If a person can wiggle, dance, bang a drum or breathe fire, there is a good chance they will be found at the Dream Community’s annual Dream Parade, which descends on Taipei on Saturday

Taipei Times
Date:  Oct 14, 2015
By: Diane Baker  /  Staff Reporter

It is not often that Taiwanese grandmothers have the chance to outshine

Dream Community chairman Gordan Tsai, famed for his lack of clothing and his fire-breathing at the annual Dream Parade, demonstrates his skill on Oct. 18 last year in Taipei. Photos: CNA

teenagers and twenty-somethings, but the “gray mommies,” as Gordon Tsai (蔡聰明) calls them, have definitely become one of the highlights of the Dream Community’s (夢想社區) annual Dream Parade.

The stretch of Taipei from the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial to Katagalan Boulevard (凱達格蘭大道) and the Presidential Office Building is frequently filled with people taking part in political rallies, protests, marches or the annual Double Ten National Day parade/celebration, but for sheer madness and fun it is hard to beat the Dream Parade, whether one is a participant or an observer.

It is a little bit Mardi Gras, a little bit Brazilian carnival and a whole lot of Taiwanese ingenuity.     [FULL  STORY]

PVtech
Date: 12 October 2015
By: John Parnell

Taiwan is to press charges against seven solar firms that allegedly “lobbied,

Seven Taiwanese firms have been referred to the prosecutor’s office after allegedly threatening officials.

threatened and pressured” officials from the ministry of economic affairs.

Deputy director-general at the bureau of foreign trade David Hsu, told local reporters that the companies had been found to be mislabelling products made in mainland China as made in Taiwan, prior to export to the EU.

“Not only do the accused have no regrets about what they have done, they have also allegedly lobbied, threatened and pressured ministry officials,” said Hsu.

The European Commission opened an investigation into solar products imported from Malaysia and Taiwan after SolarWorld, the German company behind the European complaint over alleged dumping by Chinese firms, provided sufficient evidence of changing trade patterns and that existing measures – namely the price undertaking – were being “undermined”. SolarWorld alleges that Chinese manufacturers are circumventing trade duties and the restrictive price undertaking agreement in place with Europe, by exporting via Malaysia and Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/12
By: Kuo Chi-hsuan and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Oct. 12 (CNA) Over 200 surfers have registered for a prestigious Asian Surfing Championships (ASC) Tour event in the Kenting area later this month, said the competition’s organizer, the Taiwan Ocean Recreation Sport Association, on Monday.

The Jialeshuei International Surfing Festival 2015, to be held at Jialeshuei Beach from Oct. 23 to 25, will see world-class surfers from the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa and others, the association said.

The ASC, the sport’s main governing body in Asia, has sanctioned a tour stop in Taitung the past three years, but this will be the first time an ASC competition will be held in Jialeshuei, just kilometers up the coast from the popular tourist town of Kenting in Pingtung County.

The events in Taitung were arranged on a year-to-year basis without any long-term commitment, but Pingtung will now be the permanent ASC Tour stop in Taiwan for years to come, said association secretary-general Yu Hsiao-fang (余小芳).     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/12
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, Oct. 12 (CNA) Steve Martino, director of the upcoming “The Peanuts Movie,” gave Taiwan a gift on Monday: his hand-drawn painting of Snoopy.

The director, who is visiting Taiwan to promote the 3-D animated film, drew the painting at a press conference in Taipei with a calligraphy brush he purchased at the National Palace Museum on Sunday.

The painting shows Snoopy doing his “happy dance,” with his head thrown back, arms outstretched, and feet moving rapidly, while wearing a big smile on his face. Snoopy is the beloved pet dog of Charlie Brown in Charles Schulz’s popular comic strip Peanuts.     [FULL  STORY]