Taiwan Insight
Date: 28 February 2020
By: Wen-Ren Liu.

When travelling around Taiwan one will inevitably encounter small temples whose religious affiliation is not immediately evident. The prevalence of such temples reflects an area where Chinese religiosity generally differs from the monotheism prevalent in many other societies – while many Chinese believe in the existence of a realm of invisible, non-material existence, they are less inclined to confine their belief to a specific God. In line with this, many religious sites in Taiwan demonstrate an interesting juxtaposition of spiritual beings and symbols pertaining to different religious/spiritual traditions, the main ones being Buddhism, Taoism (and Folk Taoism), and Confucianism, and when visiting these temples, many Taiwanese tend to pay respects to spiritual figures they are not familiar with in addition to those they came to worship. In short, Chinese folk culture has been the incubator of a harmonious co-existence of different religious/spiritual traditions, and this is arguably most evident in contemporary Taiwan.

An interesting example can be found in Northeast Taiwan near the main monastery of the Dharma Drum Mountain organisation (DDM) – one of the so-called ‘four great mountains’ or major Buddhist organizations of modern Taiwan. 

The founder of DDM, the eminent late Chan Master Sheng-Yen, chose as the site of this monastery a beautiful and tranquil hillside in Jinshan District, in what is now called New Taipei City. Sheng-Yen, who had engaged in extensive academic studies on Chinese Buddhism, intended that the temple reflect the spirit of the architecture of Chan Buddhism in the Tang period – the so-called ‘golden age’ of Chinese Buddhism, wherein the religion flourished and reached new heights. In line with this, while the DDM is both large and replete with the technologies and necessities of the modern world, its architecture appears humble and low-profile, while its buildings are confined to bland and non-stimulating colours; namely, gray, brown, and white. The calming ambiance this generates is enhanced by the temple’s landscape, where distant mountains appear to blend seamlessly with a more immediate vista of trees, rocks and small streams.   [FULL  STORY]

Foreign workers and travelers sitting on chessboard-colored floor a common sight

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/29
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Sitting on the lobby floor at Taipei Main Station is banned between now and April 30, Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) announced on Saturday (Feb. 29).

Taipei Main Station, located in the Zhongzheng District of Taiwan's capital, is where the Taipei Metro, Taiwan High Speed Rail, and Taiwan Railways systems converge. While the station serves as a major transportation hub, it has also become a place where people gather to rest and play.

As a measure to help stem the spread of the highly-contagious coronavirus (COVID-19), visitors are now prohibited from congregating in the station’s lobby or sitting on the floor. Events or exhibitions will also not be permitted to take place at the venue during this period, according to TRA.

Travelers waiting for trains and migrant workers are often seen sitting on the floor in the lobby, which boasts a chess-board like design of black and white tiles. The design has sparked an interesting debate about why people tend to sit on the black tiles rather than the white ones.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/29/2020
By: Chang Ming-hsuan, Yang Su-min and William Yen

Taipei, Feb. 29 (CNA) The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) chief said Saturday he is

opposed to launching a crackdown on undocumented migrant caregivers at a time when Taiwan's healthcare workers are already heavily burdened with efforts to contain the COVID-19 coronavirus.

"I disagree with the need to strengthen reporting of undocumented workers at present. For hospitals, it doesn't matter if one is a documented or undocumented migrant worker or a family member of a patient," Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said at a press conference.

"What matters to us is whether that person has any questionable travel history, or illnesses, and if he or she knows how to look after the patient," Chen said.

Although he "of course discourages" the hiring of undocumented caregivers, Chen said stepping up crackdown on these workers at this moment would only create a sudden shortage of people to look after patients and place more strain on healthcare professionals.   [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 28 February, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

As the coronavirus COVID-19 continues to infect people around the world, Taiwanese people are worried that their surgical mask supply will not last much longer. A university in Taipei may have found a solution to extending the use of masks.

A research team from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology has created a machine that can prolong the use of face masks. The team combined atmospheric pressure plasma technology with automated equipment to build a mask-cleaning machine. The machine prolongs how long a mask can be used by sanitizing it for 10 seconds.

The team’s leader, Professor Joseph Kuo said each Taiwan resident is currently limited to receiving two masks per week. That means each mask is reused for about three days. He said the machine can reduce bad odors and even warm and refresh each mask.    [FULL  STORY]

• Visitors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau no longer allowed to enter self-ruled island as Taipei seeks to control spread of deadly disease
• But dissidents and protesters who fled Hong Kong fear they will be arrested if forced to return home

South China Morning Post
Date: 29 Feb, 2020
By: Lawrence Chung

A travel restriction imposed by Taiwan to help contain the coronavirus outbreak  has created a new dilemma for protesters and dissidents from Hong Kong seeking asylum on the self-ruled island.

Since February 6, Taipei has banned all visitors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, with the island’s Central Epidemic Command Centre saying the restriction would remain in place until the contagion had been brought under control.

For people like Lam Wing-kee, the announcement came as unwelcome news. The Hong Kong bookseller fled to Taiwan  in April last year fearing he might be handed over to the authorities in mainland China under a now-withdrawn extradition bill.

The former manager of Causeway Bay Bookstore was detained in mainland China in 2015 after being accused of selling books critical of China’s leaders. The same fate befell four other Hong Kong booksellers     [FULL  STORY]

An estimated 2,000 visitors arrived on Taitung County's Green Island and Orchid Island Friday

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/02/28
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak makes travel to nearby countries less attractive, Taiwanese tourists have piled into small islands off the southeast coast for the three-day holiday, reports said Friday (Feb. 28).

The public holiday marks the anniversary of the 1947 massacre by Chiang Kai-shek’s government in which more than 10,000 people died.

While in previous years Taiwanese seized the opportunity to travel to Japan, South Korea, China, or Hong Kong, the intensity of the coronavirus outbreak in those areas has turned their attention to domestic destinations instead.

On Friday alone, an estimated 2,000 people traveled by ship or airplane to Green Island and Orchid Island, two small islands off the coast of southeast Taiwan’s Taitung County.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/28/2020
By:} Lee Hsin-Yin, CNA staff reporter

When Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) announced on Feb. 3 that the Taiwan government would start a rationing system to cope with a face mask shortage caused by coronavirus fears, the relevant government agencies had only 60 hours to prepare.

They had to come up with a system that would work swiftly, effectively and equitably, allowing each buyer to purchase the allowed two masks per week.

"To be frank, were it not for the infrastructure upgrades and data management experience accumulated over the years in Taiwan, it would have been very difficult for the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) to roll out the mask rationing system so quickly," Chang Lin-chih (張齡芝), chief of the NHIA's Information Management Division, told CNA in an interview recently.

Under the rationing system that began Feb. 6, anyone can buy disposable surgical masks on Sundays at designated drugstores and pharmacies, once they present their National Health Insurance (NHI) cards, while on the other days of the week, sales are staggered based on the last digit of the ID number on the buyer's NHI card.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 29, 2020
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The Kaohsiung Department of Health has tracked down nearly 100 people who have had contact

with an Indonesian factory worker after she visited a friend in New Taipei City who later tested positive for COVID-19.

The friend — an Indonesian caregiver — was on Sunday confirmed as the nation’s 32nd COVID-19 patient, and the search began after a check of the people she came in contact with included the Indonesian factory worker, a Gangshan District (岡山) resident who also fell ill.

The investigation found that the factory worker visited a local clinic on Saturday last week because of a sore throat, after which she went to a hot pot restaurant with three friends.

She was taken to a hospital and quarantined on Sunday, department official Pan Chao-ying (潘炤穎) said yesterday.    [FULL  STORY]