Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/26
By: Worthy Shen, Wang Shu-fen and Emerson Lim

Taipei, May 26 (CNA) Four swimmers were hospitalized, one of them unconscious, after they were battered by rough waves in an ocean swim event in northeastern Taiwan on Sunday morning.

The 2019 edition of the annual Lanyang Ocean Swim kicked off in a coastal township in Yilan County at 8:30 a.m. with 1,127 participants, but was canceled half an hour later due to rough seas and strong winds.

At about 9:10 a.m., emergency calls were made for assistance to some swimmers, who appeared exhausted because of the rough waves, the Yilan County fire station said.

Four swimmers were taken to hospital, one of whom was a 72 year-old woman who had no vital signs upon arrival, the fire station said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: May 26, 2019
By: William Hetherington  /  Staff writer, with CNA

Most Taiwanese see Taiwan and China as distinct nations, despite cultural similarities, a

study released yesterday by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center showed.

Center researcher Cheng Su-feng (鄭夙芬) revealed the results on the first day of a two-day academic symposium in Taipei on Taiwan’s democratization and free elections. It also marked the center’s 30th anniversary.

The study on the national identity of Taiwanese, which involved interviews conducted between 2000 and 2016, has found that while most people considered China to be the source of much of Taiwan’s culture, they considered China to be a separate country, Cheng said.

The research showed that while a collective identity had not yet taken shape in the nation, Taiwanese largely saw Taiwan as a country, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

New Bloom Magazine
Date: May 25, 2019
By:. Brian Hioe

CELEBRATIONS HAVE taken place across Taiwan in the last two days, with Taiwan’s first gay marriages taking place yesterday after the passage of gay marriage into law last week, and a mass wedding banquet held today on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office. The legal changes legalizing gay marriage took effect yesterday, on May 24th, the original deadline set by the Council of Grand Justices for same-sex marriage to be legalized by in 2017. As Taiwan is the first country to legalize gay marriage in Asia, these are the historic first gay marriages to take place in Asia.

Marriage registrations took place at household registration offices across Taiwan yesterday, with 526 couples registering by 5 PM according to the Ministry of the Interior. This included 185 male couples and 341 female couples. The highest number of marriages took place in New Taipei, followed by Taipei, and then Kaohsiung, which may not surprise given population distribution in Taiwan.

Much media attention has focused on marriage ceremonies held in Taipei, with marriage registrations taking place at the Xinyi District Office and an outdoor wedding party held by the Taipei City Government outside of Taipei 101. This was attended by key figures of Marriage Equality Taiwan, the coalition group of LGBTQ advocacy organizations which was the primary force in the push for legalizing gay marriage, and LGBTQ activist Chi Chia-wei, whose legal case led to the constitutional interpretation by the Council of Grand Justices in 2017 that same-sex marriages needed to be recognized by the government in the next two years, Chi being represented by the lawyers of the Taiwan Alliance for Civil Partnerships.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan English News
Date: May 25, 2019 
By: Phillip Charlier  

A woman and her 6-year-old daughter are lucky to be alive today, after a hammer head weighing around 20 kilograms flew off a high-rise construction site and crashed through the sunroof of their car.

The 32-year-old woman named Lu, was passing by the construction site on Minzu Road in Banqiao District, New Taipei City at around 5:00pm yesterday, May 24, when she was shocked by an explosive sound in the back seat. After pulling over, Lu found that a sledgehammer head had smashed through the glass sunroof of the SUV, and had narrowly missed her 6-year-old daughter.

Lu took her daughter to a doctor for a check-up, as she had some cuts on her legs from glass fragments.

According to a TTV report, a worker on the construction site was using the sledgehammer when the head flew off and fell from the 26th floor.    [FULL  STORY]

Ting will appeal the result of the election, which he lost to Mayor Ko Wen-je, to the High Court

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/25
By: Ryan Drillsma, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former Kuomintang (KMT) legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中),

who lost Taipei’s 2018 municipal election to Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), announced on Saturday (May 25) that he is to appeal the result again.

Ting unsuccessfully sought to nullify last year’s election after losing to Ko by a razor-thin margin. He then requested a vote recount, which the Central Election Commission complied with.

The result of the recount showed Ko trumped Ting by 3,567 votes, 313 more than the original count, with Ko grabbing 580,663 ballots.

Ting appealed the result, but his appeal was rejected by the Taipei District Court. He was granted the right to appeal to a higher court.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/25
By Stacy Hsu 
Taipei, May 25 (CNA) More than 1,600 people gathered Saturday evening on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei for a wedding banquet for several same-sex couples, as part of the LGBT community’s celebration of Taiwan’s legalization of same-sex marriage the previous day.

Organized by the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR), the outdoor banquet consisted of 160 tables at which nine traditional Taiwanese courses were served.

According to TAPCPR co-founder and Executive Director Victoria Hsu (許秀雯), the original plan was to have 120 tables, but the seats sold out within a week and the number of tables was increased to 160.    [FULL  STORY]

RECIPROCAL TRUST: This is the first time that the names Taiwan and the US appear alongside each other in the title of an agency, signaling improved ties, Tsai Ing-wen said

Taipei Times
Date: May 26, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

he Coordination Council for North American Affairs has been renamed the Taiwan Council

for US Affairs, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, hailing the move as a breakthrough in Taiwan-US relations.

The names of Taiwan and the US appear alongside each other in an agency’s title for the first time, symbolizing the affinity and reciprocal trust between the two nations, Tsai wrote on Facebook.

Based on the US’ Taiwan Relations Act, Washington in 1979 established the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) to deal with affairs related to Taiwan, and Taiwan established the coordination council as a reciprocal agency, she wrote.

Taiwan used the phrase “North American” instead of the US due to special historical conditions at the time, showing the difficult situation Taiwan faced in international relations, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 24 May, 2019
By: Leslie Liao

Work has officially begun on two new types of indigenous warships. A model of the Tuo Chiang-class corvette and a naval minelayer both went into production Friday.

Early on Friday, President Tsai Ing-wen attended a ceremony held to mark the occasion at Yilan County’s Su’ao Port. Tsai said the Tuo Chiang-class corvette exemplifies Taiwan’s military prowess and democratic values.    [FULL  STORY]

Government officials joined in the jubilant First In Asia Wedding Party as Taiwan made history as the first country in Asia to register same-sex marriages.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/05/24
By: Cat Thomas

As Household registration offices opened their doors on Friday morning same-sex couples across Taiwan flocked to register their marriages – the first time that this has been possible in Asia following the passing of the law legalizing same-sex marriage on May 17th.

Over in Xinyi Household Registration office under the shadow of the Taipei 101, 20 couples who had preregistered were the first in line with the Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan marking the occasion by throwing a First in Asia Wedding Party later in the morning in association with Taipei City government. The date is the second anniversary of the court ruling which opened the way for the legislation that was passed last Friday allowing same-sex marriages to be registered.

The first couple to be registered in Xinyi was Marc(小銘) & Shane(小玄) and the registration office was swamped with media from all over the world eager to capture the moment. The couple gamely posed for the cameras as each stage was completed, from getting their marriage certificate to their new IDs being issued. Marc and Shane met in their PE class during college and have been together for 12 years then. At the beginning of 2018, after a successful marriage proposal at a Tanya Chua’s concert, they started to share their happiness on social media. After registering their marriage today, they plan to hold a wedding ceremony next month.

Shortly after the first few marriages were registered some of the newly-weds gave a press conference speaking movingly of their journeys to this day and the pride that they felt in Taiwan for making this day possible. Marc and Shane said that marriage means accompanying and being there for each other as they grow old together. Novelist Chen Xu(陳雪) pointed out “marriage is a union between two lovers. It is a free, independent and voluntary choice. Instead of being a binding institution, marriage is based on mutual consent and its beginning and conclusion cannot be forced. They only come from free will.”    [FULL  STORY]

“I am proud to serve this country where #LoveWins, so everyone has the right to marry. Everyone!” said Tsai Ing-wen after DeGeneres praised Taiwan

Taiwan News 
Date: 2019/05/25
By: Judy Lo, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s president thanked American TV celebrity Ellen DeGeneres for retweeting a post about Taiwan becoming the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage on Friday (May 24).

Taiwan same-sex marriage came into effect on Friday and more than 500 same-sex couples officially tied the knot. DeGeneres retweeted a post by BuzzFeed News about Taiwan being the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage.

“Let’s celebrate every step in the right direction,” said DeGeneres in her tweet.

Among those who replied to her tweet was Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). “Thank you, Ellen! I am proud to serve this country where #LoveWins, so everyone has the right to marry. Everyone!” said Tsai in her reply.    [FULL  STORY]