Focus Taiwan
Date:\09/13/2020
By: Chao Ching-yu and Chiang Yi-ching

Taipei, Sept. 13 (CNA) The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, also known as Weiwuying, was among six works of architecture in Taiwan honored at the 2020 International Architecture Awards, the museum said Sunday.

The awards, which are in their 15th edition, honored 130 buildings and urban planning projects from 38 countries this year.

The event is organized by the Chicago Athenaeum, along with the European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and the Metropolitan Arts Press.

Weiwuying, which was once a military complex, was designed by Dutch architect Francine Houben, who was inspired by the many banyan trees in the area to create the center's sleek, wave-shaped roof.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 11 September, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

2020 Kuandu Arts Festival to kick off September 23[/caption] An annual three-month-long arts festival in the Kuandu area of Taipei is set to begin in two weeks. Taipei residents are in for a feast of music, movies, and animation.

The 28th Kuandu Arts Festival will kick off September 23. There will be an array of musical performances, art exhibits, stage plays, dance shows, and even a production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” done with hand puppets.

The highlight of this year’s event will be a joint performance by six orchestras, including the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra.   [FULL  STORY]

Unlike countries like Vietnam and New Zealand, Taiwan has managed to keep its five-month streak of no local COVID-19 transmissions alive.

The Diplomat
Date: September 11, 2020
By: Nick Aspinwall   

Taiwan has been cast along with other East Asian and Oceanian states as one of the world’s COVID-19 success stories. But as countries such as New Zealand and Vietnam have seen domestic outbreaks during the summer, Taiwan’s last five months and counting continue to be defined by one number: Zero, the number of local transmissions recorded since April 12.

On that day, Taiwan had confirmed a total of 388 cases. As of Friday, Taiwan had recorded a total of 498. Every positive COVID-19 case recorded since April 12 has been either imported – from a person traveling from abroad who tested positive during a mandatory 14-day quarantine – or from a cluster aboard a navy ship returning from a goodwill trip to Palau.

It’s a remarkable achievement for Taiwan, which recorded its first coronavirus case on January 21 and, that same month, was projected by experts to have the world’s second-worst outbreak after China.

Instead, life has remained normal. The country has never instituted lockdown measures and the vast majority of businesses remain open. The closure of borders to international travelers has led to a domestic tourism boom, with hotspots like Hualien, Taitung, and Kenting seeing overflows of Taiwanese visitors during the summer.    [FULL  STORY]

Winners of Golden Harvest Awards and Kaohsiung Film Festival to stream online

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/11
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Seven Taiwanese films have been selected for the fourth annual Southeast Asian Short (SeaShorts) Film Festival, becoming the country's first productions to earn such recognition.

Five of the seven featured films — "Nine Shots" (九發子彈), "Fire at Forest" (以啟山林), "Tea Land" (高山上的茶園), "Lovely Sundays" (第一廣場), and "Arnie" (阿尼) — depict the struggles of migrant workers in Taiwan. "The Calling" (令) and "Be Shit or Not To Be" (洛西．布拉西) tell the stories of young Taiwanese torn between dreams and reality and how they cope with failure.

All seven films were winners of the Golden Harvest Awards and the Kaohsiung Film Festival, according to CNA.

The 2020 SeaShorts Film Festival, which has been moved online due to the coronavirus crisis, will run from Sept. 12-20 and include 52 narrative shorts from Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, and the Philippines. A directors' forum will also be held online Sunday (Sept. 13).    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/11/2020
By: Liu Kuan-ting, Wang Yang-yu,
Fang Cheng-hsiang and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Sept. 11 (CNA) Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) on Friday denounced the Chinese state-owned broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) for tagging a planned visit to China for a cross-Taiwan Strait forum later this month as a move to "sue for peace" amid the tense standoff in the strait.

The KMT has decided to send a delegation headed by former Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to China to attend the 12th Straits Forum in Xiamen, Fujian Province, scheduled to start on Sept. 19, despite warnings from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration.

The planned visit, however, also drew a sarcastic headline from CCTV, one of Beijing's mouthpieces, for its program on cross-strait affairs that reads "with the strait on the brink of war, this man (Wang) is coming to the mainland to sue for peace."

In response, the KMT released a statement on Friday blasting the comment, which it said is not only unhelpful to "positive interactions" between the two sides of the strait, but "distorts the original intention of pursuing peace and hurts the feelings of the peoples of the two sides."
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 10 September, 2020
By: Katherine Wei

The opposition KMT says that attending an upcoming cross-strait forum would be a good way to ease tensions between Taiwan and China.

The KMT plans to send a delegation headed by former Legislature speaker Wang Jin-pyng to China later in September for the annual forum. 
[FULL  STORY]

Office 'marks a new chapter in Taiwan-Somaliland relations': Taiwanese foreign minister

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/09
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Somaliland Representative Office in Taiwan began its operations Wednesday (Sept. 9) despite opposition from Somalia, which claims sovereignty over the self-governing East African territory, and China.

The plaque-unveiling ceremony for the Somaliland office was held on Wednesday morning in a building owned by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the office itself is located in a residential building in the capital. Mohamed Hagi, Somaliland's first envoy to Taiwan, declined to comment on the Chinese hostility seen since Taiwan and Somaliland pledged to strengthen ties in July.

“The bilateral accord between Somaliland and Taiwan is based on common values of freedom and democracy,” remarked Hagi, who arrived in early August to prepare for the new office. He stressed that the bilateral relationship upholds “mutual assistance that will never expose any harm whatsoever to the interests of other countries, but rather contributes to international peace and regional economic activities.”

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) declared in July that Taiwan and Somaliland were establishing reciprocal representative offices as part of a treaty signed by the two governments to advance ties in a wide array of areas. The offices do not reflect diplomatic relations but are of a highly official nature, Wu stated at the time, adding that bilateral talks had commenced months ago.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/10/2020
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Ko Lin

Taipei, Sept. 10 (CNA) The coral reefs in waters around Taiwan have suffered the worst bleaching in 2020 since the last big El Niño event 22 years ago, the international environmental organization Greenpeace said Thursday.

In a press release, Greenpeace said the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in July and August raised the coral bleaching heat stress alert for areas in northern and southern Taiwan from Level 1 to Level 2, the highest in its five-tier system.

According to the NOAA, Level 1 indicates "Significant Bleaching Likely," while Level 2 means "Severe Bleaching and Significant Mortality Likely," while the lower alerts are "No Stress," "Watch" and "Warning."

Large-scale bleaching was observed at three different diving sites in Kenting National Park from Aug. 17-19, the worst seen in Taiwan since 1998, Greenpeace project director Lena Chang (張皪心) said.    [FULL  STORY]