There are times when you wish to be on a short holiday getway, to savour the the culture and lifestyle of a foreign land.

Right now, i'm having this urge to fly to 台中（Tai-Chung) over the weekend. The reason?

A concert featuring Wubai and China Blue, Mayday, Faith Yang (杨乃文), Bobby Chen (陈升), Cheer Chen (陈绮贞), and Zhang Zheng-Yue(张震岳). The thought of it makes me cream in my pants. If i factor in the possible cross-over performances involving the artistes above, i would probably die from over-ejaculation.

So why are these bands congregating at Tai-Chung? Simply to commemorate the 台客 culture that has spawned in Taiwan over the past decade. The 台客 culture is somewhat similar to the Bengism and Lianism culture (ie the days when wearing a yellow color jeans with a pointed comb sticking out of your back pocket was considered cool) that gripped Singapore for a good part of the 90s. The event has a nationalisitic element in it, urging the Taiwanese youths to be proud of their heritage and culture, and not to be ashamed of it.

The Taiwanese youths' apathy towards their own heritage and culture somewhat mirrors what is happening in Singapore. Not many (myself included) knows a great deal of our young country's history, while others thump their noses at dialects and Singlish (which the government isn't doing a great favour). And with the general election looming closer, it saddens me to read from the Nanyang Chronicles that one of NTU's final-year undergraduate actually felt this way towards the election:

" I have other concerns like my school work so I am not that excited as they don't concern me."