Baby-faced mortician posts heart-wrenching photo of newborn at mother’s memorial

Taiwan News
Date: 017/04/18
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A young mortician has become an internet celebrity overnight after posting a heart-wrenching image of her holding a newborn baby at a memorial for her mother on April 15.

The mortician, Hsu I-fei (許伊妃), who appears to be very young and attractive for a trade usually considered the realm of old men, posted an image of a herself holding a tiny newborn infant in front of the memorial of the child’s mother, who had died by an unknown cause only four hours after giving birth to twins.

The father of the twins, said the younger twin, a girl, “Cried nonstop at home, but when the car arrived to the funeral parlor, the baby stopped crying! In front of Mama’s soul she slept very peacefully.”

Many netizens, were deeply touched by the story, leaving messages such as “Great motherly love,” “Mother and daughter’s hearts linked together,” and “Life has many helpless moments, but is also full of hope.”    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/18
By: Su Lung-chi and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, April 18 (CNA) Relations between Taiwan and the Philippines have moved up a notch as lawmakers from both sides formed a parliamentary association on Tuesday with the aim of boosting bilateral exchanges in various fields.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Kuen-yuh (吳焜裕), who was elected chairman of the Taiwan-Philippines Congressional Association, said he hopes the association can push for more cooperation in trade, investment, agriculture and medicine.

Legislative Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) also said during the inauguration ceremony that the association could play a key role in Taiwan-Philippine ties because the two countries do not have enough exchanges due to language barriers.
[FULL  STORY]

HATTA VERSUS SUN:KMT councilors said that the DPP was acting swiftly to restore the statue of a Japanese engineer, while a toppled Sun Yat-sen was neglected

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 19, 2017
By: Hung Jui-chin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Tainan City Council’s first meeting of the year was overshadowed by controversy

yesterday, with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) seemingly nearly coming to blows over accusations by the KMT caucus that the city government was showing favoritism in its treatment of statues of Japanese engineer Yoichi Hatta and Republic of China founder Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙).

The KMT caucus said that Tainan Mayor William Lai’s (賴清德) response to the decapitation of a bronze statue of Hatta near the city’s Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫) contrasted starkly with his response after a statue of Sun in Tang Te-chang Memorial Park (湯德章紀念公園) was toppled in 2014.

The KMT said Lai showed partiality by promising to restore the Hatta statue within one week, while the Sun statue has yet to be replaced or restored.

KMT Tainan City Council caucus secretary-general Wang Chia-chen (王家貞) said she would boycott council meetings “by any means” if the city government fails to completely restore Sun’s statue at its original site before May 8.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: April 19, 2017
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Laid-off textile workers from the Lilytex Group (立益紡織集團)

protested outside the Ministry of Labor on Tuesday, accusing the firm of backtracking on a promise to pay workers severance above the legal minimum.

The local textile manufacturer abruptly shut operations in late March, leaving its 28 workers unemployed, Hsu Tong-guei (徐同溎), director of the company’s labor union, said on Tuesday.

Some of the senior workers were two months away from retirement, Hsu said, and had now lost approximately NT$300,000 in retirement benefits.

Hsu said that the company had been shutting down its textile factories for several years now and that the protests on Tuesday were by the company’s remaining employees.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-04-17

Taiwan’s top China policy-making body, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), has lodged

a strong protest against a move by China’s state-owned TV station to belittle Taiwan.

MAC Minister Katherine Chang on Monday spoke out against CCTV’s reference to Taiwan as “Taipei, China” during its coverage of the 2017 Asian Table Tennis Championships.

Chang told lawmakers that Taiwan has always participated in international sporting events under the name “Chinese Taipei”, which is the name that has been endorsed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Chang called China’s unilateral move to change the name “absolutely unacceptable.”

“We want to lodge a strong protest and our dissatisfaction with [China]. It’s regrettable. Taiwan definitely is not part of China. The move taken by China will not have a positive impact on cross-strait ties,” said Chang.    [FULL  STORY]

The New Taipei City Government has been holding the Water Splashing Festival since 1998

Taipei Times
Date: 2017/04/17
By: Maggie Huang,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The annual Songkran Festival held by New Taipei City Government kicked off at Huasin Street in Jhonghe District on Sunday.

Songkran Festival, also known as “water splashing festival,”is the climax of this annual extravaganza of Thailand and Myanmar. The water splashing is a token of blessing that wards off misfortune and sending good wishes. Tradition has it that dousing each other with water washes away the misfortunes of the past year.

The New Taipei City Government has been holding the Water Splashing Festival since 1998 to promote mutual understanding and respect between local people, Myanmar-Chinese, Thai-Chinese and immigrants.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/04/16
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—The city government of Tainan, the oldest city in Taiwan located

on the southwest coast of the island country, has teamed up with 23 hotel operators in the city to offer tourists who visit the city during weekdays a “free second night stay,” according to the city government.

Shennong Street

City Tourism Bureau Director Wang Shih-ssu (王時思) said that visitors usually have problems finding hotel rooms during long holidays in the past, such as Chinese New Year, 228 Peace Memorial Day, and Tomb-Sweeping Day this year. The city government and the hotel operators have launched the “free second night stay” program to encourage tourists to visit Tainan during weekdays (Sunday to Thursday).    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/16
By: Sophia Yeh and S.C. Chang

Taipei, April 16 (CNA) Former presidential advisor and Taiwan independence advocate Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) said on Sunday that many of his proposals for the building of a democratic Taiwan have been realized, though two major tasks remain unfinished 53 years after the publication of his renowned “manifesto.”

The two tasks are adopting a new constitution for Taiwan and joining the United Nations under the name “Taiwan” instead of “Republic of China,” he told an audience attending a book launch to mark the republication of his two books.

Since he and several colleagues launched a democracy campaign in 1964 and released the “Manifesto of Taiwanese People’s Self-Rescue Movement,” Taiwan has adopted the direct popular election of the president, normalized the Legislature or parliament and now upholds freedom of speech, press and association, Peng said.   [FULL  STORY]