Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/09/01
By: Huang Li-yun and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Sept. 1 (CNA) Taiwan began implementing a number of new government policies and measures Sunday, including a ban on smoking under covered walkways outside several convenience stores and coffee shop chains in New Taipei and Taipei.

Stores covered by the ban are 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Hi-Life, OK Mart, Simple Mart, Starbucks, 85°C, Louisa Coffee, Mr. Brown, Dante, Ikari, Barista, Cama, Crown & Fancy and Peter Better.

Under the ban, anyone caught smoking under these covered walkways in front of outlets of the 15 chains will be subject to fines ranging between NT$2,000 (US$63.8) and NT$10,000.

Also from Sunday, Taipei senior courtesy cards can be used at the city's 12 district sports centers.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 30 August, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

In Taiwan, the annual period known as “ghost month” is coming to a close. Many believe that after weeks of freely roaming the earth, spirits will return to the underworld, and the door separating our world from theirs will shut once more.

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Though people all over Taiwan appease these spirits with offerings, the people of one town go above and beyond, turning their offering ritual into one of Taiwan’s greatest spectacles.

The town of Toucheng in Yilan County is often fairly quiet. But not when ghost month comes around. It’s said that spirits are let loose from the underworld late every summer. After a month, they go back, and around this time each year Toucheng erupts into a frenzy.

The reason is a dizzying ritual that’s long been a hallmark of local culture. Townspeople build a wooden platform that reaches 15 meters off the ground, set atop spindly stilts. On top of that, they raise spiky towers made by lashing together bamboo poles. Each is 21 meters high and topped with a flag.The result looks a strange oil rig.    [FULL  STORY8]

The Stratigist
Date: 30 Aug 2019
By: Charlie Lyons Jones

With elections due in early January 2020, Taiwan’s presidential race is heating up. Besides the candidates from the two major parties, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), there’s an outsider who is so far getting little attention.

The mayor of Taipei, Ko Wen-je, is yet to announce his formal candidacy but could be laying the foundations to run. On 6 August, he established a new political party, called the Taiwan People’s Party, putting unity at the centre of his campaign. ‘We will use the power of the people to change Taiwan’, Ko said.

At a time when Taiwan’s democracy is being tested, Ko’s theme of unity is important. Despite the pride Taiwanese of all political persuasions have in their hard-won freedoms, there’s a widespread recognition that Beijing is now chipping away at the foundations of Taiwan’s young democracy.

Much like the Republicans in the US in 2016, Taiwan’s oldest political party has been hijacked by a populist. In early July, the KMT selected the pro-China mayor of Kaohsiung, Han Kuo-yu, as its candidate.    [FULL  STORY]

Local team from Yilan's Luodong Township bested 11 other teams this year

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/30
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – On the evening of Aug. 29 in Yilan’s Toucheng Township (頭城鎮), the annual Ghost Grappling Festival was held in which teams try to scramble up tall greased poles and large towers covered in auspicious items in order to grab a lucky pennant affixed to the top.

The festival takes place on the 15th day of the seventh month of each Lunar New Year. At this year’s main event, which kicked off at 11:00 p.m. Thursday night, there were 12 teams participating, with one team representing New Immigrants from Indonesia.

The towers, constructed every year, are traditional structures with a history dating back hundreds of years. There are three portions of the tower, which is called a gupeng (孤棚) and they include 12 large support pillars, a platform and then 13 bamboo trestlework spires. In total, the gupeng is 13 stories high.

The most difficult part of the climb is reaching the platform, because each of the support pillars is coated in grease. After reaching the platform, the teams can begin the final ascent up the bamboo towers in a race for the pennant.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/30
By: Liu Kuan-ting, Yu Hsiang and Chung Yu-chen

Taipei, Aug. 30 (CNA) An aide to tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) confirmed Friday that if Gou decides to run

in the 2020 presidential election he will do so as an independent.

Gou, the founder and former chairman of iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry, has been mulling an independent run for president since losing the Kuomintang (KMT) presidential primary in mid-July to Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).

Gou aide Tsai Chin-yu (蔡沁瑜) said Friday Gou would run as an independent should he decide to run, adding that the tycoon needs time to make a decision as he has just returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia.

The deadline for registration as a presidential candidate is Sept. 17.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 29 August, 2019
By: John Van Trieste

The heads of 15 local governments controlled by the opposition KMT have issued a joint statement decrying the planned abolition of the stamp tax.

The stamp tax is imposed on a range of documents and transactions including real estate sales and contracts. It is an important source of revenue for Taiwan’s counties and special municipalities.
[FULL  STORY]

Films set to showcases Taiwan's creative cultural power to the world

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/29
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taiwanese film industry is set to make an impression with an impressive lineup of virtual reality projects at this year’s Venice Film Festival, which began on Aug. 28 and which will run through Sept. 7.

This year, Taiwan will set a new record for the most VR film projects from a single country ever entered at the esteemed film festival, with seven entries in four categories and one out-of-competition screening. The spectacular array of new-generation film technology and creative storytelling capability could mark a new chapter for Taiwan as an international hub for virtual reality.

The impressive showcase will also hopefully catapult Taiwan’s domestic film industry to international attention. Of the seven VR productions being unveiled at the Venice Film Festival, five of them were made in cooperation with HTC Vive Originals, representing some of the fruits of HTC recent investments in developing VR content for its Vive platform.

The HTC Vive Original VR films being presented this week are “O” by director Qiu Yang, “Only the Mountain Remains” by Chiang Wei-liang, “The Making of” by Midi Z, “Inori” by artist Mita Komatsu and composer Kay Huang, and “Gloomy Eyes” by French animators Jorge Tereso and Fernando Maldonado. Variety quotes the president of HTC Vive Originals Liu Szu-ming stating that the line-up “does not represent a single win by one team, but showcases the successful VR industry cluster and announce the cultural creative power of Taiwan to the world.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/29
By: Wang Su-fen, Chen Chao-fu and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Aug. 29 (CNA) Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the opposition Kuomintang's (KMT) 2020 presidential candidate, said Thursday that if he is elected president, he will allocate NT$23 billion (US$72.578 million) annually to fund low interest loans to new graduates and will allow them a longer period to begin repayment of student loans.

In an address on social media to lay out his youth policy platform, Han said that currently, the first payments on student loans become due one year after graduation, which puts pressure on graduates who are trying to find their niche in the job market.

A longer grace period will allow them more time to pursue their dreams or start a family, he said in the address, which was streamed live on social media.

With that in mind, Han said, his plan is to offer student loans at low interest rates and give students a grace period of up to 10 years, during which they will pay only the interest and nothing on the principal.    [FULL  STORY]