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FEATURE: Interpreter brings Taipei meetings to wider audience

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 09, 2015
By: Tsai Ya-hua and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

At each news conference held by the Taipei City Government and during Taipei Mayor Ko

Ting Li-fen, right, a sign-language interpreter for the Taipei City Government, signs a speech by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je in Taipei on March 10. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times

Ting Li-fen, right, a sign-language interpreter for the Taipei City Government, signs a speech by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je in Taipei on March 10. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times

Wen-je’s (柯文哲) City Hall meetings with city councilors, sign-language interpreter Ting Li-fen (丁立芬) brings news about the capital to a wider audience.

Perhaps the most experienced sign-language translator in the nation, Ting, 58, said that she was drawn to sign language during college because she felt excluded when she met two students from a school for hearing-impaired people during a club event.

“I did not know sign language then and just watched them ‘talk’ back and forth,” Ting said.

Ting said that this experience, as well as her family background, led to her vocation.     [FULL  STORY]

On brink of being euthanized, stray dogs saved by animal lovers

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/08
By: Lee Hsien-fong and Lilian Wu

Taipei, June 8 (CNA) Fifty stray dogs in a shelter in Hualien County that were due to be

CNA file photo

CNA file photo

put to sleep on Tuesday have gotten a reprieve after dog lovers came to their rescue.

More than a dozen people visited the shelter on Monday to adopt the stray dogs, including a person from Tainan who adopted 40 adult dogs and puppies, after news of the dogs’ pending demise was given prominent coverage in the local media.

The Hualien animal disease control center said each of the 22 kennels in the shelter can accommodate between four and six dogs, but because the county government has not euthanized any dogs over the past six months, the facilities have been stretched to their limit.

The kennels have been overwhelmed after having to take on an additional two or three dogs, resulting in attacks among the dogs due to the cramped space.     [FULL  STORY]

KMT’s Hung dismisses rumor she will quit presidential race

Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-09
By: CNA

Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu’s office on Monday dismissed as “insulting

Hung Hsiu-chu, June 8. (Photo/CNA)

Hung Hsiu-chu, June 8. (Photo/CNA)

voters’ intelligence” a report that she is set to quit the ruling Kuomintang’s June 11 primary for the Taiwan presidential election next year.

“Hung Hsiu-chu will never quit the primary,” said a statement issued by her office in response to a Facebook post by TV pundit Clara Chou, who quoted opposition Democratic Progressive Party legislator Tsai Huang-liang alleging that Hung will make way for two KMT heavyweights to enter the presidential race.

Tsai was quoted as saying that Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, who a day earlier had signaled that he would not shun being drafted by the KMT as its presidential candidate, would pair with KMT chair Eric Chu to vie for another four-year presidential term for the ruling party.

In exchange, Wang will step down as speaker, to be replaced by Hung, who will be promised a new four-year term next year, according to the Facebook post.     [FULL  STORY]

Legislators decry meager budget for school security

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 09, 2015
By: Rachel Lin and Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Legislators across party lines yesterday questioned the Ministry of Education over what

Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa responds to a question on school safety in the legislature yesterday. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa responds to a question on school safety in the legislature yesterday. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

they said was a poor use of the budget for education, contrasting a campus security budget of about NT$65 million (US$2.08 million) with a multibillion-dollar fund for swimming lessons, and urged the ministry to fund the establishment of a campus safety program.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said the ministry allocated NT$64.96 million for school security, to be shared between more than 3,000 schools nationwide this fiscal year, with each school receiving only about NT$19,000.

The criticism of the ministry’s budget policy comes in the wake of the murder of an eight-year-old girl at the Wenhua Elementary School in Taipei, allegedly by a man who slipped into the campus unseen.

The elementary school has only two security guards on campus and an insufficient number of surveillance cameras, Chen said, adding that schools nationwide are understaffed and ill-equipped because of poor government funding.     [FULL  STORY]

Suspected MERS cases in Taiwan test negative; 1 result not in yet: CDC

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/07
By: Chen Ching-fang and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, June 7 (CNA) The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Sunday that among the 4226339428 suspected cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in Taiwan, 27 have tested negative, while one result is still outstanding.

The remaining test result will become available in the next day or two, CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said.

Since the first MERS infection was reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012, there have been 40 suspected cases reported in Taiwan but they have all tested negative, excluding the one outstanding result, the CDC said.

South Korea was hit by the deadly disease in May and since confirmed 64 cases that caused 5 deaths, according to CDC data.     [FULL  STORY]

Golden Melody music festival to feature concerts, forums

Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-07
By: CNA

The music festival that accompanies the Golden Melody Awards will this year feature

Last year's Golden Melody awards ceremony, June 2014. (File photo/China Times)

Last year’s Golden Melody awards ceremony, June 2014. (File photo/China Times)

several concerts in different musical genres to showcase the diversity of music in Taiwan, according to the organizers.

The Global Music Festival concerts to be held from June 24-26 will feature 24 groups of musicians, including avant-garde electronic band Lie Gramophone, six-man rap group Boxing from the Paiwan indigenous people, jazz-pop singer Yan-JJ, Mandopop singer Victor Wong and electronic dance and rock band OVDS.

The concerts will include rock, folk, electronic, hip-hop and dance music, according to the Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development.

The annual festival promotes the Golden Melody Awards, Taiwan’s equivalent of the Grammy’s and the local music business. There will also be lectures, exhibitions, forums, music workshops and a platform for cross-music industry collaboration.     [FULL  STORY]

Paralyzed teen to attend junior-high graduation

DOWN BUT NOT OUT:Tsai Pin-chieh has learned how to use an eye-tracking keyboard and SNP device to use a computer and now creates videos and Web sites

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 08, 2015
By: Wang Chun-chi and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

“Being immobilized is not the same as being dead,” Tsai Pin-chieh (蔡品捷) said on

Tsai Pin-chieh’s parents on Saturday stand behind him as he uses a sip-and-puff input device to operate his computer at their home in Hualien County. Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times

Tsai Pin-chieh’s parents on Saturday stand behind him as he uses a sip-and-puff input device to operate his computer at their home in Hualien County. Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times

Saturday, discussing his plans to return to Hualien County’s Sincheng Junior High School on Tuesday next week to attend its graduation ceremony.

The 15-year-old was forced to give up normal school activities after he was left a quadriplegic by an accident last year.

Tsai, who is from Kangle Village (康樂) in Sincheng Township (新城), was injured after diving into the Sanchan River (三棧溪).

Since his accident, Tsai said he has been confined to a bed and his teachers have taken turns visiting him and helping him with his lessons.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan coast guard launches new ships as South China Sea tensions rise

The Daily Star
Date:  Jun. 06, 2015
By: Reuters

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan: Taiwan’s coast guard Saturday commissioned its biggest ships 423564_img650x420_img650x420_cropfor duty in the form of two 3,000-ton patrol vessels, as the island boosts defences amid concerns about China’s growing footprint in the disputed South China Sea.

The new vessels will be able to dock at a new port being constructed on Taiping Island, the largest of the naturally occurring Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, before the end of this year.

Taiwan’s coast guard has had direct oversight of the 46-ha (114-acre) island, also known as Itu Aba, since 2000.

“Taiping Island’s defence capabilities will not be weak,” said Wang Chung-yi, minister of the Coast Guard Administration, referring to recent upgrading done on the 1,200-meter (yards) long airstrip on Taiping and the building of a new port, which he said could be completed as early as October this year.     [FULL  STORY]

Hung Hsiu-chu closes gap with Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan election poll

Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-06
By: Tsai Hao-hsiang and Staff Reporter

Statistics from TVBS, a satellite television channel based in Taipei, suggested that E605HR12H_2015資料照片_copy132% of Taiwanese people will vote for major opposition Democratic Progressive Party chair Tsai Ing-wen and 31% will vote Hung Hsiu-chu, a potential candidate for the ruling Kuomintang in the 2016 presidential election, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily

This could mean an all female race for the presidency if Hung, who now trails Tsai by just 1%, is selected in the party primary.

Support for Hung among the over-60s rose 24%; whereas Tsai’s following among the 30-39 age group and the over-60s fell by 22%.

Tsai recently visited the White House and was permitted to enter the State Department of the United States, a first for a Taiwanese presidential candidate.

Taipei mayor to introduce new dress code for summer

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/06
By: Liu Chien-pang and Y.F. Low

Taipei, June 6 (CNA) Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said Saturday he will encourage 2015060600211city government workers to wear short sleeved tops and short pants to work as part of the city’s efforts to conserve energy.

Addressing the closing ceremony of the World Wide Views on Climate and Energy, Ko said conserving energy is very simple: “Just do it.”

He said he has observed that in many government offices, people sit in air-conditioned rooms, dressed in suits, which is obviously inconsistent with the principle of energy conservation.

The mayor said he is planning to implement a new policy in city government offices, which would allow the use of air-conditioners only when the room temperature reaches 28 degrees Celsius.     [FULL  STORY]