The Globe And Mail
Date: October 8, 2019
By: Nathan Vanderklippe, Asia Correspondent

Stephen Harper made a series of thinly veiled criticisms of China’s economic model in a visit to

Taiwan Tuesday – the first by a former Canadian prime minister – warning that global trade tensions are likely to grow increasingly severe.

Invited to Taipei to discuss the book he published last year, Mr. Harper also met with President Tsai Ing-wen, sitting as a guest of honour among other delegates to the Yushan Forum, an annual gathering designed to bolster Taiwan’s presence in Asia as it loses diplomatic partners under Chinese pressure.

Mr. Harper has toured the world to promote his consulting business and his book, Right Here, Right Now, a treatise on populism and the threats to Western democracies around the world.

But he landed in Taipei at a particularly fraught time, with Taiwan in a period of elevated tension with China and the relationship between Ottawa and Beijing in its worst state in three decades. Canada is in the midst of an election campaign, while Taiwan’s next presidential election is scheduled for January. Taiwan also marks its National Day on Thursday.    [FULL  STORY]

Indigenous Taiwanese designer's ensembles interpreted by attendee as 'blackface'

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/08
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In what appears to be a cultural misunderstanding, the 2019 Taipei Fashion Week SS20 stirred controversy on Sunday (Oct. 6) after several models were seen with their heads and limbs covered in black fabric, leading one attendee to accuse the designer of dressing the models in "blackface."

At the finale of the fashion week's welcome party, which took place at Taipei World Trade Center's Exhibition Hall 3, models wore brightly colored dresses with patterns reminiscent of African designs. The face, head, neck, arms, and legs were covered in a thin black fabric.

The models' faces were black and featureless with the exception of bright red, jeweled lips. The ensembles were accentuated with matching bows that the models wore on their heads.

Models clad in black at Sunday's show. (Images from Twitter user @AnicaTCLin)

At 7:40 p.m. on Sunday evening, Taiwanese jeweler Anica Lin took to Twitter to complain about the fashion show, saying "Blackface is not okay. I didn't catch the name of the designer but in this day and age this is NOT COOL."    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/08
By: Chiang Chin-yeh and Chiang Yi-ching

Maryland, U.S., Oct. 7 (CNA) Han Kuo-yu's (韓國瑜) defense policy will focus on "preventing our

adversary from making a decision to use force" if he is elected president, a defense advisor to the Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate said Monday in the United States.

The purpose of national defense is to "maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," and Han's focus will be on preventing China from deciding to use force against Taiwan and being a responsible partner for security in the Indo-Pacific, said Alexander Huang (黃介正), a defense and diplomatic affairs advisor to Han.

"We will never be a troublemaker in the region," he said.

Huang was discussing the national defense positions of Han and the KMT and Taiwan's security situation in a speech at the annual U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference, which is being held this year in Ellicott City, Maryland.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/06
By:  Central News Agency

Hundreds of Filipinos from one of the Philippines' largest fraternities gathered in Taichung on Sunday to celebrate the organization's 51st anniversary with rap music, hip hop dance, and traditional food.

Tau Gamma Phi, otherwise known as the Triskelions' Grand Fraternity, was founded Oct. 4, 1968 by students from the University of the Philippines' Diliman campus in Quezon City.

It has since spread internationally with members in Filipino communities around the globe, and about 250 people showed up at Sunday's gathering.

Fidel A. Macauyag, labor attaché and director of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Taichung, spoke at the celebration and commended the organization for its support of its members.
[FULL  STORY]

Central Weather Bureau says current trajectory is towards Okinawa, Japan

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/06
By:  Central News Agency

A tropical depression east of Guam was upgraded to Tropical Storm Hagibis on Sunday morning, but it is not expected to directly affect Taiwan, according to Central Weather Bureau (CWB) projections.

As of 8 a.m. Sunday, the storm was located 3,760 kilometers east-southeast of Taiwan's southernmost tip Eluanbi, moving west-northwest toward the Ryukyu Islands at a speed of 24 kilometers per hour, according to the CWB.

With a radius of 100 kilometers, Hagibis was packing maximum sustained winds of 72 kilometers per hour with gusts of up to 101 kph.

As for the weather in northern Taiwan on Sunday, northeasterly winds are expected to cause intermittent showers along the coast near Keelung and in Taipei, with a chance of sudden downpours in northeastern Taiwan, the CWB forecast. Daytime temperatures are forecast to range from 28 to 29 degrees.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/06
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, Oct. 6 (CNA) A teenage girl who was driven by war from her homeland but who stayed optimistic and shared that spirit with children who suffered a similar fate, was one of the winners of the 7th Asian Girl Awards, presented in Taipei on Sunday.

The 7th Asian Girl Awards ceremony, held alongside the 17th Formosan Awards, are organized by Taiwan's Garden of Hope Foundation to highlight the achievements of girls.

Sama Hejazi, a 15-year-old girl born in Damascus, won the first-ever Asian Girl Special Award because of her optimism and courage in life, and her efforts in comforting other traumatized young refugees like her.

"We all are here today to show the world that Asian girls are not weak. They have the capacity to make freedom," Hejazi said after receiving the award.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 07, 2019
By: Dennis Xie  /  Staff writer, with CNA

Yeh Sze-ya (葉思雅), an academic in obstetrics and gynecology living in Arcadia, California, has

donated his collection of more than 10,000 classical music records and CDs to the Hsu-shih Music Library in Tainan.

Yeh and his wife, Grace Chang (張信惠), resolved to give away 4,350 vinyl records and 6,350 CDs, which became a huge three-month project, as they had to spend eight hours each day organizing and packing the items into more than 100 boxes so that the shipments would comply with customs regulations and international copyright rules.

“I knew it was a huge job, but doable,” the 82-year-old retired doctor said.

“If we can help younger people, then it is like extending our lives. The Western Paradise in Buddhism or Heaven in Christianity do not necessarily have to exist, as long as these experiences that once touched us can be passed down to the next generation,” he said.    [FULL  STORY]