Page Three

Yunlin county in western Taiwan welcomes Mother’s Day with button sewing competition  

The event encouraged fathers and children to share the housework with mothers

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/05/07
By: Alicia Nguyen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Yunlin County welcomed the fast-approaching Mother’s Day with

(By Central News Agency)

an amusing competition of threading needles and sewing buttons (穿針引線縫鈕釦), with the county’s magistrate even joining in the event.

On May 7, Yunlin citizens were invited to participate in a button sewing competition held by county’s government. Males and females teamed up in groups of two, facing each other and then tried to sew as many buttons as possible in a given amount of time.

The day even included the special participation of Yunlin’s Magistrate Lee Chin-young (李進勇). He partnered up with Yunlin’s Secretary General Huang Yu-Shuang (黃玉霜) to compete with other fellows, making the competition even more intense and exhilarating, reported CNA.    [FULL  STORY]

Talks needed to avoid cross-strait conflicts: president

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/07
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, May 7 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for talks between

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文; CNA file photo)

Taiwan and China without any political preconditions on the basis of respect and equality to resolve misunderstandings and avoid misjudgments that could result in conflicts.

Tsai made the remarks in a pre-recorded joint interview with TTV and Unique Broadcasting that aired Monday night.

She was responding to questions related to the historical summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27.

The way Kim and Moon addressed each other showed that they treated each other with respect and were on an equal footing, Tsai said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipower to report on Shenao Power Plant at EPA

BE REASONABLE: Citing a 2000 Harvard study, DPP Legislator Wu Kun-yuh said vehicle emissions are three times more deadly than those of a coal-burning plant

Taipei Times
Date: May 08, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan and Chiu Yen-ling  /  Staff reporters

As state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) is to deliver a report on its proposed Shenao

“Aunties” Alliance, the Taiwan Treehugger Alliance and other environmental groups yesterday wave banners outside the Taichung City Government building to demand that officials release the results of an air pollution assessment.  Photo: CNA

Power Plant (深澳電廠) at the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) tomorrow, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wu Kun-yuh (吳焜裕) yesterday called on the public to be rational regarding concern over potential pollution from the plant.

The utility’s plans to build the coal-fired Shenao plant in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳) has faced renewed criticism after its updated environmental impact report covering changes to the project was on March 14 passed by the EPA’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) grand assembly.

The committee required the utility to submit supplementary documentation and its supervising agency — the Ministry of Economic Affairs — to offer a year-by-year roadmap detailing how they are to achieve the goal of generating 50 percent of electricity from natural gas, 30 percent from coal and 20 percent from renewable sources by 2025.
[FULL  STORY]

Israeli chutzpah, Taiwan’s Confucian culture can be a ‘great match’ in business

Delegation of Taiwan government officials, VC and tech executives visits Israel to work on closer cooperation

The Times of Israel
Date: May 6, 2018
By: Shoshanna Solomon

A group of Taiwanese visitors march in the ‘Tabernacles’ parade held by Christian groups each year on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, September 24, 2013. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

There are “great prospects” for business cooperation between Israel and Taiwan in the high-tech field, a senior official of a Taiwanese trade organization said last week as he led a delegation of senior executives to the Startup Nation to pursue business opportunities.

“Israel and Taiwan are a great match,” declared James Huang, the chairman of Taiwan External Trade Development Council, or TAITRA, a nonprofit trade promotion organization that operates within the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan. Huang spoke to The Times of Israel in Tel Aviv.

“Culturally we are very different on the surface,” Huang said. “Taiwan is a Confucian society, with emphasis on respect of order, seniority. In Israel everyone challenges everyone,” he said with a laugh. And that is why, he said, the two countries “can complement each other perfectly” to introduce innovation in R&D and in paving the way for future technologies.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan preserves memories of Taiwan-born Japanese

Japan Today
Date: May 6, 2018
By Ko Shu-ling 

TAIPEIIn February, the Tainan city government released a documentary film titled “Tainan Stories” about Japanese who lived in Taiwan during its 50-year colonial rule and who were repatriated to Japan after World War II. The film was also screened in Osaka in April.

Over 300,000 eventually returned to Japan in the years following 1945. An estimated 80,000 who were born in Taiwan during the occupation became known as “wansheng” (Taiwan-born), or “wansei” in Japanese.

“As time passes and wansheng numbers decline, we’re afraid they will one day be forgotten,” said Lin Chien-hsien, deputy head of the city’s Department of Information and International Relations.

Lin also hopes the film will attract visitors interested in Japanese island history — and not just visitors from Japan. The plight of the wansheng has long attracted attention from Taiwanese artists, writers, and particularly filmmakers.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei City offers six legal graffiti spaces along riverside parks

If you are looking for a space to show your graffiti talent in Taipei, then there is good news for you

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/05/06
By:  Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)–If you are looking for a space to show your graffiti talent in

(photo courtesy of the HEO)

Taipei, then there is good news for you.

Taipei’s Hydraulic Engineering Office (HEO) has opened up six riverbank park locations to artists to express their creativity from now on. However, the HEO said political messages or vulgar expressions in the artwork will not be tolerated. The following are the chosen locations and directions to the respective “legal” graffiti walls:

  • Yinggeng Riverside Park: Enter the park by Keelung River Evacuation Gate No. 7 and walk for 500 meters in the Keelung River upstream direction. The wall surface is about 400 pings.
  • Mei Tee Riverside Park: The wall is on the right side of the ramp next to the levee on Mingshui Road. The area is 236 pings.
  • Bailing Right Bank Riverside Park: Take the bike lane of Yuanshan Riverside Bank through the entrance under Chungshan Bridge. The surface is about 145 pings.
  • Fuhe Riverside Park: Enter Jingmei Evacuation Gate No. 2. The surface area of the wall is 108 pings.
  • Jingmei Riverside Park: The culvert wall under Beixin Bridge, with a surface area of 60 pings.
  • Chengmei Right Bank Riverside Park: Enter the park by Keelung River Evacuation Gate No. 13 and head in the direction of Chenggong Bridge. The wall surface measures 426 pings.

Wall graffiti at the sites will be monitored from time to time and removed regularly on a four-month interval, according to the HEO.    [FULL  STORY]

Chinese student in critical condition after drowning

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/06
By: Worthy Shen and Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, May 6 (CNA) A Chinese exchange student rescued from a drowning accident

Photo courtesy of Yilan County Fire Bureau

that took place in Taiwan’s eastern Yilan County has remained in coma after being taken to a hospital, the county’s fire department said Sunday.

The student, surnamed Lu (陸), 21, showed no signs of life when he was pulled out of water by surfers. He was later resuscitated but was in level-three coma and has been put in intensive care unit at a nearby hospital, the department said.    [FULL  STORY]

Tainan receives highest subsidy for live-fire drills

Taipei Times
Date: May 07, 2018
By: Lo Tien-pin and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Tainan has received the highest amount of subsidies — NT$40 million (US$1.35 million) — for communities affected by live-fire military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said in a report.

The ministry in 2005 began offering subsidies to local governments based on how much the live-fire drills affect local communities.

The ministry has asked the local governments to help distribute the funds so that they could be spent on facility improvements and local development.

Last year, the ministry budgeted NT$195 million for this purpose.

This year, the amount rose to NT$216 million that would go to 10 counties and cities.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s drive to reduce plastic waste

Channel News Asia
Date: 05 May 2018
By: Victoria Jen

Taiwan uses up to 18 billion plastic bags a year – a major source of pollution to the environment. Now the government is pushing to cut the use of plastic bags and completely eliminate their use by 2030.     [VIEW VIDEO]

Hsinchu is Taiwan’s acid rain capital for 2017

The area’s location is susceptible to pollution from China
View Count 298  

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/05
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Acid rain falls in Hsinchu City on 85 days out of every 100

Acid rain is the worst in Hsinchu, says the EPA. (By Central News Agency)

days of rain, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Saturday.

The figures were revealed in a study covering January to November 2017, the Central News Agency reported.

National Central University, which conducted the survey, named Zhongli in Taoyuan City as the second-worst affected city in the country, with acid rain falling on 71 percent of rainy days.

The average for Taiwan is 35 percent, yet both worst afflicted areas were located in the same area, the island’s northwest. The main reason was that seasonal winds from the northeast were most likely to carry pollution from China to the Taoyuan and Hsinchu areas.    [FULL  STORY]