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Japanese media praises Taiwan minister for COVID-19 prevention efforts

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/01/2020
By: Yeh Su-ping and Chiang Yi-ching

Image taken from Audrey Tang’s Facebook page

Taipei, March 1 (CNA) A Japanese media report published Saturday praised Minister without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳) for her work in providing crucial information to the public amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Tang, who is Taiwan's minister responsible for digital technology, was described as a 38-year old genius with an IQ of 180 in the article by AERA dot, a Japanese online newspaper.

The article credits Tang for working with the National Health Insurance Administration in releasing data on the supply of surgical masks in pharmacies across Taiwan, and collaborating with engineers in making that information accessible to the public via an online platform.

The platform features a list of resources people can use to find out where masks are available under the government rationing system, including interactive maps and chatbots on the messaging application LINE.    [FULL  STORY]

Bill proposes paid family care leave for all

DISPARITY: Wan Mei-ling said the current situation in which civil servants are entitled to pay but workers are not is unfair, calling it a ‘one country, two systems’ model

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 02, 2020
By: Staff writer, with CNA

A bill has been proposed that would allow workers to take paid leave for five days when they have to take care of their family members, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wan Mei-ling (萬美玲) said on Saturday.

Wan proposed an amendment to the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法) that would entitle employees not working for the government to the same treatment as civil servants.

According to Article 20 of the act, employees can request family care leave to take personal care of family members who need inoculations or have become seriously ill, or to handle other major events.

The act also stipulates that the number of family care leave days may not exceed seven days in one year, while wages during family care leave are calculated based on the related statutes and administrative regulations governing leave for personal reasons.    [FULL  STORY]

How to tell if a cold is COVID-19

It’s probably just a cold, but you should still cover your coughs.

Popular Science
Date:\ February 28, 2020
By: Rachel Feltman

If you’re sick, try to stay home.Unsplash

The CDC calling the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 across the United States “inevitable” has understandably triggered a decent amount of anxiety. While COVID-19—which is thought to have originated in Wuhan, China back in December after jumping from an as-yet-unconfirmed animal host—has a troubling fatality rate of around 2 percent (based on current estimates), the vast majority of people who contract the virus experience only mild, cold-like symptoms. In fact, it’s quite possible that the disease’s fatality rate is artificially inflated; with so many confirmed cases featuring mild symptoms, it’s likely that there are many COVID-19 cases going totally unnoticed.

If you get COVID-19, you’re unlikely to get seriously sick and even less likely to die, especially if you are otherwise healthy. But that raises a troubling question that’s difficult to answer: How do you know if your seasonal sniffles might actually be COVID-19? Here’s a handy guide.

What symptoms does COVID-19 have?

First things first: What symptoms should you look out for?

The main symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, and shortness of breath.    [FULL  STORY]

Days – first look review

Taiwanese master Tsai Ming-liang returns with a profound, meditative poem on the human need for connection.

Little White Lies
Date: 29 FEB 2020
By: Greg Wetherall

Tsai Ming-liang has spent the best part of his 31-year career honing his unique blend of slow cinema. Seven years after announcing his intention to retire from 35mm narrative feature filmmaking after Stray Dogs (which won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice in 2013), the Taiwanese master makes a welcome return with Days.

Those already acquainted with Tsai’s work may be pleased to find that his time away exploring the capabilities of VR with the likes of The Deserted and Your Face has not changed his mode of style. Many of his trademarks remain, including long takes from fixed camera positions as well as the theme of alienation.

Lee Kang-sheng, the director’s proxy since 1991’s Boys, lives alone in a big house. Non (Anong Houngheuangsy) resides in a small apartment in town. Kang acquires the services of masseur Non in a hotel room. They inhabit each other’s lives for a small window of time before parting ways.

Plot is a nebulous concept in Tsai’s universe. Conventional pacing and story structure are substituted for ambience. Scenes can last for what feels like an age as Tsai focuses on a single image: Non preparing food; Kang taking a bath, or counting money in a hotel room.

Kang and Non frequently drift in and out of the established shot; the camera acting less as an active participant than a passive, indiscriminate observer. Sounds are limited to those of Kang and Non’s surroundings, such as rain pattering on a window pane, or traffic on a busy street.
[FULL  STORY]

Fugitive hacker returns to Taiwan after 13 years on run in China

Taipei Detention Center holds more than 30 suspects in separate coronavirus quarantine cells

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/29
By:  Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Feb. 28  (CNA photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese man who had been wanted for hacking into other people’s accounts returned home on Friday (Feb. 28) after 13 years hiding out in China.

He was put into coronavirus quarantine. It is unknown whether the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak played a part in his decision to leave the communist country as investigators did not question him about his motives for returning, CNA reported.

The man, an IT engineer named Chang (張), had started in 2000 to hack into other people’s accounts and to use their data to play the stock market. In the process, he made illegal profits totaling NT$42,500 (US$1,400) until he was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison in 2006.

However, Chang did not appear at the prosecutors’ office to start his jail term, leading to an international arrest warrant the following year. On Friday, a friend notified police that Chang had decided to give himself up.   [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan-based Malaysian director Tsai Ming-liang wins Teddy Award

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/29/2020
By: Lin Yu-li and Emerson Lim

Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮, right)

Berlin, Feb. 28 (CNA) The Malaysian-born, Taiwan-based director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) clinched yet another achievement on Friday with his film "Days" (日子), winning a prestigious prize at the Teddy Award in Berlin, an international film honor for movies with an LGBT theme.

"Days," a story of two men, one middle-aged and one young, who develop unexpected feelings for each other after a chance encounter and have an intimate interlude, won the Jury Award.

The two-hour long film is intentionally unsubtitled and has minimal dialogue, along with Tsai's well-known long, slow shots.

During the award ceremony at the Volksbühne Berlin, the audience burst into applause when the organizer introduced Taiwan as the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage last May.   [FULL  STORY]

Taoyuan rebuked over deadly blaze

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 01, 2020
By: Hsieh Chun-lin and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Control Yuan on Monday last week censured the Taoyuan City Government over eight fire-related deaths at a factory in the city two years ago.

The April 2018 blaze at Chin-Poon Industrial Co’s factory killed two Thai workers staying in a dorm at the facility and six firefighters who were attempting to rescue them.

Control Yuan members Gau Fehng-shian (高鳳仙) and Chang Jen-hsiang (章仁香) said that their investigation found that the Taoyuan Fire Department committed three serious errors during the rescue effort.

The three fire chiefs at the scene had not properly studied the factory floor plan and had not clarified uncertainties they had about the factory’s layout with company staff, they said.
[FULL  STORY]

US Congressmen discuss Taiwan’s exclusion from WHO at hearing

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 28 February, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

US congressmen discussed Taiwan’s exclusion from the World Health Organization (WHO) during

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jonathan Fritz

a congressional hearing on Thursday. The United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific held the hearing to assess international and domestic COVID-19 prevention efforts.

US congressman and head of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus Steve Chabot said banning Taiwan from attending the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer creates a gap in the global health system. Chabot said Taiwan has excellent medical personnel and hospitals, and that its close proximity to China can be a great deal of assistance to the Chinese government.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jonathan Fritz was also present at the hearing. He said that Taiwan is a reliable partner to the US in public health and other areas. Fritz said the outbreak shows that Beijing’s efforts to prevent Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO and WHA are unacceptable.    [FULL  STORY]

Lin Dong Fang: Savouring the best beef noodles in Taipei

Malay Mail
Date: 29 Feb 2020
By: Kenny Mah

Lin Dong Fang is popular with Taipei residents for their ‘niúròu miàn’ or beef noodles. – Pictures by CK Lim

TAIPEI, Feb 29 — When you’re sick, there’s nothing quite like chicken soup to nourish and heal you.

In Taiwan, they do things differently. Chicken soup is fine and all but it’s beef soup that they want. Specifically, beef noodle soup or niúròu miàn.

Niúròu miàn translates literally as “beef noodles” since rarely do you see the dry sauce version; it’s all about the the soup if ask a true blue Taiwanese.

And so we do. (Always ask a local where to eat wherever you go.)    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan warns against fake coronavirus news from China

Chinese netizens have succeeded in forging Taiwanese government documents: MJIB

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/28
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwan warns against forged government documents spread by Chinese netizens (CNA photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Netizens in China are able to reproduce official Taiwanese government documents and replace the words to spread fake news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, officials warned Friday (Feb. 28).

The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has uncovered 432 cases of virus-related fake news. A total of 13 people have been referred to prosecutors for their alleged involvement in 12 cases, while 16 cases are still under investigation, CNA reported.

The latest example, which has emerged over the past two days, was the report that one could receive 10 masks if one took an official document published by the Cabinet to the pharmacy along with one's National Health Insurance card.

In reality, the document was a forgery, and the limit for the number of masks allotted per person per week is two, or four in the case of children 13 and under.    [FULL  STORY]