2019 Taiwan Pride: Queerness in Asia

The News Lens
Date: 2019/10/22
By: Cat Thomas

This year’s theme for the 17th annual Taipei Pride parade is “Together, Make Taiwan Better.” The main event of the weekend is the parade itself, which runs for around four hours around Taipei city. Last year saw an attendance of 130,000, and with the passing of same-sex marriage legislation this year, organizers are expecting up to 200,000 to take part in the parade as tourists flock in to celebrate Taiwan being the first country in Asia to pass such legislation.

Running over the entire weekend is a smorgasbord of events, parties, and seminars centered around Pride. However you like to celebrate Pride, be it discussing rights or enjoying an exhibition or party, there’s something for everyone (including kids) this weekend.

The News Lens has compiled an event guide to accompany our Taipei Rainbow Map featuring the city’s LGBTQ hotspots.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan deputy minister meets with top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, David Stilwell, to discuss Taiwan’s diplomatic isolation and 2020 election

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/22
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Deputy Foreign Minister Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) met with David Stilwell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, at the White House on Monday (Oct. 21) to discuss Taiwan's plan for diplomatic relations and the presidential election in 2020.

Hsu told media that Stillwell expressed concerns over Taiwan's diplomatic situation. In what CNA reported was a brief but efficient conversation, Stillwell added that he expected the 2020 election in Taiwan could proceed smoothly without interference from other countries.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/22
By: Wu Che-hao, Wang Cheng-chung, Yu Hsiang, Liu Shi-yi, and Joseph
Yeh

Taipei, Oct. 22 (CNA) Taiwan has not given up jurisdiction in a 2018 murder case involving two

Hong Kong citizens, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Tuesday, amid an ongoing controversy over whether Taiwan should accept the suspect into its territory to answer questions.

The president said government authorities have made it clear that Taiwan has jurisdiction over the case and has not relinquished it, but she also wanted Hong Kong to take control of the case.

The case dates back to February 2018, when Chan Tung-kai (陳同佳) allegedly murdered his girlfriend Poon Hiu-wing (潘曉穎) while the two were traveling in Taiwan. Poon's body was found in a suitcase dumped in a field near a subway station in New Taipei in March 2018.

By that time, Chan had used Poon's ATM card to get cash and left the country. It was only after Chan had returned to Hong Kong that Taiwanese police identified him as the main suspect and sought his return to face trial in Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

OFFICIAL ROUTE  ONLY:The premier said that Taiwan would not be duped by China, which likely wants to use the case to justify the withdrawn Hong Kong extradition bill

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 23, 2019
By: Chung Li-hua and Sean Lin  /  Staff reporters

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said that it had contacted the Hong Kong

government to ask its permission to hand murder suspect Chan Tong-kai (陳同佳) over to Taiwanese prosecutors and police sent to the territory, so that he could stand trial in Taiwan.

The council made the request by telephone and wrote the Hong Kong government a letter, MAC Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) told a news conference in Taipei.

The Hong Kong and Taiwanese governments both have jurisdiction over the case, but the former has priority, Chiu said.

The Taiwanese government would not forfeit its right to try Chan, he said, apparently responding to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) criticism that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would turn Taiwan into a “crime haven” if it said that it would not accept Chan entering the nation as a free man.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 21 October, 2019
By: Leslie Liao

Taiwan’s Mainland Affair’s Council (MAC) says Beijing should give up its use of intimidation and

threats to unify Taiwan with China. During this year’s Xiangshan Forum, Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe said that no force could prevent “reunification.”

The MAC responded by saying that the 23 million people of Taiwan cherish their sovereignty and democracy, and will not respond positively to militaristic threats.
[FULL  STORY]

2019 Taiwan Pride: Queerness in Asia

The News Lens
Date: 2019/10/21
By:: Darice D. Chang

Darice is a writer, artist, and educator-activist based in Taiwan. She speaks three languages and is usually getting paid to use one of them. In her spare time she enjoys the local music scene and promoting healthy ethical living.

Lezs Magazine, a Taiwan-based lesbian culture publication, brought the first professional drag king performer Wang Newton to Taipei for the 2018 Pride. Wang, who was born in Taiwan before emigrating to the United States at a young age, created the Newton character based on a caricature of Asian stereotypes.

“I don’t just gender fuck, I culture fuck,” Wang said. At its core, drag is a form of entertainment.

Photo Source: Wang Newton

Wang Newton poses in front of the Liberty Plaza in Taipei, Taiwan during 2018 Pride.

In April 2019, Taipei’s first drag king crew was formed by a coalition of queer women and genderfluid artists who were united by the love of masculine impersonation and performance.

I first met Skye Grimm, a Canadian drag performer, alongside boundary-breaking Kiwi Taipei Popcorn at the 2018 Spectrum Formosus, an annual queer art festival held in the Wenshan Mountains. At the time both were in talks about creating space for drag kings in Taipei.
[FULL  STORY]

Conflagration in New Taipei City takes three lives, students mourn death of beloved mentor and headmaster at elementary school in Yingge

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/21
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A pre-dawn house fire erupted in Yingge (鶯歌), New Taipei City on Monday (Oct. 21), killing Fengming Elementary School Principal Tseng Chun-Kai (曾俊凱), his wife and their 19-year-old nephew.

According to Liberty Times, fire crews were called to the scene around 1 a.m. on Monday after fire was seen coming from the ground floor of the house and eventually reaching the second and third floors. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Fengming Elementary School Counseling Director Wang Hui Wen (王蕙雯) said Tseng had a wonderful relationship with the students and faculty and would go to work even on weekends, reported UDN. Tseng had devoted himself to Taiwan’s primary education since 1987 and was appointed as principal of the school in 2013.

Teachers and students of Fengming Elementary School held a one-minute silence this morning in remembrance of the late principal. New Taipei Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) also expressed his condolences to Tseng's family    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/21
By Wang Cheng-chung, Liu-shih-yi, Ku Chuan, Huang Li-yun, Wang
Shu-fen and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Oct. 21 (CNA) Taiwanese officials on Monday said the government's decision to bar a Hong

Kong citizen wanted for murder in Taiwan from turning himself in was a political decision and that Taiwan would not fall into China's trap.

National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) admitted Monday that the decision was made in consideration of political factors surrounding the case, especially coming at this "sensitive time."

Chiu said Taiwan's Ministry of Justice and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) had repeatedly asked the Hong Kong side since February 2018 to send the suspect — Chan Tung-kai (陳同佳) — to Taiwan to answer questions but the Hong Kong side never offered an official reply.

Now, however, there was suddenly news that Hong Kong was willing to hand the suspect to Taiwanese authorities following months-long protests on its streets, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

BLUE NOTE: Carrie Lam went to the mosque to say sorry to its imam, and Muslims said they had accepted her apology and that of top police leaders

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 22, 2019
By: AP, HONG KONG

Hong Kong officials yesterday apologized to Muslim leaders after riot police on Sunday sprayed a

mosque and bystanders with a water cannon loaded with a blue liquid while trying to contain pro-democracy demonstrations.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) and the police chief visited the Kowloon Masjid and Islamic Centre to apologize to the chief imam and Muslim community leaders.

Officials were scrambling to minimize the fallout from the incident at one of the territory’s most well-known religious sites.

The government said in a statement that Lam “extended an apology for the inadvertent spraying.”
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Free Asia
Date: 2019-10-20

Faced with the prospect of loss of liberty amid continuing protests at home, Hongkongers of all ages are increasingly opting to study in democratic Taiwan, RFA has learned.

Sophia Ma, deputy head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hong Kong said residents of the former British colony are showing more interest in universities and higher education institutions in Taiwan since the start of the anti-extradition movement in early June.

"According to what I have seen, there has been a marked increase in students attending [a recent academic fair], and I think that has something to do with recent problems we have seen in Hong Kong," Ma said.

"I think we will likely see more Hong Kong students coming to study in Taiwan as a result," she said.
[FULL  STORY]