Radio Taiwan International
Date: 04 October, 2019
By: Leslie Liao

Diabetes has been on the rise in Taiwan over the past few years[/caption] The number of Taiwanese people with diabetes is steadily increasing. That’s despite Taiwan’s strong healthcare system. Health professionals are saying that prevention must begin with people’s habits.

Fluctuations in blood sugar are a primary concern for people looking to stave off diabetes. However, the Taiwanese Association of Diabetes Educators says that people aren’t doing enough to monitor their blood sugar levels. Close to 60% of the population fails to do so in an effective manner.

Association head Tu Shih-te says insulin hormones in Asian people are weaker, meaning that post-meal blood-sugar levels are higher. Tu says people should measure their blood sugar before and after meals. If the difference between the two measurements is over 60 milligrams per milliliter, then it’s important to be careful about sugar intake.    [FULL  STORY]

The New York Times
Date: Oct. 4, 2019
By: Chris Horton

Su Beng, a revolutionary widely known as the father of Taiwan independence for his efforts to liberate

the island from colonial rule, died on Sept. 20 in Taipei, the capital. He was 100.

His death, at Taipei Medical University Hospital, was confirmed by Ray Jade Chen, the hospital’s superintendent, who said the cause was pneumonia.

Mr. Su’s stature as a key figure in the independence movement was cemented when he wrote “Taiwan’s 400-Year History,” a three-volume foundational book published in 1962 that embraced the notion that centuries of colonization had given Taiwan’s people a distinct identity in East Asia.

Mr. Sun began his political life seeking to free Taiwan from the yoke of Japanese colonial rule, only to find himself, decades later, simultaneously fighting two oppressive Chinese governments — the Communists in Beijing and a nationalist regime in Taipei — each standing in the way of Taiwanese self-determination.

As a university student, Mr. Su had taken to Marxism and lived in China, where he assisted Mao Zedong’s revolution for more than seven years. But after Mao triumphed in 1949 over nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese civil war, Mr. Su abandoned the Communist Party that sought to recruit him.    [FULL  STORY]

Popular traditional food market will undergo refurbishment9

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/04
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei's Nanmen Market (南門市場), famed for its variety of Chinese foods, is holding a sale on Friday (Oct. 4) and Saturday before its relocation to a temporary site while an overhaul is underway.

Boasting a 38-year-history, Nanmen Market is reputed as a “Chinese cuisine treasure vault” in Taiwan's capital, offering a wide array of items, from cured meats to cooked dishes. Influxes of shoppers, particularly during the island’s major traditional holidays, bear witness to its longstanding popularity among locals, according to TAIPEI journal.

Located near Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall MRT station, Nanmen Market will close its doors on Oct. 7, with all 257 of its vendors moving to an interim market about one kilometer away. To accommodate the construction of the Wanda-Zhonghe-Shulin MRT line, the building housing the market will be demolished by the year's end before a new one is built to incorporate both the market and a metro station, said the Taipei City Market Administration Office (TCMAO).

The refurbished Nanmen Market will be housed in a sleek 12-floor glass-walled building. It is slated to open in 2023, reported Damanwoo.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/04
By: William Yen

Taipei, Oct. 4 (CNA) Over 100 pieces of Australian Aboriginal artwork painted on tree bark were shown

at the opening of an exhibition in Taipei on Friday, to promote indigenous culture, according to the organizers.

The "Old Masters – Australia's Great Bark Artists "exhibition of 134 pieces of artwork, which were mainly painted on tree bark of various sizes, as well as clay figurines, opened on Friday at the National Taiwan Museum in Taipei.

Margo Neale, head of the Center for Indigenous Knowledges at the National Museum of Australia, which co-organized the exhibition, said the artworks primarily come from the Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory of Australia, the traditional home of the Yolngu indigenous people.

"It is a very highly sophisticated way of passing on culture that survives today. These bark paintings are like messages on note papers where you write information to tell other people things," she said.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Tawan Internatinal
Date: 03 October, 2019
By: Paula Chao

As National Day approaches, a team of students is undergoing rigorous training. They have been chosen as goodwill ambassadors, part of a team that serves as guides to visitors and makes sure the National Day ceremony goes smoothly.

In their training sessions, these guides are taught how to respond to just about any problem that may arise, even some worst-case scenarios.

Each year on National Day, a group of students from National Taipei University of Education becomes the face of the nation. These students look out for the needs of international visitors and foreign dignitaries and help ensure the National Day ceremony is a success.    [FULL  STORY]

Epoch Times
Date: October 3, 2019
By: Frank Fang

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Immigration officials in Taiwan have warned mainland Chinese tourists and exchange students that they won’t be granted re-entry to the island if they damage the so-called Lennon Walls that have been created by people who support Hong Kong protesters.

The mass demonstrations in Hong Kong against Beijing’s encroachment into local affairs, now in their 17th week, enjoy enormous support in Taiwan. Some locals have supported drives to donate helmets and gas masks to Hong Kong protesters, while others have set up “Lennon Walls,” which are large mosaics of Post-it notes and posters put up by supporters to convey messages of solidarity with the protesters.

The Lennon Walls are named after the original John Lennon wall in communist-controlled Prague in the 1980s that was covered with Beatles lyrics and messages of political grievance.
[FULL  STORY]

Japan's move violated human rights principles: attorney

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/03
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Three elderly Taiwanese men born under Japanese occupation want to sue Japan in an unprecedented move to get their original citizenship back, reports said Thursday (October 3).

Yang Fu-cheng (楊馥成), 97, Lin Yu-li (林余立), 92, and Hsu Hua-chi (許華杞), 85, were born during Taiwan’s Japanese colonial period from 1895 to 1945.

They will take their case to a district court in Osaka because they feel the Japanese authorities acted unfairly in taking away their citizenship, the Central News Agency reported. Their attorney said nobody had ever presented such a case before.

After Japan was forced to withdraw from Taiwan in 1945, the two countries concluded the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952, while Japan’s Supreme Court ruled 10 years later that the treaty meant that Taiwanese-born people had lost their Japanese nationality.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/03
By: Fan Cheng-hsiang and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Oct. 3 (CNA) An amendment bill that would increase the maximum penalty for espionage to a life sentence cleared the committee stage in the Legislature on Wednesday.

Under the draft amendment to the National Intelligence Service Law, intelligence agencies would have the right to collect, analyze, and use information that may affect national security or interests, in areas such as national defense, foreign affairs, economics, technology and public security.

The draft bill also states that intelligence officers and other government personnel convicted of leaking state secrets to a foreign power will face a penalty of 10 years to life in prison.

In addition, those found guilty of reaping illegal personal gains from espionage efforts may also be subject to a fine of up to NT$10 million (US$322,691), according to the draft bill.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 04, 2019
By: AFP, TAIPEI

Tens of thousands of Pokemon Go fans yesterday descended on New Taipei Metropolitan Park, hoping

to catch a rare “Heracross” and other elusive virtual creatures from the popular game in New Taipei City.

The four-day Pokemon Go Safari Zone is expected to attract up to half a million fans of the cute fighting creatures.

Pokemon Go has sparked a global frenzy since its launch in 2016 as users of the gaming app hunt for virtual cartoon characters overlaid on real-world locations using augmented-reality technology.

“We can wander out of the city and see what creatures we can catch. It’s a hobby and a form of exercise,” said Chuang Jung-chung, 66, accompanied by his wife and another retired couple on their hunt around the huge park.    [FULL  STORY]