ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
February 17, 2014
Ghostwriter, lauded composer part ways after admission
GHOST COMPOSER. Takashi Niigaki, left,
ghostwriter of well-known deaf composer Mamoru
Samuragochi, whom Japanese have likened to Bee-
thoven for supposedly composing music despite a
severe hearing impairment, is escorted to leave a
press conference in Tokyo. Niigaki said he hopes to
continue composing and performing, despite the up-
roar over Samuragochi’s admission that he did not
write the pieces he is best known for, such as the
powerful “Hiroshima Symphony.” (AP Photo/Eugene
Hoshiko)
By Elaine Kurtenbach
The Associated Press
OKYO — The ghostwriter for the
musician lauded as Japan’s
Beethoven says he became fed up
and ended their 18-year collaboration last
year and he questioned if Mamoru
Samuragochi really could hear.
Samuragochi, 50, had previously
claimed to be the sole author of his
classical works and soundtracks for video
games, such as Biohazard, despite having
lost his hearing by age 35. His story
resonated in Japan, where perseverance is
greatly admired. But he admitted this
month that he did not write the powerful
“Hiroshima Symphony” and other works
credited to him.
His ghost composer, Takashi Niigaki,
said he provided music for Samuragochi
for 18 years and questioned if he was
hearing impaired.
“I saw no signs that he could not hear,”
Niigaki said as, seemingly flustered by the
limelight, he struggled to answer a bar-
rage of questions over how Samuragochi
could have managed the deception for so
long.
A written statement from Samura-
gochi’s lawyers apologized for what he
called a “betrayal” of his fans and
T
described Samuragochi as being in “too
unstable an emotional state” to appear in
public.
Lawyer Kazushi Orimoto told reporters
that he did believe his client was hearing
impaired. Samuragochi has a certificate
for his disability and is classified as having
severe hearing loss.
His official biography says Samuragochi
was born in Hiroshima to survivors of the
1945 atomic bomb attack and began
India back in the Olympics; flag flies in Sochi
SOCHI, Russia (AP) — It’s probably
the most important moment Olympic
athletes can have besides competing:
walking in the opening ceremony for their
country.
But imagine waiting for your grand
entrance and getting your cue: “Inde-
pendent Olympic Participants.”
The equivalent of the International
Olympic Committee saying it’s not you,
just your country.
No wonder the athletes’ parade at the
Sochi Games wasn’t so fun for Indian luger
Shiva Keshavan, who said he spent the
moments beforehand talking with the
other two Indian athletes — skier Nadeem
Iqbal and slalom skier Hamanshu Thakur
— about why their flag wouldn’t fly.
“That enthusiasm wasn’t there that I
generally feel at the opening ceremony,”
Keshava said.
“The whole world is watching and when
the Indian flag doesn’t fly, people know
that it’s because of corruption and it’s not a
nice image for the country,” Keshavan
said. “So although there are real problems,
still, symbolism is really important at the
Olympic Games.”
India was back after resolving a dispute
over its Olympic governance, though the
decision came too late for Keshava, who is
India’s top winter sports athlete. He
competed already, finishing 37th in a
39-man field.
A special ceremony was held in the
Olympic Village to raise the Indian flag.
2013 Most Honored
Elder Award Recipient
Lourdes J. Cereno Markley
AR Photo/Jan Landis
Lourdes J. Cereno Markley was born July 21, 1940 in Naguilian, La Union
province, the Philippines to Encarnacion Rimando Bacalzo and Gabriel E. Cereno,
the third of four children. Lourdes travelled to the U.S. at the age of 23 with the
help of her uncles. She attended Seattle University in Seattle, Washington, earned
a bachelor’s degree in education, and taught for
several years. She met Charles Markley in an acting
class at Seattle Community College in 1966 and the
two were married on December 31, 1970. They moved
to Portland in 1972. Lourdes worked as a secretary at
U.S. Bank while her husband attended law school.
They are proud parents of three children — Julia,
John, and Maria — and two grandchildren, Gus and
Zorina. While raising her children, Lourdes
volunteered as an advocate for the Hmong community
and was involved in the Fil-Am Association of
Portland & Vicinity. Lourdes returned to teaching
when her youngest child was in high school and worked as a substitute teacher
from 1994 to 2012. Lourdes is a lifetime member, co-founder, and former president
of the Oregon chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society. She is
an active participant with Portland State University’s Kaibigan organization as
well as a member of Toastmasters and the Multnomah Athletic Club. Lourdes
serves Madeleine Parish — which she joined in 1975 — as a reader during Sunday
mass. She is also a member of and volunteer teacher with AARP. A great believer in
family, she sponsored two of her sisters, Emma and Ciony, as well as Ciony’s two
children, to immigrate to the U.S.
The Asian Reporter Foundation is accepting nominations
for its 2014 “Most Honored Elder” awards.
The recognition banquet will be held Thursday, April 17, 2014 at
northeast Portland’s TAO Event Center. Nomination forms and guidelines
for eligibility are available for download at <www.ARFoundation.net>.
The nomination deadline is Wednesday, March 26, 2014 at 5:00pm.
playing music and composing at an early
age. The cause of his gradual hearing loss
hasn’t been explained.
Nippon Columbia Co. issued a
statement expressing astonishment and
outrage that Samuragochi had not
composed his own music. The company
stopped sales of his works, while major
media
outlets
including
national
broadcaster NHK apologized for having
run programs featuring Samuragochi as
an accomplished composer.
Niigaki said he hopes to continue
composing and performing despite the
brouhaha over Samuragochi’s admission
of having faked authorship of many works,
including an arrangement, “Sonatina for
Violin,” that figure skater Daisuke
Takahashi used for his short program at
the Sochi Olympics.
It was his concern over Takahashi that
led him to speak out, Niigaki said, as he
feared that a disclosure of the truth later
might be more awkward for him.
Asked how the two worked together,
Niigaki said he would compose pieces
and sometimes play them for Samura-
gochi, who would then choose which he
liked.
“The music was born of my collaboration
with him,” Niigaki said. “I produced all the
works to the best of my ability.”
Cambodia recovers stolen Buddhist relics
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) —
Cambodian police have recovered a
precious golden urn stolen last year that
contains what are considered to be
remnants of Buddha’s body, according to
an official.
The urn was taken from a mountain
shrine 25 miles outside the capital in
mid-December.
National Police spokesman Kirt
Chantharith said it was recovered from a
house in the southern province of Takeo,
and a man was arrested in connection with
the theft.
Several countries in Asia process relics
believed to come from the body of Buddha,
and the stolen urn holds enormous
religious and cultural significance for
Cambodia, a predominantly Buddhist
nation.
The theft ignited a nationwide outcry
and demands that authorities track it
down.
The relics were given to late King
Norodom Sihanouk in 1957 by Sri Lanka
to commemorate the 2,500th anniversary
of Buddha’s birth.
RELIC RECOVERED. A golden urn is seen after
being recovered in the southern Cambodian province
of Takeo. Police in Cambodia said the precious golden
urn stolen last year contains what are considered to be
remnants of Buddha’s body. The urn was taken from a
mountain shrine 25 miles outside the capital in mid-
December. (AP Photo)
Creator says game over for maddening Flappy Bird
By Tran Van Minh
The Associated Press
ANOI, Vietnam — The young
Vietnamese creator of hit mobile
game Flappy Bird has removed it
from the App Store and Google Play saying
it ruined his life.
The game that was uploaded in 2013,
but only surged to the top in downloads
earlier this year, was removed this month.
The success of the game that based its
appeal on being simple and also
maddeningly difficult made its creator,
Nguyen Ha Dong, 29, a minor celebrity.
The game was downloaded more than 50
million times on App Store alone. In an
interview with The Verge website, Dong
said Flappy Bird was making $50,000 a
day in advertising revenue.
But tech blogger Carter Thomas said the
sudden popularity of Flappy Bird might
H
have been due to the use of fake accounts
run by computers to create downloads and
reviews.
Thomas said he couldn’t prove his
suspicion and that the success of Flappy
Bird might also be explained by it being
“just a wildly viral game.”
Dong, from Hanoi, wrote on Twitter that
the internet sensation caused by the game
“ruins my simple life” and he now hated it.
“I will take Flappy Bird down. I cannot
take this anymore,” he wrote.
Dong had agreed to talk to The
Associated Press about the game in an
interview, but cancelled.
On Twitter, he didn’t address the
inflated download allegation, but denied
suggestions he was withdrawing the game
because it breached another gamemaker’s
copyright.
“It is not anything related to legal issues.
I just cannot keep it anymore,” he wrote.
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