Page Three

Taiwan’s VP addresses 2018 Global Youth Trends Forum in Taipei

The Forum is being held Nov.3-4, and provides young people from across the world with a chance to share ideas on building a better future for the world

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/11/03
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The 2018 “Global Youth Trends Forum” was held in Taipei on Saturday, Nov. 3, bringing together 114 international youth representatives from 19 different countries.

Taiwan’s Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) joined the forum to meet with the young ambassadors, remarking that is is crucial for young people to participate in public affairs since they can offer society fresh ideas for the future.

The annual forum hosted by the Youth Development Administration under the Ministry of Education is an opportunity for young people from across the globe to share ideas on how to improve the world for the better.

Previous forums have focused on topics like the environment and sustainability, while the theme of this year’s forum was simply “Our common Future.”    [FULL  STORY]

MOEA official sees renewable energy as a way to cut air pollution

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/03
By: Yu Hiao-han and Frances Huang

Image taken from Pixabay

Taipei, Nov. 3 (CNA) Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) said Saturday that he believes an increase in the use of renewable energy is an effective way to improve air pollution in Taiwan.

In a televised presentation with opposition Kuomintang lawmaker Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), who proposed a referendum to cut electricity output from thermal power plants in Taiwan year by year, Tseng said Lu’s proposal is just a mild way to lower air pollution and based on her plan, Taiwan will have to spend 100 years to have coal-fired power plants grind to a complete halt.    [FULL  STORY]

Poll finds 83.4% for maintaining the ‘status quo’

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 04, 2018
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Most people in Taiwan, 83.4 percent, do not want to alter the “status quo” between

Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng speaks at a news conference in Taipei on Jan. 4.  Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

Taiwan and China, an opinion poll commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) published on Thursday found.

Of the respondents who wished to keep the “status quo,” 31.1 percent believed in being able to make decisions on cross-strait relations in the future, while 22.3 percent wished to keep the situation the way it is indefinitely.

Sixteen percent of the respondents who wished to maintain the “status quo” want political integration between the two sides, while 14 percent support independence, the council said.

The intensity of respondents’ desire for future political integration or independence was hard to calculate, as the term “future” could mean 50 years or 100, MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Chui Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said.

Of the respondents, 8.6 percent wanted Taiwan to declare independence as soon as possible, while 3.1 percent wanted political integration right away.

According to MAC records, the number of respondents who wanted Taiwan to declare independence as soon as possible and the number who wanted to keep the “status quo” with future political integration were the highest in 10 years.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei labor head recovering after attack

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 02 November, 2018
By: Paula Chao

The head of Taipei’s Department of Labor, Lai Hsiang-lin, is expected to recover soon

Head of Taipei’s Department of Labor, Lai Hsiang-lin

after an attack by a temp worker.

Lai was struck around the eye with a steel rod by a disgruntled worker in her office on Wednesday. The assailant was reportedly unhappy with his working conditions.

Lai said violence should not be tolerated, though she vowed to continue fighting for labor rights.
[SOURCE]

An orchestra from Taiwan will make its first Bay Area appearance

San Fransisco Chronicle
Date: November 2, 2018 
By: Joshua Kosman

Conductor Shao-Chia LüPhoto: Taiwan Philharmonic

The world of Western classical music is as vibrant and multifarious in Asia as anywhere else, but too often American audiences get to hear only a small sample of what that region has to offer. To take an obvious example, it means that an organization like the Taiwan Philharmonic is known here almost exclusively by reputation.

This week brings a small corrective to the situation, as the orchestra winds up a rare tour of the West Coast with a concert in Davies Symphony Hall on Monday, Nov. 5.

Music Director Shao-Chia Lü plans to lead a program that includes “Dancing Song” from “Three Aboriginal Songs for Orchestra” by the Taiwanese composer Gordon Chin, as well as works by Barber and Brahms. The young Taiwanese virtuoso Yu-Chien Tseng is the soloist in Barber’s Violin Concerto.

Taiwan Philharmonic: 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5. $35-$200. Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., S.F. 415-392-4400. www.cityboxoffice.com    [SOURCE]

Polymer art space launches final show to reflect the oppressing Taiwanese art industry  

Polymer art space’s Petri dish bred artistic creativity, cultivating intriguing works of art

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/11/02
By: Lyla Liu, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Polymer art studio will launch final show feature the difficulties artists face (image by Taiwan News Lyla)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Polymer art space will be closed due to the upcoming lease expiration in December. In order to commemorate the five-year establishment, Polymer will hold a performance titled “Stolen Field” this weekend (Nov. 3,4.), reflecting the difficult situation existing within Taiwan’s art industry.

Established in 2013, Polymer has been located in the Beitou district. The venue gathered creative minds from multiple disciplines. Its nature is expressed in galleries, museums, and schools, and served as the “Silicon Valley” of the art world.

Polymer is also like a Petri dish breeding the creativity of artists and cultivating dramatic new forms of art.

“At Polymer’s onset, artists invested almost 2 million in building up the locale while planning, furnishing, and recruiting resident artists. After a while, they finally settled in to create astounding art. Then, people started to have disagreements and disputes,” said the art director, Kuo I-Chen.    [FULL  STORY]

Anti-money laundering acts amended to regulate virtual currencies

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/02
By: Liu Shih-yi and Chi Jo-yao 

Taipei, Nov. 2 (CNA) The Legislative Yuan passed amendments Friday to existing anti-money laundering and terrorism financing prevention laws that regulate transactions of virtual currencies such as bitcoin to help combat online financial crimes.

The amendments to the Money Laundering Control Act and the Terrorism Financing Prevention Act give Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) the authority to crack down on anonymous virtual currency transactions.

The FSC can now demand that operators of virtual currency platforms, including bitcoin, implement “real-name systems” that require users to register their real names, according to the new provisions.

If they don’t, banks can reject anonymous virtual currency transactions and report them to the FSC if they deem them suspicious.    [FULL  STORY]

Vote-buying allegations prompt probe, arrests

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 03, 2018
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

An investigation was launched yesterday into alleged vote-buying activities by New Taipei City Councilor Wang Ming-li (王明麗) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), while two borough warden candidates in Hualien County were arrested after reports of rule violations ahead of the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24.

Prosecutors directed police and investigators to search offices linked to Wang’s campaign, while Wang and 11 others were detained over allegations that the campaign team handed out tea and other gifts in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽).

Locals said that members of the campaign team, including Wang, gave out packages containing tea, vases and a vest bearing the candidate’s name to local borough wardens and officials of farmers’ associations.

Wang, her campaign manager, surnamed Lan (藍), and people who allegedly received the packages were questioned by New Taipei City prosecutors yesterda    [FULL  STORY]

Uruguay grants visa-free status to Taiwanese travelers

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 01 November, 2018

Uruguay grants visa-free status to Taiwan

The foreign ministry announced on Wednesday that Uruguay will be allowing Taiwanese travelers visa-free entry to the South American country for stays of up to 90 days. That will make it the 169th country or territory in the world to offer Taiwanese nationals the preferential treatment.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Andrew Lee said Thursday that Taiwan welcomes the visa-free status accorded by the Uruguayan government. He said he believes it will help boost trade, tourism and exchanges between the two countries.

Lee said his office will continue its efforts to make overseas travel more convenient for Taiwan nationals.

Lee said, “Basically the list of countries that offer preferential treatment already makes up about 90% of the destination countries that Taiwanese nationals travel to. So in the future we will continue to do this meaningful work. We will continue to work on it as long as this move benefits and brings convenience to people. If you think about it, Taiwanese travelers make about 10 million overseas trips in a year. Each person spends US$97 for visa application. In a year, we can save close to US$3.2 billion.”    [FULL  STORY]

Preserving social cohesion at all costs is still the bedrock of Taiwan’s social morality.

Here, placing the larger clan, the society, before yourself, the individual, is key.

BBC News
Date: 1 November 2018 
By: Leslie Nguyen-Okwu

Saying ‘buhaoyisi’ in Taiwan can open a Pandora’s Box of profuse politeness (Credit: Keitma/Alamy)

Yun-Tzai Lee and Joanne Chen are one of those sickening couples that finish each other’s sentences, lace their fingers together and just won’t stop oozing adorable. But the three little words ‘I love you’ don’t come as easily to Lee as they do to his fiancée Chen. His face turns beetroot-red at the thought of uttering the phase, and causes him to feel ‘buhaoyisi’(pronounced ‘boo-how-eee-suh’) – one of the many ways to feel mortified or to be sorry in Taiwan.

“Most people here will feel this way,” Lee said.

Welcome to the linguistic minefield of apologising in Taiwan, where simply saying ‘buhaoyisi’ can open a Pandora’s Box of profuse politeness. The word is made up of four characters that literally translate to ‘bad meaning’ or ‘bad feeling’, and serves as a tidy catch-all that can be deployed in all kinds of situations, from meekly catching a waiter’s attention to expressing a guilt-ridden apology to your boss to the paralysing feeling that washes over you as you struggle to confess your love.

Buhaoyisi is forever on the lips of Taiwanese, according to Prof Chia-ju Chang, Chinese professor at Brooklyn College City University of New York. “We use it all the time as Taiwan is a verbally polite culture. So, we use it when we interrupt people or asking of a favour. We can even use it to start a conversation.”    [FULL  STORY]