A Presidential Groundbreaking

Groundbreaking for Taiwan’s NT$4.55 billion ($150 million) Taipei Pop Music Center took place June 19 with the country’s president and the city’s mayor in attendance, not to mention the cream of Taiwan’s music industry. 

The center is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016 and operational sometime the following year. It covers 8.97 hectares and is located in the city’s Nangang District, consisting of three buildings: the 5,000-seat main auditorium, the Hall of Fame and the Music Industry Zone.

There will also be four outdoor performance venues. During the attendant ceremony, President Ma Ying-jeou pointed out that another, similar center will be built in the southern part of the country, and that together the two facilities will “act as the dual engines of a plane and advance Taiwan’s pop music industry,” according to the China Post.

In addition to presenting concerts and other performances, the center will act as a base for Taiwan’s music industry with facilities for production, exhibitions and promotion.

The two centers were approved in 2008. Mayor Hau Lung-bin noted that 80 percent of the songwriters and lyricists in Chinese language pop are from Taiwan. Taiwanese singer Terry Lin also showed up at the ceremony and added that he hoped local talent stayed in the country in order to help it retain its status as the main source of Chinese-language pop.