The China Post
Date: July 5, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Twenty-six universities in Taiwan have made it onto Times Higher Education’s

latest list of leading schools in Asia-Pacific.

That beats the 25 schools in South Korea, nine in Thailand, eight in New Zealand, seven in Malaysia, two in Indonesia and one in the Philippines.

Japan had the most schools on the list, punching above its weight with 69, followed by 52 from mainland China and 35 from Australia.

Taiwan’s highest-ranked school was its flagship National Taiwan University, which placed 33rd.

The next three Taiwanese universities were National Tsing Hua University (清華大學) at 47th, National Chiao Tung University (交通大學) at 53rd and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology at 57th.

The top school in Asia was the National University of Singapore, which has a student body that’s 50 percent international and branch campuses across the globe.    [FULL  STORY]

Maria Yoon got married for the 53rd time in a simulated ghost marriage at Yunshan Temple in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/07/04
By: Maggie Huang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Korean-American performance artist Maria Yoon who married 52 men in 50

states and two of its territories in America got married again on Saturday at Yunshan Temple (雲山巖) in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止), with the groom being Howard Chen (陳豪爾), an affluent Taiwanese man who died in June 2001.

Ghost marriage is a centuries-old practice in Chinese culture (although very rarely performed now). If an unmarried woman dies, she will not be entered on a husband’s family registry, and will have no descendants to take care of her spirit in the afterlife. Thus, family members will sometimes find a husband to “marry” the dead woman, to help put her spirit to rest. But in this case, the roles are flipped and Maria will marry an imaginary man.

Maria Yoon(middle left) and Howard Chen’s male friend holding basket containing Howard’s clothe and memorial tablet shrine

The artist didn’t marry a real dead person since she had difficulty finding one whose family agrees to join the performance, but the ceremonial rituals were conducted by a Taoist priest as authentic as possible, which makes the wedding part documentary, part performance art. The film of the procedure was made by Taiwan-based filmmaker Tobie Openshaw.

“What is marriage? Does our notion of marriage need updating? What is commitment and what does it mean to commit even after death? ” Maria asked. “As an Asian-American woman I got a lot of pressure from my mother to get married, and this made me start to wonder about all the rituals and beliefs around marriage. When I heard about ghost weddings in China and Taiwan I was intrigued”, she added.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/04
By: Kuo Chih-hsuan and Christie Chen

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) A section of highway in Kenting, in southern Taiwan’s Pingtung County, will be

closed at certain times over the next four months to allow the safe passage of female land crabs as they migrate from inland areas to the coast to spawn, officials said Tuesday.

Kenting’s Shiangchiaowan is an important habitat and spawning ground for land crabs. But ever since the construction of Provincial Highway No. 26 along the shore there, female land crabs have been forced to cross the highway to reach the coast to spawn, and are often crushed by passing vehicles.

To help the crabs cross the road in safety, the Kenting National Park Administration has introduced various measures over the years, including closing certain lanes on the highway at certain times every year.

But the measures have achieved less-than-satisfying results, with the mortality rate of the migrating crabs exceeding 30 percent last year, up from the average of 20 percent in previous years.
[FULL  STORY]

JUDICIAL MESS:An increasing number of people support a pardon for the ex-president, while one Academia Sinica historian said Chen’s contributions outweighed his misdeeds

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 05, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

Sixty-five groups yesterday joined a petition calling for former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to

be pardoned, providing a boost to a campaign that has been brewing ever since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regained power last year.

A coalition of Taiwanese independence activists, a lawmaker and academics have called for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to amend the Amnesty Act (赦免法) to clear the way for Chen to be pardoned, as amnesty cannot be granted to those who have trails still pending in court.

The former president served more than six years of a 20-year sentence for corruption before being released on medical parole in 2015, but he still faces other criminal charges.

The petition is the latest of a series launched by DPP city and county councilors nationwide to lodge a formal proposal to be voted on in the DPP national congress in September.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 4, 2017
By: The China Post

Next week, Taiwan’s power supply is projected to be the tightest it’s been all year.

Sate-run utility Taiwan Power Company (Taipower, 台電公司) said Taiwan had entered the season of

the “orange alert,” an indicator that flashes when the operating reserve falls below 6 percent of the total supply.

Taipower President Chu Wen-chen (朱文成) said that the peak demand period was expected in mid-July, and that the company’s management and plant operators were on heightened alert.

The tight power supply is expected to ease later in July once new generators at Tatan Power Plant (大潭電廠) go online, he said.

Taipower said in a statement that this week’s power supply flashed yellow as well as a dangerous orange, with its operating reserve ranging between 5.78 percent and 10.17 percent of the total supply.    [FULL  STORY]

After taking place in Argentina, Brazil, and Singapore, STAR WARS RUN is coming to Taiwan this October

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/07/03
By: Maggie Huang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)– After taking place in Argentina, Brazil, and Singapore, STAR WARS RUN is coming to Taiwan this October!

Taiwan’s first Star Wars Run will kick off on October 1st in Machangding Memorial Park, which is located by the Xindian riverbank and is a neighboring park to Qingnian Park.

Participants are welcomed to dress in their favorite Star Wars character’s costume and will be able to run with the 501st Legion and immersed in real size star wars X-WING and AC-ACT.

The route goes from Machangding Memorial Park to Huazhong Riverside Park with race distances covering 5km.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/03
By: Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, July 3 (CNA) Statistics showing congenital malformations and chromosomal abnormalities as

the main causes of death of newborns in Taiwan has led health authorities to conduct a review and raised questions about the age at which women give birth.

A senior Health Promotion Administration official, Chen Miao-hsin (陳妙心), said the government has begun a program to review and analyze the deaths of young Taiwanese newborns in response to the data and set up a review mechanism to help draft preventive measures.

According to Ministry of Health and Welfare data on the 10 leading causes of death among Taiwanese people in 2016, a total of 811 babies died before their first birthday during the year, and 505 of them, or 62.3 percent, were under four weeks old when they passed away.

The data, released last month, found that congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities were the top causes of death among newborns for the eighth straight year, taking 20.5 percent of lives.    [FULL  STORY]