NSO will launch talks and performances with Jun Markl and Radovan Vlatkovic

Taiwan News
Date: 02020/03/05
By: Lyla Liu, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The National Symphony Orchestra will host the Maestro Series concert, which features Jun Markl and Radovan Vlatkovic, on March 8 at the National Concert Hall.

The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) will host the Maestro Series concert (名家系列《迴聲華格納》), which features the prestigious German conductor, Jun Markl, and the Croatian horn player, Radovan Vlatkovic. The NSO announced the playlist will include Richard Wagner’s "The Flying Dutchman Overture" and film composer John Williams’ "Horn Concerto."

Markl stated in the press release that he is pleased to cooperate with the NSO after two years. It is going to be his first time conducting John Williams’ "Horn Concerto."

Markl further expressed his hopes of connecting cultures through his work and of making music “the common language."    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/05/2020
By: Chiang Chin-yeh, Chou Shih-hui and Chiang Yi-ching\

Washington, March 4 (CNA) Scholars at Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) praised Taiwan's response to the COVID-19 outbreak Tuesday, adding that the U.S. could learn from Taiwan's response measures.

In an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on March 3, co-authors Jason Wang (王智弘), Robert Brook and Chun Y. Ng said that "Taiwan is an example of how a society can respond quickly to a crisis and protect the interests of its citizens."

Taiwanese officials began screening passengers on direct flights from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the disease, for symptoms before they could deplane as early as Dec. 31, the article said, with screening expanded the following week to include anyone who had recent history of travel to the city.

On Jan. 20, Taiwan activated the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) to coordinate efforts to contain the outbreak, which has since implemented at least 124 measures to prevent the spread of the disease, the article said.    [FULL  STORY]

PRECAUTIONS:  Taipei City Hospital’s Heping branch, epicenter of Taiwan’s SARS outbreak, bars visitors to general wards and limits ICU visitors to 30 minutes a day

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 06, 2020
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Several hospitals around the nation have imposed restrictions on inpatients’ visitors and companions in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including limiting visitor numbers, reducing visiting hours and requiring people to present identification to enter their facilities.

The National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) in Taipei on Monday began restricting the number of visitors to wards to two per patient, with visiting hours limited to 11:30am to 12:30pm and 7pm to 8pm.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 04 March, 2020
By: John Van Trieste

The Tomb Sweeping Festival in the early spring is the time of year when families traditionally gather to remember departed ancestors and tidy up their graves. But this year, the threat of COVID-19 means that some of these tomb sweeping events may have to be postponed or cancelled altogether.

One especially big family, famed for the size of its annual tomb sweeping event, is now debating whether to go ahead with this year’s gathering.

If you think your family reunions are big, chances are you’ve never heard of the Yeh’s. This clan descends from Yeh Chun-jih, a man who migrated to Taiwan in 1735. From him has grown a massive, complex family tree with branches in every corner of the world.

Each year during the Tomb Sweeping Festival, as many as 10,000 members of this vast lineage converge in Taoyuan in northwestern Taiwan, the ancestral home where it all started. There, they honor the many other Yeh’s who have gone before them.    [FULL  STORY]

The Straits Times
Date: Mar 05, 2020
By: Lim Ruey Yan

Taiwan's "queen of ballroom dancing" Serena Liu, who fell into a coma after undergoing a heart valve repair surgery in February, has reportedly gone for brain operation after suffering from intracranial haemorrhage (bleeding within the skull).

Liu has been at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital since her operation on Feb 7 and is waiting for a heart transplant.

According to Taiwanese magazine Mirror Media, Liu, 44, is currently fitted with a ventricular assist device and has to take a blood thinner.

However, one of the side effects of doing so is bleeding, raising a patient's risk of cerebral haemorrhage.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan situation example of efficient response using modern electronic tools: Stanford expert

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/04
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s efforts in fighting the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) have won praise from an authoritative source, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), reports said Wednesday (March 4).

In its latest issue, Stanford University Assistant Professor Jason Wang (王智弘) wrote that based on its experience with the 2003 SARS epidemic, Taiwan rapidly identified the coronavirus threat and took appropriate measures to counter it, CNA reported.

Using modern electronic methods such as QR code scanning, the island’s health authorities managed to acquire rapid information about the travel habits of prospective quarantine candidates.

That was but one example of how advanced technology served the fight against virus infections, Wang noted.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/04/2020
By: Hung Hsueh-ching and Frances Huang

Taipei, March 4 (CNA) Temperatures in northern Taiwan could fall as low as 14 degrees Celsius on Wednesday night as northeasterly winds begin to affect the island, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

The CWB said the seasonal winds are expected to drag down daytime highs in northern Taiwan on Wednesday by about 5 degrees from a day earlier to 20 degrees before the mercury falls to 14-15 degrees at night.

Daytime temperatures in central Taiwan will range between 25 and 27 degrees Wednesday, compared with 27-28 degrees a day earlier, but fall to 16 degrees at night.

The south will see daytime highs of 27-30 degrees, similar to Tuesday, and temperatures of 18-19 degrees at night.   [FULL  STORY]

FIRST OF ITS KIND: ‘Son of Formosa’ tells the story of political prisoner Tsai Kun-lin, who was imprisoned on Green Island from 1950 to 1960, the publisher said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 05, 2020
By: Wu Po-hsuan and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Slowork Publishing (慢工文化公司), a company that specializes in documentary comics, has

produced the first comic to document the life of a political victim during the White Terror era.

The comic, titled Son of Formosa (來自清水的孩子), tells the story of political prisoner Tsai Kun-lin (蔡焜霖) and was made in collaboration with historical researchers, the company said.

Tsai, 90, spent 1950 to 1960 in Green Island prison following a crackdown on members of the Taipei Workers Committee (台北市工作委員會), a group of Chinese Communist Party sympathizers planted within various government agencies.

Tsai, who worked at the now-defunct Directorate General of Telecommunications, was among the first group of political prisoners to be incarcerated at the prison.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 03 March, 2020
By: Jake Chen

Transportation Minister Lin Chia-lung said Tuesday the ministry has prepared a number of measures to help lessen the economic impact of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic on Taiwan's airline industry. 

The industry has suffered a heavy blow since the outbreak. Taiwan’s flagship China Airlines said it has canceled half of its flights in March. The total number of cancellations is 6,500 and counting.    [FULL  STORY]