Page Three

Live-streaming celebs liven up 17 Media party

The China Post
Date: February 13, 2017
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — 17 Media, the leading live-streaming company in Taiwan, hosted its

Live-streaming celebrity Daphny Chang (張子蕾) poses for a photo on 17 Media’s spring party at the W Hotel on Saturday, Feb. 11. (All photos courtesy of 17 Media)

first Valentines’ Spring party on Saturday, engaging with more than 500 social media celebrities, the biggest event of its kind in the country.

More than one million netizens took part in the event via online live-streaming, 17 Media said, with a record-breaking 800,000 viewers watching the party at one time.

17 Media claims to have written a new page in the history of live-streaming markets on Saturday since the company’s Christmas party last year, making the highest profit in the shortest time frame, with viewers staying online for the longest period of time ever in the live-streaming industry in Taiwan.

The spring party was themed “Want to be with you so much,” seeing more than 500 popular stars from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, and Japan.

A rising live-streaming celebrity, Yayun (小亞), with more than 96,000 followers on Facebook fan page, was voted the most popular by netizens, bringing home a Porsche Macan S, while also winning a one-year contract with 17 Media’s Chinese-speaking section.    [FULL  STORY]

Foreign ministry: Taiwan, US to maintain close communication

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-02-11

The foreign ministry says that communication between Taipei and Washington remains

Foreign ministry spokesperson Eleanor Wang – (CNA file photo)

good.

Ministry spokesperson Eleanor Wang said Saturday that the two sides will stay in close contact and continue to uphold a policy of avoiding surprises.

Wang’s statement comes after the White House announced a call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In the call, Trump reportedly said that the US will continue its One-China policy.

Wang said that Taiwan understands the importance the US government places on peace and stability in East Asia. She also said that it is in the United States’ interests to maintain both friendly ties with Taiwan and peace in East Asia.  [FULL  STORY]

Tainan mayor angry over fake earthquake picture

Two suspects interrogated by police

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/11
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A man and a woman were being investigated after Tainan City

The building used in the fake earthquake photo. (By Central News Agency)

Mayor William Lai expressed anger over the distribution of a picture claiming that a tall building had collapsed during Saturday morning’s earthquake.

A 5.6-magnitude tremor rocked the Tainan area at 1:12 a.m., but only four people were injured, reports said.

However, a picture surfaced online of a tall building listing heavily, with a text claiming that the tower had collapsed.

No heavy damage was reported in Saturday’s quake though, and the picture turned out to have been taken last year, when an earthquake on February 6 claimed the lives of more than 100 people in Tainan’s Xinhua District.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Lantern Festival officially opens in Yunlin

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/11
By: Yeh Tzu-kang, Chen Wei-ting and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Feb. 11 (CNA) The 2017 Taiwan Lantern Festival officially opened in Yunlin County on Saturday in what organizers called an event designed to highlight “distinctive Taiwanese flavor and local features.”

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Premier Lin Chuan (林全) and Yunlin Magistrate Lee Chin-yung (李進勇）lit the central theme lantern, a 23-meter high phoenix, to the delight of tens of thousands of visitors.

The president said she was happy to see that despite the recent cold weather people were still keen to attend the festival.    [FULL  STORY]

Activist rejects China’s reappropriation of 228

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 12, 2017
By: Hsiao Ting-fang and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Chinese government should promote freedom and democracy at home before trying to commemorate the 228 Incident, 228 Memorial Foundation chairman Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元) said.

Huseh made the remarks on Wednesday last week in response to plans by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to commemorate the 228 Incident’s 70th anniversary this year.

The 228 Incident refers to a massacre by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime that began on Feb. 28, 1947, when soldiers in Taipei opened fired on people demonstrating against the death of a civilian during a crackdown on unlicensed vendors by a Tobacco and Alcohol Monopoly Bureau agent.

The Incident triggered an nationwide insurgency against the government, which responded by ordering a military crackdown that killed between 10,000 and 30,000 people, many of whom were local elites, and imposed Martial Law from 1949 to 1989, which marked the White Terror period.    [FULL  STORY]

Wolverine and Professor X coming to Taiwan

The China Post
Date: February 12, 2017
By: CNA

Hugh Jackman pushes a wheelchair carrying Patrick Stewart in this image released by 20th Century Fox. Jackman yesterday confirmed that he and his co-star would be in Taiwan on Feb. 26 to promote “Logan,” their latest film. “Happy Lantern Festival! Looking forward to bringing LOGAN to Taipei this month,” he tweeted. [FULL  STORY]

Judge to live broadcast same-sex marriage debate

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-02-10

One of Taiwan’s top judges, Justice Huang Jui-ming, has scheduled a debate on same-

Justice Huang Jui-ming
Judge to live broadcast same-sex marriage debate (CNA photo)

sex marriage for March 24. The debate will be broadcast live via the internet.

The debate follows the legislature’s recent passage of the first reading of an amendment allowing same-sex marriage. Three readings are required for a bill to pass into law.

The debate will cover whether same-sex marriage should be part of Taiwan’s civil code and whether it is in conflict with the current constitution.

Justice Huang’s wife, DPP lawmaker Yu Mei-nu, has been a major driver of the legislation aimed at making Taiwan the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. She will not take part in the upcoming discussion to avoid a conflict of interest.

Polls indicate same-sex marriage has the support of the majority of Taiwan’s population. Opposition has mainly come from organized conservative religious groups.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Uber drivers petition to resume operations

Taiwan Uber Drivers Alliance hand in petition to ministry of transportation asking Uber be allowed to resume operations.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/10
By: Judy Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

A group of about 40 members from the Taiwan Uber Drivers Alliance turned up to

Uber drivers hand over petition
Adam Sheng, the spokesperson of the Taiwan Uber Drivers Alliance (left) hands over the group’s petition to Wang,Chao-Ming representative for MOTC (right)

protest in front of MOTC, while 200 cars circled the ministry with protest signs and slogans.

Supporter of legalization of Uber in Taiwan

Uber announced it will cease operations in Taiwan as of Feb. 10, 2017, after being fined more than NT$230 million last month by The Directorate-General of Highways for violating the Highway Act and was ordered to cease operations in the country.

The company accumulated fines for registering as a technology company instead of a taxi service since entering Taiwan’s market in 2013.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei-based youth organization faces rent of about NT$50 million

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/10
By: Wang Yang-yu, Chen Chih-chung and Elaine Hou

Taipei, Feb. 10 (CNA) The Taipei-based China Youth Corps has lost a lawsuit against the National Property Administration and needs to return a Taipei building in which the organization’s headquarters are located and pay rent for the use of the building, according to a final court ruling on the building’s property rights.

The Supreme Court upheld Friday a ruling by the Taiwan High Court in January 2016 that the group should return the part of the Chih-Ching Building, which it has been using, to the government, and should pay monthly rent of about NT$760,000 (US$24,466), backdated to Aug. 5, 2011, representing a total of about NT$50 million.

The National Property Administration filed a lawsuit against the China Youth Corps, accusing it of illegal occupation of part of the Chih-Ching Building, but it lost the lawsuit in the first ruling by the Taipei District Court in December 2013. The government agency appealed the case.

In the first ruling, the court determined that the China Youth Corps had the legal right to use the building and acquired part- ownership of the building, local media reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Ker favors separate law on same-sex marriage

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 11, 2017
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Drafting a separate law rather than amending the Civil Code to allow same-sex marriage would be more appropriate, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said yesterday.

The Council of Grand Justices is to start a review of same-sex marriage on March 24 and is highly likely to rule that it is constitutional, he added.

“No one in the DPP caucus is against marriage equality,” Ker said in a live-streamed interview with an online media outlet.

“After all, times are changing, and that is what I told religious groups that visited me,” he said. “However, how to execute it is a problem that the Legislative Yuan needs to deal with.”    [FULL  STORY]