On December 12th 2014 an audition for AKB48 was announced, open for girls aged 11-23 living in Taiwan. During the application period (April 17th - May 16th) 2152 applications were received. 170 candidates were chosen to participate in the second audition that was held on June 13th 2015. 60 girls aged 11 - 22 have passed and will enter the final audition, planned to be held in early August. Source: Tokyo Girls' Update
But why...? Have they announced a new sister group? Or are they meant for AKB itself? That could be interesting. Since it's called the "AKB48 Taiwan Audition", I can only guess that they're looking for a special member(s) like Mommiko with OtonaAKB or something? Oh well. It'll be interesting either way. It'd be like having a foreign exchange student in the mothership. I think that's exciting. Kinda like how they were gearing Melody in New Ship, but that was the last of that.
They announced a Taiwanese sister group a long time ago, but nothing came of it. This audition must have something to do with that. It could be either a way to make up for the broken promise or to promote AKB in Taiwan/test the waters before they continue with their original plans for a sister group.
Ideal scenario: 1-5 girls pass the audition, they go to Japan, they receive proper training, they are assigned to a Team as foreign exchange students, one of them ends up in senbatsu (maybe for the big 10 years anniversary single coming this december), they stay for a year in AKB to gather some popularity, they get sent back to Taipei to be members of the first generation of TPE48 and our senbatsu member becomes the ace.
YES. I love this idea. I get annoyed from time to time, with how saturated the juggernaut has become.. but at the same time, more girls means more diversity, and more girls means more competition, which keeps each single interesting. I wonder if the winning girl will get placed into a team, or if she'll be listed as like "AKB Taiwan" like Mariko was listed as "Otona AKB" or Mika was "Baito AKB".
I just hope whoever got selected is fluent in Japanese.. though I think there are many people in Taiwan who already knows Japanese
I have not seen this link posted.... http://www.akb48.co.jp/page/taiwan_audition_tw/entry.html Another member for the count.
I saw at the AKB Taiwan Facebook, they were answering those frequent asked questions. The winner does not have be fluent or know Japanese, the winner must be able to live in Japan for activities.
I think it's very likely that the member chosen will be fluent in Japanese though, since it'll make things easier. Besides what else would they speak? It's not like most of the AKB members and staff would be fluent in Mandarin or even English. I fear that the Taiwanese girl may get bullied in AKB though unless she's able to integrate into Japanese society very well.
I'm hoping this taiwan member will be a part of team 8 somehow so it'll be 47 prefectures + 1 international
I would advise people to not kid themselves into thinking that this girl will be at all popular. She wont be. Or at least I highly doubt it, given the experiences I've seen from non-Japanese J-pop Idols such as JunJun and LinLin from Momusu. But at least the concept will generate some nice publicity and introduce some diversity.
I really hope new akb member will actually get a kennin status to snh48 , since sae and mariya are just tied in for 'diplomatic' purposes. wouldnt it be great to have a member both fluent in chinese and japanese to bridge that gap between the two akb and snh?
Trust me, you wouldn't want to do that. China and Taiwan and Japan have a really, really odd relationship.
I feel like Taiwanese people hate China more. Especially if you look at the sunflower revolution and the whole "is Taiwan a country?" thing.
the taiwan-china issue is so overrated, unless you're into politics. Just wanted to remind all of you that one of the most popular snh members is from Taiwan, and she got 2nd place in last yrs ssk. So I'll still be rooting for these taiwan members to bring akb closer to snh!
So true. I agree with you. Wanwan got second place, so I wouldn't argue that all Chinese fans hate the Taiwanese and vice versa. But if the Taiwanese member joins SNH as a kennin, I would prefer an SNH member kennined AKB, too.