my desire to have my own pictorial and how could I let the cover boy chance slip?! (Laugh) Plus, I reached an agreement with the company: they would donate NT$5 per copy sold to help HIV positive babies.

But now, I have given away all the copies that I bought, and have to ask my female colleagues to give one to me if they no longer want the copy they bought. (Laugh)

æ: In your blog, you said that you would always inform your sexual partners of your HIV positive status... [According to the blog, Hugo met his ex-boyfriend in the gym, telling the latter straight before their first movie date that he had HIV. After the movie, he drove Hugo back to his rented house and Hugo plucked up the courage to ask: “Do you want to come up?” He replied: “I am looking for parking space.” At the time, Hugo knew in his heart that this man was going to change his life.]
Hugo: I told my ex-partner the second day that I was HIV positive, I told him to consider the pressure and risks if we wanted to take things further. I didn't want to leave the issue in the future only after we had grown closer. I wanted to inform him in the first place, and let both of us have the right to choose. We were together for six years, and his recent medical report showed that he was negative.

I am now single and for my potential sexual partners, I would tell them “I am HIV positive”. There are risks of contracting the disease not only in anal but also oral sex. If I had kept mum during the sex act without coming clean, I would face the moral pressure even with protection on. If you like someone and you have been through the inconveniences of taking the pills and all, you wouldn't want them to be in the same shoes.

æ: Do you have any regrets and what’s in store for 2009 and beyond?
Hugo: We always have a lot of social commitments - to our work, our partners and our family - which don't allow us to go and do things we’ve always dreamed of. If you know you would regret, why not do it now? I am now single, and I want to go to different countries to participate in their gay parades. I want to learn how they promote LGBT rights and advocate greater awareness on the issue.

In terms of AIDS prevention, I still have to work and I don't think I can fully commit to that now. My EQ is low (laugh) and if other patients keep asking me the same question, I would be impatient. Many HIV positive patients tend to be depressed and would keep thinking of the same issue over and over again. I could offer them advice a few times, but you will have to be the one to get out of the mental trap and help yourself. In the future if possible, I would love to get involved in AIDS foundation work in Taiwan and help patients and their family members to get through the tormenting period.

Correction: The correct spelling of Hugo's lastname is Chang and not Zhang as originally published.

Fancy an overseas posting?

It was a long, grueling six-month wait to finally land that ideal overseas job, this writer recounts his experience after trying his luck in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

By Jason Tan

Three months ago, I had finally landed in Macao, so-called “Las Vegas of the east” – a gambling enclave I had never set foot on, let alone thought of leading a career life.

The story began in last October, when I decided to put my three-year career in Taipei to a full stop. I have lived in the blessed island for seven years and it was time to move on.

The urge to discover the other parts of the Greater China region was so strong in the last few months in Taipei.

So jaws of my Taiwanese friends were dropped when I told them I wanted to start all over in a place totally out of my league – and bid goodbye to the comfortable paycheck and great job in Taipei.

It was a natural move considering that after all those years of work experience, chances of meeting the Perfect Job became scarce. So scarce that firms in my industry are cutting costs and cautious in adding new blood as the industry is no longer on the boom side.

So I didn't think twice to fly to Hong Kong after hooking up with a prospectus firm.

I have always dreamed of being a part of Hong Kong's hustle-and-bustle workforce, thanks to the influence of Canto pop songs and TVB series.

This was my second visit to the firm within a year; and this time, I went with the hope of signing on the dotted line.

But leaving the skyscrapers in Central only made the fact sink in faster: There were just too limited rice bowls -- especially gold-plated ones -- to jostle for.

While they gave me the diplomatic reply of "Thanks for coming and we will get back to you soon", I knew the underlying message was "Why bother the hassle to apply you work permit? What could you offer us that locals couldn't?"

It was then I decided to detour to Shanghai, a city where millions of mainlanders are hoping to make it big some where, some time.

While I spent the afternoon soaking in the culture of the Shanghai Bund, the evening was a routine of firing off resumes to employers -- mostly to no avail.

After spending nearly three months staying in a city where outsiders were welcomed by hostility instead of hospitality, and discovered that shoving and yanking were the ways to board a public transport, it was obvious I wasn't cut out for the city, after all.

I then packed up for home when New Year's festivities neared.

After a few-year hiatus, it was the time to be with family members and meet good friends before jetting off again, I reckoned.

My job hunt didn't stop as Beijing and Macao were the newly added targets.

With Olympic Games buzzing up the Chinese capital and huge tourist dollars being rolled into Macao thanks to the booming casino scene, it was now or never.

So, when a big Macao firm pronounced "Welcome on board!" in March, I was still in shock wondering if the agonizing job search was finally over.

For the first time, I was lavished by an expat package, and the chance to delve into an area I have always wanted to try.

It was indeed an opportunity of a grueling six-month wait. It turned up precisely at the time I was going broke and started to doubt my own capability.

During those days when I didn’t need to rush to work, I had a lot of time to reflect.

This was despite I already signed up for ballroom dance, went to swim classes, attended seminars, and even tried my hands in the kitchen exploring new dishes.

I couldn't stop thinking that what if retrenchment unexpectedly sets in one day? Or when the retirement bell rings?

Would I be financially, mentally and physically prepared to waking up each morning, realizing that I have another 15 hours to kill?

What other skills do I have to bring back the bacon if paycheck were to stop abruptly? How could I prove my worth to the society and continue to lead a fulfilling lifestyle when my hair turns silver?

These questions followed me to Macao, and I am still looking for answers.

But now, I am so looking forward to clocking in for work every day!

How green are your electronics?

By Jason Tan

Imagine this: before rushing to work in the morning, we leave an absorber outside the balcony to suck in the sunlight; at night, we simply place a table lamp atop the absorber and wow – let there be light!

All this is done without any electric plugs -- the table lamp is completely wire-less.

The sun-kissing lamp is one of the few “green” offerings being introduced in Taiwan of late, as companies hope to cash in on the “green” waves sweeping across the globe thanks to the global warming issues.

Tsann Kuen Enterprise, Taiwan’s biggest home appliances and electronics retailing chain, is one case in point. It not only introduced the above-mentioned table lamp, but also another CD player powered by sunshine.

“Pumping more resources into developing high-end offerings, including these environment-friendly products, will enable us phase out other products with lower values,” said Jack Chien, general manager of Tsann Kuen.

Concept for the company’s “Fora” brand of solar-powered electronics came after plant’s photosynthesis process.

How they work is simple.

We will need a specific electricity storage base, which is rechargeable either by solar energy or conventional household electricity. Then insert the table lamp or CD player on the base and the reading and partying hence begin!

The base even has a light sensor for us to detect the best spot to soak up the sunlight. But it needs some eight-hour outdoor exposure to have a full charge, or three hours if plugged into household electricity.

However, not everyone can afford to go green.

The table lamp and CD player cost around NT$7,000 (RM744) each, while solar storage base is NT$7,000, so the bill easily adds up to NT$14,000.

Indeed, consumers like Chao Yi-Chien, 23, found such ideas fresh but would not bring one home, at least for now.

“Judging from the escalating utility costs, I could save lots of money over the long term,” said the sales specialist at IBM Taiwan. “But the prices are steep.”

Tsann Kuen is not the only one eyeing the pockets of those environment-savvy consumers.

Taiwan’s Asustek Computer is all geared up to debut its first bamboo PC around this September, carrying a price label of some NT$50,000.

The Asus Eco Book, as it's dubbed, has a casing covered by bamboo strips available in different shades.

Harvesting bamboo -- an abundant, flexible, durable, and fast-growing grass – will cause lesser harm to the earth compared to processing wood from trees, according to Asustek, the world’s largest maker of motherboards.

But glues and laminates for shaping and fortifying the material sometimes contain toxins, it said.

Engineers have to make sure bamboo is suitable for laptops, which have to endure extreme conditions while allowing heat from microprocessors and monitors to ventilate.

“Choosing bamboo as an alternative material helps the environment in many different ways,” said Mitch Yang, division manager of ASUS Design.

“Not only is it more attractive, it also constantly reminds the users to help preserve the environment.”

China 3G launch – cheers or jeers?

With the world’s spotlight set to shine on China as the Olympics draws near, the country is trying hard to deliver on its promise of making available third-generation (3G) mobile services by next month.

But how exactly this will be a boon to phone users remains a question mark, industry watchers say.

In late April, the Chinese authorities announced that they would distribute 15,000 3G handsets to the Beijing Organizing Committee. This would allow the Games officials, staff and volunteers to watch televised programmes, play videos and surf the Internet over high-speed data transmissions on the cell phone.

But there is still no indication or announcement pertaining to how foreign visitors could easily access 3G during the Games, according to an industry source.

Beijing has been gearing up to create its Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access, or TD-SCDMA, standard since 2001 in an attempt to create opportunities for its telecommunications firms. This is also to avoid coughing up huge licensing fees for developers of the other two more popular 3G standards – Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, or WCDMA, and CDMA-2000 – which have been approved by China for use in the mainland.

On April 1, China finally launched its first commercial 3G trial across eight cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen – despite the launch coming five years later than other advanced markets.

China Mobile, the country’s largest cell phone operator which introduced the service, made available only 60,000 3G handsets – one-third were allocated for a select group of users to experiment on a complimentary basis, plus an 800 yuan (RM360) subsidy per user every month.

The remaining handsets were sold on the market at between 2,000 yuan and 4,000 yuan. Only six phone models and two types of data card for laptop users were available.

“China Mobile isn’t too ambitious in pushing the service on the mass scale. Subsidy for the 3G phones is not much, and these phones are pricey to acquire,” said Fang Meiqin, principal analyst with research firm BDA China.

Technical glitches such as poor signal coverage during the commercial trial are also a turn-off.

“There were lags and mosaics in the video calls... even audio calls were cut off during conversations,” Fang said, describing her experience testing the phones.

To attract more users to sign up for the novel service, she suggested dual-network handsets to allow users a quick switch from 3G to 2G if the former signal is weak.

“The launch certainly encountered some hiccups – the same situation other operators encountered when they started promoting their respective 3G services,” Fang said, adding that it will take at least two years for 3G to gain ground in China.

Following the selected eight Chinese cities, more 3G work is expected next year to deploy base stations for another 300 cities across the mainland.

Fast facts on China handset market

• Total users: 565.2 million (more than the US population of 303 million)

• China Mobile subscribers: 392.1 million

• China Mobile users’ average monthly phone bill: 82 yuan

• China Unicom subscribers: 167 million

• China Unicom users’ average monthly phone bill: 43.3 yuan

* Figures as at first quarter of this year