Radio Taiwan International
Date: 08 September, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

A festival packed with yacht races is about to sail off in Dapeng Bay end of the month[/caption] An annual yacht racing event in Pingtung County is about to take place at the end of September. You don’t have to be a sailing expert to be there because there will be tons of fun activities – that are not necessarily related to water – for you to enjoy.

The Dapeng Bay Marine Festival is an annual event that takes place in Pingtung County’s Dapeng Bay area. This year, there will be lots of things to do besides watching yacht races and enjoying water activities such as boat rides. The Tourism Bureau said that there will also be performances, concerts, arts and craft exhibits, and different cuisines for visitors to taste.
[FULL  STORY]

Logic Magazine
By: Ann Chen

Taiwan’s response to COVID-19 has been incredibly effective. How much of its success comes down to technology?

“Taiwan is a paradise bubble,” my dad told me in March, during my first few days back at my parents’ home. “This is probably one of the safest places in the world right now,” he said. Seeing the rush hour crush on the Taipei metro and children in school uniforms clustering at bus stops after school, all without exhibiting signs of fear or anxiety, I couldn’t agree more.

When the pandemic began, I had been in New York. Throughout February and early March, I checked in frequently with my parents in Taiwan. Things are fine here, they said. Meanwhile, the situation in New York was worsening. Cases were beginning to appear, but the government response was hesitant and nebulous. The virus is coming, warned the media. It may already be here. 

If it’s already here, I wondered, why aren’t we doing anything about it? Why is everything continuing as normal? The situation felt out of control from the start. My parents urged me to come to Taiwan. On March 14th, 2020, I flew to Taipei on a direct flight. 

My parents were right. From what I can tell, apart from masks on every face, life in Taiwan is uninterrupted by the pandemic. Schools, pharmacies, post offices, convenience stores, and parks are all open. Coffee shops, in abundance in Taipei, are full of people. Even the shopping malls are operating at regular capacity. Aside from a handful of attendants stationed at the front entrances, armed with temperature readers and hand sanitizer spray, every store remains open.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese woman bitten by rat becomes 8th case of hantavirus this year

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/08
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A woman bitten by a rat in Pingtung County last month has become the eighth hantavirus hemorrhagic fever case in Taiwan this year, setting a new high number of cases in a single year since records began in 2001.

According to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), this year's eighth case of hantavirus is a woman in her 50s who had no recent history of travel abroad and had been mainly staying in her home, where she had seen evidence of a rat infestation. In August, she was bitten by a rat and on Aug. 17 she began to experience a fever, headache, pain in the posterior eye socket, muscle ache, and other symptoms and sought medical treatment that day.

As her condition worsened, she again sought medical treatment on Aug. 19. The hospital then ran a battery of tests for her for diseases, such as dengue fever, Zika, chikungunya, leptospirosis, hantavirus hemorrhagic fever, and scrub typhus.

The tests later revealed that the woman had contracted hantavirus hemorrhagic fever. Presently, she has been discharged from the hospital and her family members have not presented any suspected symptoms of the disease.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/08/2020
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, Sept. 8 (CNA) Taiwan and other middle powers should exert more influence in geopolitics by providing more options to weaker countries in the power struggle between the United States and China in the South China Sea, a Filipino maritime expert said Tuesday during a security forum.

This is because the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is "paralyzed" by U.S.-China competition due to the very few options left for them, said Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law at the University of the Philippines, via video conferencing during a panel discussion titled "South China Sea: Theater of Power Rivalry."

The panel discussion was part of the two-day Ketagalan Forum — 2020 Asia-Pacific Security Dialogue, which also tackled the issues relating to the security situation across the Taiwan Strait, global public health cooperation and economic security after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Batongbacal named Taiwan, Japan, Australia and India as some of those middle powers that could generate options for Southeast Asian countries to choose from, rather than having to accept positions of either one of the superpowers.    [FULL  STORY]

OPPORTUNITY: The deal enables the Tourism Bureau and Thousand Miles Trail Association, Taiwan to organize quality tours combining hiking, cycling and railway trips

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 09, 2020
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The Tourism Bureau and Thousand Miles Trail Association, Taiwan yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly launch an international tourism campaign to promote the Tamsui-Kavalan historic trails (淡蘭古道, Danlan Old Trail), which connected Taipei and Yilan during the Qing Dynasty.

The memorandum was signed by association chairman Chang Chang-yi (張長義) and Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Hsi-chung (張錫聰), and was witnessed by Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍).

The Tamsui-Kavalan historic trails were the first trails to be chosen by the Executive Yuan in 2018 to be developed under the National Greenway System, Chang Chang-yi said, adding that the association has organized hiking activities on the trails on the first Saturday of June since 2016.

They have also since become the first pilgrim trails in northern Taiwan, he said.  [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 07 September, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

A carnival exhibiting indigenous culture, art and food to kick off next week[/caption] Taiwan has 16 officially recognized aboriginal tribes. The Tourism Bureau is putting on a three-day event in Taipei for everyone to learn all about Taiwan’s indigenous culture, craft and food.

The 2020 Taiwan Indigenous Tourism Carnival will begin on September 18 at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei . The three-day event will bring together all 16 of Taiwan’s officially recognized indigenous tribes. On show will be the culture, arts and crafts, and food of Taiwan’s 170 aboriginal villages.

The Tourism Bureau says that aboriginal villages can be found in all of Taiwan’s national parks－Sun Moon Lake, Ali Mountain, Siraya, Maolin, Tri Mountain, East Coast and the East Rift Valley National Scenic Areas. Villages from all seven of those areas will be at the festival.
[FULL  STORY]

The release of Disney's live-action adaptation of its 1998 animated film has been plagued by controversy that began in 2019.

Indie Wire
Date: Sep 07,2020
By: Tambay Obenson

Disney’s “Mulan” is one of the first major releases since the coronavirus pandemic shut down movie theaters around the world. Originally scheduled for wide theatrical release in March 2020, it was delayed multiple times due to the pandemic, and the studio ultimately premiered the film on September 4 on Disney+ for a premium fee in countries where the service had launched, and is starting to hit theaters abroad, although certainly not without controversy.

Despite anticipation for the live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1998 animated film of the same name, “Mulan” has been plagued by calls to boycott the film, which began in August 2019, when star Liu Yifei appeared to show support for Hong Kong’s police, who have been accused of violence towards pro-democracy protesters. Yifei reshared an image posted by Chinese newspaper People’s Daily, which included a quote from Chinese reporter Fu Guohao who worked for the Global Times: “I support Hong Kong police. You can beat me now. What a shame for Hong Kong.”

This sparked international controversy, with the actress being accused of supporting police brutality, and the hashtag, #BoycottMulan, started trending. Nearly a year later and with the film now released, pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong are reigniting calls to boycott the film, this time joined by Thai and Taiwanese activists.

“This film is released today. But because Disney kowtows to Beijing, and because Liu Yifei openly and proudly endorses police brutality in Hong Kong, I urge everyone who believes in human rights to #BoycottMulan,” prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong tweeted on Friday.
[FULL  STORY]

Committee urges KMT to return all remaining ill-gotten party assets

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/07
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Cabinet-level Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee (IGPASC) reaffirmed on Monday (Sept. 7) that national treasures are not Kuomingtang (KMT) assets after a party representative said during the KMT’s congress on Sunday that items in the National Palace Museum are the property of the KMT.

IGPASC posted an article on its Facebook page on Monday titled “I’m Not Yours,” calling out a KMT party representative who said that the ticket income from the National Palace Museum should return to the KMT as the national treasures in the museum belong to the party.

The committee said that before and during the martial law period, which ended in 1987, the KMT, empowered by the former one-party system, cumulatively took as its own a large quantity of assets from the nation and its civilians, creating an unbalanced environment in which fair competition among political parties was impossible.

Given Taiwan’s transition from an authoritarian political system to democracy, the KMT should return all of the property it inappropriately acquired during its rule, the post states. It goes on to note that, unfortunately, some KMT members still embrace the authoritarian party-state mentality and believe that national treasures are the party’s property.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/07/2020
By: Huang Tzu-chiang and Chiang Yi-ching

Singapore, Sept. 7 (CNA) A subway car advertisement that resembles an old-style Taiwanese bathroom recently won a U.S.-based advertising award, the Singapore branch office of Taiwan's Tourism Bureau, which commissioned the ad, said on Monday.

The ad was featured in a subway car on Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system last year from October to November, and its design won a Silver award in the Outdoor category of this year's Summit Creative Award, said Trust Lin (林信任), the branch's director.

The ad also won Silver in this year's Muse Creative Awards, which were presented in April, Lin added.

The ad promotes traveling to Taiwan's small towns. With a theme of small-town Taiwanese life, it recreates a retro Taiwanese bathroom inside the subway car through elements such as a mosaic-tiled bathtub, yellow rubber duck and bath ladle, according to Lin.    [FULL  STORY]

REMOVING BARRIERS: The government would establish mechanisms to trace the source of pork and beef, and set up a NT$10 billion fund to support local hog farmers

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 08, 2020
By: Dennis Xie / Staff writer, with CNA

The government would adhere to scientific evidence and international standards to ensure the quality of US pork containing ractopamine and US beef entering Taiwan, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday.

The public’s preference for local pork would make it competitive against US pork, despite the latter being cheaper, Su told reporters, citing data showing that Taiwanese consume more local pork than imported pork.

The local pork market has a self-sufficiency rate of more than 90 percent, the data showed.

As a nation that thrives on commerce, Taiwan must find ways to overcome trade barriers and conduct business with other countries to grow its economy, Su added.    [FULL  STORY]