A statue of nine stacked frogs in Taiwan’s Sun Moon Lake has long been regarded by the general public in Taiwan as a visual representation of the drought the country is facing, but a Taipower official disagrees  
 
Taiwan News
Date: 2018/01/08
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—A statue of nine stacked frogs in Taiwan’s world famous Sun

Moon Lake has long been regarded by the general public in Taiwan as a visual representation of the drought the country is facing, but the deputy chief of a state-owned power plant that manages the lake said the stacked frog is a mistaken indicator of the country’s drought conditions.

As soon as water levels in reservoirs across Taiwan are alarming low, people and media in the country immediately like to comment on the drought severity based on how many frogs on the nine stacked frogs, which is called the Nine Frog Acrobats statue, emerge above the water surface of Sun Moon Lake. It’s believed that the more frogs are visible, the more severe the drought is.

However, the statue is not an accurate index of drought conditions in the country and the practice of relying on these stone frogs to indicate the country’s drought conditions is actually a myth, according to Chang Tien-rui (張天瑞), deputy chief of Takuan Power Plant, a Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) power station that manages Sun Moon Lake.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/08
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan 

Taipei, Jan. 8 (CNA) Taiwanese labor groups staged a rally outside the Legislative Yuan Monday in an attempt to thwart the passage of an amendment to the Labor Standards Act that they described as “the worst in history.”

Clashes broke out between protesters and the police when the groups were trying to set up a canopy for protesters to take shelter from rain, only to see a truck carrying the equipment stopped by the police.

Hundreds of people led by the “May 1 Action Coalition” — an alliance of trade unions and labor-rights advocacy groups — gathered to voice their anger against the government, which plans to push through the amendment by Wednesday.
[FULL  STORY]

Plum trees in Nantou are expected to come into full bloom around mid-January

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/01/07
By:  Central News Agency

TAIPEI (CNA) — Plum trees in Nantou are expected to come into full bloom around mid-

January as the weather turns cooler, a township chief in the landlocked county said Sunday.

About half of the plum trees in Ren’ai and Xinyi townships, the county’s two most popular areas for viewing plum blossoms, are flowering, local observers said.

“If a cold spell or cold air mass prevails, the blooming will peak by the middle of the month,” said Ren’ai Township Chief Chiang Tzu-hsin (江子信).

This year is expected to be one of the best for viewing plum blossoms in Taiwan, he said.

Meanwhile, in Xinyi Township, the plum trees are also about 50 percent in bloom, thanks to constant rainfall and cool temperatures, said Chang Sheng-cheng (張勝正), head of Dream Works of the Mei (plum), which is run by the Xinyi Township Farmers’ Association.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/01/07
By: Phoenix Hsu and William Yen

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) National Taiwan University (NTU) will seek greater

internationalization, including the establishment of an international campus, NTU president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) said Sunday.

Kuan said in a meeting with press that the international campus will be established on NTU property on Xuzhou Road in Taipei and will be financed mainly by the school.

Through cooperation with various NTU partners, competitive fields of study can be introduced, Kuan said.

For example, in the field of marketing, NTU can focus on artificial intelligence, precision marketing and other key areas, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

stuff.com.nz
Date: January 7 2018
By: Sharon Stephenson

You can imagine the pitch: let’s make some poor bloke in a motorbike helmet stand still

while hundreds of firecrackers and rockets are fired at him.

It would never wash with New Zealand’s health & safety junta, but in late 19th century Taiwan, it was thought to be a good way to ward off evil and misfortune.

Our guide Danny tells us that the Yanshui Beehive Rocket Festival, an annual religious festival held on the 14th and 15th day of the Lunar New Year, started after deadly cholera and plague epidemics ravaged the townsfolk for two decades.    [FULL  STORY]

The march on Sunday demands improvement of labor rights

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/01/06
By: Juvina Lai, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Hundreds of migrant workers will be seen marching in the

streets of Taipei on Sunday with the theme ‘Recognizing Non-Citizens’, an action to bring to the government’s attention the need to improve current labor policies as well as to consider involving the workers themselves while creating new policies that would affect the migrant workers directly.

The demonstrations will start from the Ministry of Labor at 1:30 pm and will move to Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building.

“The theme of this rally is ‘Recognizing Non-Citizens.’ We hope that Taiwanese society will recognize the lack of political rights of these non-citizens, who, like local citizens, live, consume and pay taxes in Taiwan,” said Hsu Wei-tung (許惟棟), a member of the Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan (MENT), as reported by the Central News Agency (CNA).     [FULL  STORY]