Nearly 19,000 people relocated from Taiwan’s capital in first five months of 2020

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/06/27
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's capital city saw nearly 19,000 residents moving out of Taipei in the first five months of 2020, making it the nation's only municipality with a positive outmigration rate last year.

Ministry of Interior (MOI) figures show Taipei recorded its highest outmigration rate in 2019, with 26,793 residents leaving the city. From January to May this year, 18,861 home buyers and tenants chose to relocate elsewhere — 7,000 more people than the same period a year ago.

There has been a decline in Taipei's population over the last five years, with a net outmigration of approximately 110,000 since 2014. Experts predict the Taiwan capital is on trend this year to see its largest decrease in inhabitants in 23 years, reported Liberty Times.

The MOI said there are several reasons for Taipei residents moving out, including skyrocketing real estate prices, high consumption levels, and the increasingly convenient commute options that allow individuals to travel from nearby cities quickly.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 06/27/2020
By: William Yen

Taipei, June 27 (CNA) The 2020 Golden Melody Awards ceremony, Taiwan's equivalent of the Grammys, will be held Oct. 3 at the soon to be inaugurated Taipei Music Center, the Ministry of Culture's Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development said Saturday.

The awards ceremony, which was slated to be held June 27, was postponed in April because of the country's social distancing and crowd management regulations at the time due to the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Taiwan has been gradually easing its COVID-19 restrictions since June 7, when it recorded 56 straight days without any domestically transmitted infections.

The decision to hold the ceremony at the Taipei Music Center in the city's Nangang District was made because the newly constructed venue will be able to provide exciting ceremony content, the bureau said in a statement.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 28, 2020
By: Wang Chu-hsiu and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

While stereotypically considered a household pest that simply will not die, Hung Ting-yang’s (洪鼎揚) experience with Archimandrita tesselata, commonly called the peppered roach, might change a person’s mind.

The peppered roach originates in South America, is omnivorous and, as it is capable of growing to 7cm to 9cm long, is a giant compared with other roaches, which have an average length of about 4cm.

The peppered roach goes through six separate chrysalis stages and takes nine months to reach full maturity. Mature roaches have wings, but cannot fly and can only glide. They have an average lifespan of three years.

As his parents were against letting him keep dogs or cats as a child, Hung said that he raised insects and has been infatuated with them ever since.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 26 June, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

Kinmen County promotes tourism on Dadan Island[/caption] With COVID-19 under control in Taiwan, many Taiwanese people are ready for a nice, long summer vacation. And with overseas destinations still off the table, they’re flocking to Taiwan’s outlying island chains. One of these island getaways- a former military garrison- may seem like an odd choice for a vacation spot at first. But it’s precisely this military past that attracts so many visitors in the first place.

The Kinmen Islands are Taiwan’s first line of defense against communist Chinese invasion. Through the Cold War, they were closed to outsiders, and even today, they are garrisoned with troops. But they are far from the uninviting sort of place that this description may make them out to be.

One of the islands in particular, Dadan Island, was long a military outpost, and it only opened to tourists a few years ago. These days, it’s welcoming as many as 300 Taiwanese tourists to experience a part of their county’s military heritage.    [FULL  STORY]

Yu Da High School to expand and include junior high and elementary school pupils

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/06/26
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Yu Da High School (台北市私立育達高職) in Taipei City is planning to adopt the name “Princeton,” reports said Friday (June 26).

Also known as Yu Da High School of Commerce and Home Economics, in the capital’s Songshan District, it is a senior high school that was founded in 1949 as a cram school for classes in accounting, CNA reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 06/26/2020
By: William Yen

Taipei, June 26 (CNA) A dozen full-length feature films by new and emerging filmmakers around the world began screening Friday in a competition for new talent at the annual Taipei Film Festival.

A total of 12 films by filmmakers from Japan, China, Brazil, Kosovo, Portugal, Taiwan, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Lesotho, Denmark and Uruguay have been accepted in the festival's International New Talent Competition this year.

One of the movies in the competition that was screened that day was a drama titled "Song Without a Name" by Peruvian filmmaker Melina León. The film is León's debut feature and was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 2019.

The Painting of Evil / Photo courtesy of Taipei Film Festival

The 97-minute black and white feature is based on the true story about a young woman's desperate search for her newborn daughter, who was stolen at a fake health clinic. The woman's search for her child takes her to a newspaper publisher where a journalist takes on the investigation.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 27, 2020
By: Wang Chun-chung and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer

As temperatures increase, people should be careful to prevent heatstroke and heat exhaustion by ensuring they consume ample water and salts, as well as avoiding heavy sweating, a doctor said.

Besides preventing sunburn, it is also important to pay attention to heatstroke and heat exhaustion, Tainan Municipal An-Nan Hospital physician Chen Hung-yu (陳泓毓) said, citing a 50-year-old construction manager.

The man who works in direct sunlight for prolonged periods, visited the hospital complaining about persistent thirst and fatigue, including occasional cramps in the legs, Chen said.

As high blood sugar can result in persistent thirst, a blood sugar test was arranged, but the results were negative, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 25 June, 2020
By: Paula Chao

Taiwan’s International Cooperation Development Fund has teamed up with Turkey and Columbia University in the US to develop an app that helps Syrian refugees in Turkey gather medical information.

The project began last August and aims to use technology to increase health literacy and health care access for refugees in Turkey. This is the first time that the fund has implemented a humanitarian assistance program in Turkey.    [FULL  STORY]

Study population may differ substantially from North America, however

MedPage Today
Date: June 25, 2020
By: Diana Swift, Contributing Writer 

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) was associated with more than double the risk of dementia, particularly Alzheimer disease, a Taiwan population study found. Furthermore, individuals with IBD were diagnosed with dementia an average of 7 years earlier than non-IBD controls.

Among the study's findings:

• HR 2.54 for dementia in IBD patients versus controls (95% CI 1.91-3.37)
• Dementia incidence 5.5% in IBD patients versus 1.4% in controls (P<0.001)
• Dementia diagnosed in the IBD group at a mean age of 76 vs 83 for controls
• Greatest increase in IBD-related dementia risk for Alzheimer disease, at HR 6.19

On the other hand, no difference in dementia risk was seen by sex, IBD type, or individual IBD medications, but risk appeared to accelerate with disease duration, reported Yen-Po Wang, MD, of Taipei Veterans General Hospital, and colleagues writing online in Gut.

The group used the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database to compare 1,742 IBD patients, diagnosed from 1998 to 2011, with 17,420 controls to assess dementia risk after IBD diagnosis. Participants in both groups were on average just over 60 years old and 51% were men.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/06/25
By:  Central News Agency

The Armed Services Committee of the U.S. Senate released on Tuesday its version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes provisions that support both the strengthening of Taiwan's military and further cooperation on efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

The committee passed the act on June 11, and it will now be taken to a vote on the Senate floor.

The committee's version of the NDAA reiterates U.S. support for the development of Taiwan's military, including through arms sales, exchanges between top defense officials and military exercises.

These exercises could include the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), the world's largest maritime warfare exercise, if appropriate, the act states, although Taiwan has never participated before.    [FULL  STORY]