The New Zealand Herald
Date: May 27, 2015
By: Eli Orzessek is an NZME. News Service reporter.

Taiwan’s thick bush and rugged mountains are comfortingly familiar. Photo / 123RF

I’m deliriously dog paddling in a chilly rooftop pool on a cold morning, surrounded by mountains with a background soundtrack of white noise from the white water rushing down below.

It reminds me of a line in a song by one of my favourite bands, The Magnetic Fields: “Sounds like a mountain range in love”. And I’m in love with this pool, this mountain range, this hotel, this town, this country.

Soaking in a thermal spring spa with hot jets of water shooting at my back is so heavenly that before I know it, I’m meditating without even trying. The manic energy I usually carry around drifts off down the river. There’s a small temple up in the hills and my mind has floated away from my body and is up there, just chilling. I don’t know if it will be back anytime soon.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/26
By Elaine Hou

Taipei, May 26 (CNA) A group of Taiwanese students and teachers returned to Taiwan on Tuesday after a visit to Taiping Island in the Spratly Islands that was aimed at asserting Taiwan’s territorial claim to the disputed South China Sea area.

Accompanied by two teachers, a total of 18 graduate students from Ming Chuan and Nanhua universities traveled on a Lafayette-class frigate to take part in a camp on Taiping, also known as Itu Aba, said the Ministry of National Defense, which organized the trip as part of its national defense education efforts.

During the May 18-26 visit, the group held a flag-raising ceremony on Taiping, cleaned up the beaches, and paid respects to the coast guard and military personnel posted there, the ministry said.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-26
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

Business administration students from four Taiwanese colleges completed a four-day

journey on foot through a desert in western China on Monday, with participants from National Taiwan University (NTU) winning an award for sportsmanship.

Students enrolled in MBA programs at NTU, National Chengchi University, Tunghai University and National Sun Yat-sen University were honored on Monday for completing the 112-kilometer walk through the Moheyanqi Gobi, a desert on the border of Gansu province and Xinjiang.

They traversed a variety of terrains that averaged altitudes of 1,500 meters above sea level and had to weather temperature swings of up to 40 degrees Celsius between day and night.     [FULL  STORY]

Lovely Taiwan Foundation continues its work of reviving the country’s towns and villages by bringing an artistic vibe to the farming village of Chihshang

Taipei Times
Date: May 27, 2015
By: Ho Yi  /  Staff reporter

Rice, biandang (boxed meal, 便當) and, more recently, the Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城

武) tree are usually what come to mind when one thinks of Taitung County’s Chihshang Township (池上). But if a plan to attract artists goes well, several years from now, the idyllic farming village will come to be known as an artist commune where painters, musicians, writers and other creative types live in harmony with their rural neighbors amid vast rice fields.

THE PROJECT

The Lovely Taiwan Foundation (台灣好基金會), founded in 2009 to revive the country’s small towns and villages, officially launched the artist-in-residence program in Chihshang earlier this month. The organization has been doing work in Chihshang for the past six years, most notably the annual autumn harvest concert featuring performances by top-notch artists such as Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集), U-Theater group (優人神鼓) and A-Mei (張惠妹).

Many of Chihshang’s houses have long been vacant due to residents moving to bigger cities in search of a better life. Two such farmhouses have been renovated as lodging for artists. And an old dormitory at Chihshang Junior High School (池上國中) is now the home and studio of literary icon and painter Chiang Hsun (蔣勳), the project’s chief adviser and first artist-in-residence.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/25
By: Wei Ting-ting and Scully Hsiao

Taipei, May 25 (CNA) Business administration students from four Taiwanese colleges completed a four-day journey on foot through a desert in western China on Monday, with participants from National Taiwan University (NTU) winning an award for sportsmanship.

Students enrolled in MBA programs at NTU, National Chengchi University, Tunghai University and National Sun Yat-sen University were honored on Monday for completing the 112-kilometer walk through the Moheyanqi Gobi, a desert on the border of Gansu and Xinjiang provinces.

They traversed a variety of terrains that averaged altitudes of 1,500 meters above sea level and had to weather temperature swings of up to 40 degrees Celsius between day and night.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: May 26, 2015
By: Lii Wen  /  Staff reporter

A coalition of civic groups yesterday expressed rage over the legislature’s failure to

reach a consensus over reforms that would see the voting age lowered to 18 and urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to stop attempting to “kidnap” the proposals to promote their agenda on absentee voting.

Despite a grueling 12-hour meeting on Wednesday last week, the legislature’s Constitutional Reform Committee adjourned without reaching any conclusions.

The KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party began to blame each other for the failure the following day.

Led by the Civic Alliance to Promote Constitutional Reform (CAPCR), representatives from more than a dozen civic groups rallied outside the legislature yesterday, saying that they were worried about the lack of progress on constitutional reform.     [FULL  STORY]

SHOW US THE EVIDENCE:A KMT city councilor called on Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je to prove that he has made a ‘substantial contribution’ to resolving contract disputes

Taipei Times
Date: May 26, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

New “pre-approved construction” for underground construction throughout the Taipei

Dome site was announced yesterday by the Taipei City Department of Urban Development following talks with subcontractors of Farglory Group (遠雄集團).

The talks followed a city government-ordered halt to construction of the controversial development. The city halted construction last week on grounds that Farglory had failed to present a plan for ameliorating damage to the neighboring Songshan Tobacco Factory historic site and the Taipei MRT’s Bannan (板南) Line.

After preliminary talks on Friday last week, Farglory was allowed to resume “pre-approved construction” on the foundations of the site’s southern side for safety reasons.

Yesterday talks focused on expanding the scope of “pre-approved ” construction, with discussions addressing resuming work on foundations in other locations of the site, filling in site holes, stabilizing the Dome’s frame and completing the installation of a lightning protection system.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/25
By: Claudia Liu and Lilian Wu

Taipei, May 25 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will call for putting aside differences in a “South China Sea Peace Initiative” he will broach Tuesday amid rising tensions in the region.

Ma will put forth the initiative when he addresses the opening of the 2015 International Law Association (ILA) and the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Asia Pacific Research Forum.

Presidential officials said that Ma will base his appeal on the spirit of the “East China Sea Peace Initiative” and call for related parties to shelve disputes, pursue peace and jointly tap the resources in the South China Sea to maintain peace and development in the region.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  May 25, 2015
By: Lii Wen  /  Staff reporter

The Taipei District Court yesterday acquitted Flanc Radical spokesperson Yen

Ming-wei (顏銘緯) of charges filed after he threw a book at President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in September last year.

Yen, a student at National Sun Yat-sen University, made headlines when he hurled a copy of George Kerr’s Formosa Betrayed at Ma in protest over the president’s cross-strait policies.

Police later charged Yen with obstructing public duties and causing physical harm, citing violations of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法).

The court cleared Yen of all charges, saying that Yen did not obstruct any public duties as Ma was attending a private event when the incident occurred. It ruled that Yen’s behavior did not constitute a violent attack, since the book he threw failed to find its mark.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/25
By: Wang Shu-fen and Lilian Wu

Kaohsiung, May 25 (CNA) The Kaohsiung City government will study the idea of holding a mass wedding that lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs) will be allowed to attend, an official from the southern municipality said Monday.

Tseng Tzu-wen (曾姿雯), head of the city government’s Bureau of Civil Affairs, said that while it might be too much of a rush to invite members of the LGBT community to attend a mass wedding scheduled for the end of June, she is willing to work with the Social Affairs Bureau to assess a future mass wedding that gays would be allowed to attend, in the spirit of pluralistic culture.

She was addressing concerns by Kaohsiung councilwoman Kao Min-lin (高閔琳) in a question-and-answer session of the city council, who asked the city government to issue certification to those who come forward to mark the names of their partners in the household registration system.     [FULL  STORY]