Former Shih Hsin University president Lai Ting-ming said in a recent interview with Huang Yi-chin, a reporter for the Chinese-language ‘Liberty Times’ (sister newspaper of the ‘Taipei Times’), that the recent ‘letters of agreement’ scandal involving local universities showed the lack of integrity and honor in Taiwanese higher education

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 27, 2017

Liberty Times (LT): During your term, you signed agreements of academic exchange

with Chinese schools. Have you encountered incidences where Chinese institutions or students demanded letters of agreement or other pledges to control the curriculum?

Lai Ting-ming (賴鼎銘): I signed academic exchange agreements with Chinese institutions. While I understand certain schools, student associations or parent associations might have reservations about Taiwan’s democratic society or sensitive political subjects, I have never encountered any institution that demanded agreements of that kind. On the other hand, the very best Chinese universities tended to have fewer reservations and made fewer demands.

It is likely the difference between degree-seeking students and research students played a role.
Degree-seeking students are a minority in Taiwan — those who picked a university department to apply to on their own. As a result, they would know about — and indeed expect — certain things from their education in Taiwan. The Chinese government and Chinese universities exercise relatively little control with regard to those students.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: March 27, 2017
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Following an intense eight-week competition, the winners of Franklin

Templeton Investments Investment Competition were announced on Sunday, March 26.

The competition attracted 1191 of Taiwan’s college students comprising 394 teams to engage in online investment simulations that featured the TAIEX, NASDAQ, Dow Jones, the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index, and the Hang Seng Index.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Professor Chu Yun-peng (朱雲鵬) of the Asia Pacific New Economic Association said that “participating in this competition was a learning process not just for the skills of investment and trading but also on how to be a good person.”    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-03-25

 

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je is set to lead a tourism delegation to Southeast Asia and India.

The group is made up of officials in the Taipei City Government and business

representatives. It will visit Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and Delhi. The delegation hopes to expand Taiwan’s presence in the Thai and Indian tourist markets and attract more Muslim tourists to Taiwan. At the same time, it hopes to spread publicity about the upcoming 2017 Summer Universiade, hosted by Taipei.

The weeklong trip, slated to begin on Sunday, will include a promotional event in each of the cities on the itinerary.
[FULL  STORY]

China Post poll finds eastern and southern Taiwan less open to the concept of gay marriage

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/25 12:26
By: Judy Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (TAIWAN NEWS)—Taipeiers might be one of the strongest supporters of

marriage equality in Taiwan, but many parts of Taiwan remain conservative and less open to the concept of gay marriage, according to poll results released by China Post on Saturday.

The survey was conducted in response to Justice Minister Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) claims that legalizing gay marriage would be less well-received in central and southern Taiwan.

The survey found Taiwan’s east coast was least supportive of gay marriage, with up to 60.6 percent of respondents polled voting against legalization, followed by central Taiwan’s 52 percent, and southern regions 50 percent.

Results for east coast were based on respondents from Yilan and Hualien counties, while central Taiwan comprised those surveyed in Taichung City, Chuanghua and Nantou Counties, respondents from Tainan City, Yunlin and Chiayi counties made up the southern sector.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 017/03/25
By: Huang Li-yun, Chen Wei-ting and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, March 25 (CNA) The Taipei 101 skyscraper, retailer Carrefour and numerous

hotels in Taiwan joined the world in observing Earth Hour by turning off their lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday.

At Taipei 101, the tower was in darkness except for the 59th and 60th floors, which were lit up with messages in LED lights that said “Earth Hour,” and “60+”, among others, to remind people to participate in the environmental action.

Meanwhile, the French retailer Carrefour called on its 97 stores across Taiwan to participate in the event, while hotel operators such as L’Hotel de Chine Group and Leofoo Tourism Group turned off their signboard lights.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: March 24, 2017

The first coordination meeting of a four-year interagency project to revitalize Taiwan’s Hakka culture was held March 22 in Taipei City as part of government efforts to strengthen the nation’s multicultural society and spur balanced economic development.

Involving representatives from the Council of Agriculture, Hakka Affairs Council and Ministry of Economic Affairs, among others, the meeting focused on the project’s primary goal of transforming a 150-kilometer section of the 438.7-kilometer-long Provincial Highway No. 3—also known as the Inner-Mountain Highway—into the Hakka Romantic Avenue.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/24
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Breaking News Commune (爆料公社) member Su Chia-hsien (蘇家賢) has posted images of a massive 3D mural of a dragon soaring over a cityscape that will eventually cover the entire roof of a building.

Three images were posted of the different stages the artwork has undergone so far, from a basic black spray paint outline, to what now appears to be a golden dragon roaring with razor-sharp claws and a long, undulating tail. As immense as the mural currently is, Su says that it is only 25 percent complete!    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/24
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, March 24 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was listed among the world’s 50 greatest leaders in the latest annual ranking complied by Fortune, a New York-based business magazine.

Tsai ranked No. 8 on the list released on Thursday. It was the magazine’s fourth annual ranking of the World’s Greatest Leaders.

In a section introducing the president of Taiwan, Fortune noted that Tsai captured headlines in December with a phone call to then-U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, the first between U.S. and Taiwanese leaders since 1979, when Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.    [FULL  STORY]