Your daily dose of news from Taiwan and around the region.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/12/03
By: TNL Staff

Taiwan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) said Sunday that it will consider increasing the number of polling stations in coming elections and will also look into whether to hold referendums alongside local elections in the future.

In a report submitted to the Legislative Yuan, the CEC admitted to making mistakes in the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections which led to long lines at polling stations. The report said the lines were caused by limited space and insufficient voting booths at the stations.

The report also noted that the presence of multiple referendum ballots prolonged the process.

At some polling stations, voters continued to wait in lines as other stations began to count ballots. This situation has led Kuomintang (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) to demand that the Taipei results be invalidated after he lost to incumbent Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).    [FULL  STORY]

Yangminshan is the best place for Taipei area residents to enjoy colorful foliage at this time of year

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/03
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – As it’s now December, it’s time to enjoy delightfully colorful deciduous trees, which usually grow in Taiwan’s remote high mountain areas. But if you don’t want to bother traveling far, Yangminshan is the best nearby place for greater Taipei area residents to enjoy colorful foliage at this time of year, according to a news release posted by Taipei’s Parks and Street Lights Office (PSLO) on Monday.

The PSLO especially recommended the Floriculture Experiment Center (FEC) just beside the gas station near Chinese Culture University (花卉試驗中心) and Qianshan Park (前山公園) near the Yangmingshan bus station.

Currently the leaves of the nine ginkgo trees in the FEC have turned yellow, and it’s a good time to appreciate these trees before their leaves fall sometime in December, the PSLO said. The Yellow Maple trees are fully yellow and the leaves of the Green Maple trees are turning red in the FEC, which has become a nice place for new couples to take photos at this time of year, the PSLO said, adding that

In addition, the Fragrant Maple and Green Maple trees, which are growing all over Qianshan Park, especially around the basketball courts, are gradually changing colors from yellow to red. FEC Director Song Fu-hua said that even though maple leaves in the Yangmingshan area will not turn as red as maple trees in high mountain areas, Yangmingshan is so close to Taipei that many people can come to appreciate the leaves every year.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/03
By: Liao Yu-yang and Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Dec. 3 (CNA) Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) will hold off returning to the

United States unused fuel rods from the mothballed fourth nuclear power plant in New Taipei until a decision on whether to alter the nation’s energy transition map has been reached, an official said Monday.

A Nov. 24 referendum vote that rejected the Democratic Progressive Party’s goal of phasing out nuclear energy by 2025 has forced the government to review its energy transition plan, with Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) promising to put forth a new policy in two months.

Until the ministry presents a new policy, Taipower has no plans to ship out the unused rods, Chung Bin-li (鍾炳利), president of the state-owned company, said when asked by opposition Kuomintang lawmakers at a meeting of the Legislature’s Economics Committee.

The government has targeted a mix of 50 percent natural gas, 30 percent coal and 20 percent renewables for its electricity supply by 2025 after nuclear power is phased out.
[FULL  STORY]

The Georgia Voice
Date: December 2, 2018
By: Katie Burkholder

After losing three referendums regarding LGBTQ rights, Taiwanese calls to a LGBTQ helpline jumped 40%, reported Gay Star News.

The Taiwain Tongzhi Hotline, which is dedicated to LGBTQ phone counseling, received an influx of calls both during and after the referendum.

“Phone calls from LGBTQ+ people and parents who have LGBTQ+ children have both increases,” said Sih-Cheng Du. “Four calls out of ten are about referendum topics.”

Last week, voters in Taiwan voted no to changing the Civil Code to allow same-sex marriage and teach gender equality in schools. Voters also decided to keep the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.

The hotline also saw a spike in people reaching out through Facebook, received double the normal number of messages.    [FULL  STORY]

The Labour Spokesman
Date: December 2, 2018
By: Precious Mills

BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (November 2018)-This week, the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan)- acting on behalf of its government- donated three (3) new haemodialysis machines costing over US$60,000 altogether.

On the morning of Tuesday 27th November, a presentation ceremony was held at the Haemodialysis Unit of the Joseph N. France General Hospital in Basseterre where a total of seven machines are now in place.

Newly-appointed resident Taiwan Ambassador Tom Lee pointed out the donation has been made as part of the efforts of the people and government of Taiwan “to help St.Kitts and Nevis increase capacity of controlling the CK (chronic kidney) diseases.”

In touching on the significance of the contributed equipment, he remarked: “…The major cause of deaths in St.Kitts and Nevis are chronic diseases such as diabetes but many of you may not know that one of four diabetes patients many develop CKD (chronic kidney disease) and the haemodialysis machines that we are donating today are very crucial to the patients’ (health). Without the machines, patients with CKD may die. That explains why this project is very important.”    [FULL  STORY]

The Star
Date: 2 Dec 2018

FROM Kuomintang outsider to the man who broke the Democratic Progressive

Party’s grip of more than two decades on Kaohsiung, new mayor Han Kuo-yu is enjoying the spotlight and he owes much to his social media-savvy daughter, Coco Han, for that success.

Coco, a 23-year-old senior university student who majored in sociology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, campaigned for her father on the streets and behind the scenes, prompting some to draw parallels with Ivanka Trump’s role in helping her father, Donald, to the US presidency.

Coco managed social media accounts for her father’s election campaign and, when Han’s victory was declared at the weekend, she said she would “lend my father to Kaohsiung”.

“I finally got to sleep for eight hours,” she said after the polls.

“I will go back to continue my studies and hope Han will work hard, and not disappoint people’s expectations of him.”    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 03, 2018

Director Kent Chang, who has created an 18-minute pilot for the movie adaptation of

the ‘Scrolls of a Northern City’ comic and is raising money for its production, spoke in an interview with ‘Liberty Times’ (sister newspaper of the ‘Taipei Times’) staff reporter Lan Tzu-wei about his project and the process of recreating old Taipei on screen

Liberty Times (LT): “Scrolls of a Northern City” (北城百畫帖), written by comic book artist Shen Ying-chieh (沈穎杰), better known as AKRU, is set in 1935 Taipei, when the city hosted the Taiwan Exposition. She described the mood at the time as a “Taisho Roman in Taiwan.” Why did you choose to adapt “Scrolls of a Northern City”?

Kent Chang (張永昌): In 2013, Mida (夢見), an animated film I directed, participated in the Fancy Frontier anime convention. While I was walking around the convention, I came across Scrolls of a Northern City and was immediately moved by it — especially AKRU’s vision of 1930s Taipei.

The comic is set in the city’s Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area, with which I am very familiar. I do not count myself as being from Taipei. As my father was a police officer and I was born after he was transferred to Taipei, for me, Taipei is home, but also not home.    [FULL  STORY]