Variety
Date: August 26, 2019
By Patrick Frater, Asia Bureau Chief

Netflix has set late 2019 and early 2020 air dates for a trio of Chinese-language original series that it has made in Taiwan.

Crime thriller, “Nowhere Man” will go to air from Oct. 31, 2019. Directed by DJ Chen and starring Alyssa Chia, Mavis Fan and Joseph Chang, the story involves a strange encounter that causes a man awaiting execution to experience alternate timelines. That leads to his escape from prison to protect his family.

The Neal Wu-directed action comedy, “Triad Princess,” gets its first airing from Dec. 6. It stars Eugenie Liu as a woman who grows up in the shadow of her mafia-affiliated father. She defies his wishes and takes a gig as an undercover bodyguard for a famous actress.

Viewers will have to wait till January 2020 for “The Ghost Bride,” a period thriller set in 1890s Malacca. There a young woman finds herself in the afterlife and becomes mired in a murder mystery connected to the deceased son of a wealthy family. The series is directed by Ho Yuhang (“Mrs K”) and stars Wu Kang Jen, Huang Peijia, Ludi Lin, and Tian Tze Kuang. All three series have been previously announced.    [FULL  STORY]

The Ministry of Education policy is being rolled out to help kids improve competitive edge

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/26
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A total of 2,465 Southeast Asian language teachers are all set for the new term at Taiwan’s elementary schools.

The teachers will implement a policy of teaching “new immigrant languages” to an estimated 3,500 students. The courses are being introduced to the island’s primary education curriculum this year, said the Ministry of Education (MOE).

There are seven languages available for first-graders, including Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, Filipino, Khmer, and Burmese. These options are in addition to Minnan, Hakka, and the Formosan languages, which are the languages of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples.

As the Southeast Asian language course is mandatory, Taiwan’s children will be required to select one of the seven languages. Courses will be designed to be interesting and easily accessible, wrote Central News Agency.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/26
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Aug. 26 (CNA) A driverless vehicle project developed by Taiwanese and Canadian experts is hoping to take the top prize when the winners of an autonomous vehicle challenge are announced in Dubai and bring recognition to the sector in Taiwan.

Li Kang (李綱), an associate professor in National Taiwan University's (NTU) Mechanical Engineering Department and one of the key developers, said the project is one of three finalists in the "startups" category at the Dubai World Challenge and Exhibition for Self-driving Transport next month.

The category is the second highest tier of the competition, one rung below the "leaders" class for well-established driverless car companies.

It requires that competing vehicles demonstrate basic navigation in controlled environments and integrate the advanced driver assistance system to perform "the entire dynamic driving task on a sustained basis."    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 27, 2019
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

With the number of deaths by suicide in Taipei increasing by more than 10 percent last year, Taipei

Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that the city should establish a social safety net and find ways to refer those in need to talk with trained counselors.

The Taipei Department of Health said that 349 Taipei residents died by suicide last year, an increase of 10.6 percent from a year earlier.

To raise public awareness of mental health issues and suicide prevention, the department announced that it would be holding a series of events from yesterday to Oct. 31 to mark World Suicide Prevention Day on Sept. 10.

The majority of deaths by suicide in Taipei last year involved people aged 45 to 64, or 38.1 percent, followed by people aged 65 or older, or 28.9 percent, Mental Health Division head Tseng Guang-pei (曾光佩) said.    [FULL  STORY]

Chester Market's busy Saturday trade was captured by Asia Digital Media Company

Cheshire Live
Date: 25 AUG 2019
By: Lauren WiseLive News Reporter

A film crew from Taiwan took to Chester Market yesterday (Saturday, August 24) to capture the bustling trade.

Asia Digital Media Company were filming at various stalls in the market for a TV programme which will be aired on the Asia Travel Channel.

They were spotted at the Cheese Wedge and Steve Cartridge's Fishmongers among others.

While at Chester Market the film crew sampled sweets from The Candy Emporium – where they were introduced to confectionery they had never come across before.    [FULL  STORY]

Splash 247
August 26TH, 2019  
By: Sam Chambers

The fallen Taiwanese shipping magnate Nobu Su is appealing his 21-month prison sentence.

Su, the head of TMT, was jailed in London at the end of March for contempt of court, having been detained by British police in January over a long-running battle Su had with Polys Haji-Iannou, the head of World Tankers Management, over an FFA deal that went sour in 2008.    [SOURCE]

Dakeng Scenic Area has a total of 12 trails, but the heavy rainfall in recent days has caused structural damage to Trails No. 1 and No. 3

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/25
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan) – Heavy rainfall in recent days has damaged parts in Taichung City’s Dakeng Scenic Area (大坑風景區), causing two trails to be closed for repair, Taipei City Government said on Sunday (Aug. 25), Central News Agency (CNA) reported.

Taichung Tourism and Travel Bureau Director Lin Hsiao-chi (林筱淇) said on Sunday that Dakeng Scenic Area has a total of 12 trails, but the heavy rainfall in recent days has caused structural damage to Dakeng Trails No. 1 (0K+000~0K+300) and No. 3, both of which have been closed for repair, according to the CNA report.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/25
By: William Yen

Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) A lawyer, an acoustic singer, and an indigenous boy band won in their respective categories in the finals of an annual songwriting competition that promotes Taiwan's native languages on Saturday.

A total of 30 musical works, 10 for each division, were chosen from 215 competing pieces to enter the finals of the 2019 Taiwan Music Composition and Songwriting Contest, which is now in its 16th year, according to the Ministry of Culture (MOC).

In the Hokkien division, 49-year-old Su Ming-yuan (蘇明淵), who is a lawyer by profession and was competing in competition for the first time, outshined nine other performances, including hip hop, rock, and soul versions of the most widely spoken dialect in Taiwan other than Mandarin.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 26, 2019
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned Chinese who have been harassing a

Taiwanese restaurant in Chile that reportedly had shown support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

The ministry condemned and denounced the irrational and violent behavior of a Chinese mob that stormed the shop last week, spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said.

The Representative Office of Taiwan in Santiago contacted the Taiwanese owner of Pollo Chang, surnamed Chang (張), on Friday after learning of the incident to express the government’s determination to protect the safety of its nationals overseas, she said.

The office would work with Chang should he decide to report the incident to the Chilean police and offer legal assistance should he need any, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

Jalopnik
Date: August 24, 2019
By: Kyle Mizokami

This week, the United States announced its intention to sell Taiwan a fleet of new F-16 fighter jets. The sale involves nearly 70 F-16 fighter jets worth $8 billion and is intended to help the island democracy defend its airspace against attack from the communist-dominated mainland. The People’s Republic of China’s growing economic, political, and military influence has left the United States the only country willing to sell arms to Taiwan, and even then the U.S. won’t give it everything it wants.

In 1949, at the end of the Chinese Civil War, China was essentially split into two political entities: the victorious Chinese Communist Party on the mainland and the beaten Chinese Nationalists, who retreated to the island of Formosa/Taiwan to lick their wounds. The two sides are separated by the Taiwan Strait, which is just 112 miles wide.

For decades China’s poverty and inability to field a credible navy meant that strait protected Taiwan from invasion. The island’s economy prospered, turning it into a major regional economic power while the mainland remained mired in relative poverty.

Since the 1980s, China has enjoyed consistent double-digit economic growth. Thanks to trade with the West and neighbors Japan, Korea, and yes even Taiwan, China has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. It’s probably the biggest economic miracle in the last hundred years. A byproduct of that is China’s growing global economic and political clout, and military that has grown dramatically over the past quarter century. The balance of military power between China and Taiwan has swung decisively, and irreversibly, in the mainland’s favor.    [FULL  STORY]