the far eastern audio review has a great interview up with huang wan-ting:

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but almost anytime a Japanese girl band goes to the U.S., it’s always marketed as, “Look how cute. Japanese girls play instruments.” I wonder what, as a woman musician, your feelings are about that.

I think in Taiwan, too—and in most Asian countries—if you’re a girl and play in a band, people think, “O.K., I’m going to see this girl band because they’re cute, they’re hot.” They’re always thinking about looks and not music. That’s one thing I really don’t care for and I was kind of angry about it before, but now I’m O.K. with it. But if you’re female and you play in a band, you really don’t know if you’re good or not, because people say you’re good for a girl. That’s one thing I’m really against. I really want to break this male-and-female stuff in music. It’s not about gender.

A lot of my male friends in Taiwan just want to go see girl bands. And a lot of girls only want girls so they can be a girl band. But one funny thing I’ve noticed is, every girl band in Taiwan, they hate each other very much. I do the sound at Underworld, so once I was doing sound for a girl band and they were talking shit about another girl band. Then I did the sound for that girl band and they were talking shit about another girl band! I just couldn’t believe it—it’s so weird.

huang wan-ting was in the punk band ladybug before. a band that seemed to be a lot more popular with foreigners than the taiwanese. now she has a more laptop based band called varo. what i've heard hasn't impressed me a great deal, but i've been told that they are much better live than on cd. i keep hoping to discover a band i like for themselves, not because "they are good for a taiwan band". regardless, there being bands like varo or nylas are a step in the right direction. anything is better than another pointless idol singer.