Contestants had to stare into space for hours without using smartphones

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/12/11
By:  Taiwan News

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The International version of “space out” competition was held on

Sunday (Dec. 10) in Taipei with the aim of encouraging young people to practice a stress-free lifestyle, reported CNA.

The “space out” contest was invented in 2012 by South Korean visual artist Woops Yang to highlight how much people overwork their brains and how much they stand to gain by taking a break.

It is the first international version of the competition and in Taiwan was held at the Eslite Spectrum Songyan Store in the Taipei Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. According to the rules, contestants had to stare into blankly for long hours without talking, sleeping, laughing or using smartphones.

Before the event began, Yang told contestants a very important tip that they should not worry about what others might be thinking during the 80-minute competition.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/11
By: Lin Chia-nan

Taipei, Dec. 11 (CNA) Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to fall slightly on Monday as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, before a continental cold air mass arrives at the weekend, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

Daytime highs in the north will drop to 18 degrees Celsius on Monday, compared with about 22 degrees the previous day, according to CWB forecaster Li Meng-hsuan (李孟軒).

Meanwhile, the mercury in central and southern Taiwan will be little changed, with highs hovering between 22-26 degrees and lows falling to 16 degrees, a nearly 10 degree difference between day and night, Li said.

From Tuesday to Thursday, northern areas can expect rain with increased moisture in the air.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 11, 2017
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

Amis singer Panai Kusui and other campaigners yesterday planted sprouts of Taiwanese

indigenous lilies at the 228 Memorial Park in Taipei to mark International Human Rights Day and the 291st day of their campout for the return of traditional Aboriginal territory.

To protest the government’s regulations over Aboriginal lands, Panai, Bunun singer Nabu Husungan Istanda and other Aborigines have been camping outside the Presidential Office Building for 291 days.

The Council of Indigenous Peoples on Feb. 14 announced guidelines on the delineation of traditional Aboriginal territories that would restrict the application of the “traditional area” label to government-owned land, explicitly excluding private land.

The exclusion has sparked heated debate, with campaigners saying that much Aboriginal territory has been privatized and the exclusion would deprive Aborigines of the right to be part of the development of traditional land that was seized and privatized by the Japanese colonial and the Republic of China governments.

The protesters first camped on Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard directly in front of the office, but after being driven away by police in June, they moved the camp to the nearby National Taiwan University Hospital MRT station, which borders the 228 Memorial Park.

To mark yesterday’s commemoration, the groups invited members of the public to help plant lilies.    [FULL  STORY]

The Transitional Justice Act aims to correct injustices of the martial law period but a partisan structure and narrow focus that ignores indigenous land rights may undermine its popularity and efficacy.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/12/10
By: TNL Staff

Taiwan’s efforts to promote transitional justice took a solid step forward this week but will

likely fall short of ambitious aims to achieve national reconciliation amid accusations of exclusivity and partisanship.

The Dec. 5 passage of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) (TJA) was framed by President Tsai Ying-wen (蔡英文) as landmark legislation that will enable Taiwan to make peace with a tumultuous past and turn its gaze forward once and for all.

According to a statement by the Executive Yuan, the Cabinet of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, the Act will establish a committee “responsible for declassifying political documents, removing symbols from Taiwan’s authoritarian era, redressing judicial injustices and restoring historical truths” in a bid to “fulfill expectations for achieving transitional justice, reconciliation and unity.”    [FULL  STORY]

A new law calls for removing landmarks honoring a former dictator, Chiang Kai-shek, whose Confucian-style rule on the island nation finds renewed favor within China’s ruling party.

The Christian Science Monitor
Date: December 8, 2017
By: The Monitor’s Editorial Board

On Dec. 6, lawmakers in Taiwan voted to rid the island of a prominent symbol of the

country’s past. They approved a law requiring the removal of public statues honoring Chiang Kai-shek, a dictator who governed from the late 1940s until his death in 1975. In addition, Chiang’s name will be replaced on many schools and roads.

The law, coming 30 years after Taiwan moved toward democracy, shows how far a people will go to free themselves from a cultural legacy that may hinder progress in individual rights and equality before the law. The measure said that authoritarian rule should be “stripped of legitimacy.”

Chiang’s harsh rule of Taiwan was based on Confucian-style autocracy, or a belief that only a natural social hierarchy with a strong ruler can bring stability. That ancient tradition saw rights as granted only by the state and not inherent in everyone.
[FULL  STORY]

Beijing says Taiwan has no right to diplomatic recognition because it is part of China

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/12/09
By: Juvina Lai, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — On Friday China’s Foreign Ministry said the country was

seriously concerned about the nature of the bilateral investment agreement between Taiwan and the Philippines as it considers Taiwan its extended territory.

Taiwan and the Philippines agreed to improve trade and an official agreement was signed in Manila on Thursday by the Taiwanese representative to the Philippines and his counterpart.

After which, speaking to the press, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said China had no issues if the agreement between Taiwan and the Philippines were ‘normal’ trade ties and nothing official.

He also said China does not agree or allow any official exchanges between Taiwan and any of China’s diplomatic allies.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/09
By: Tien Yu-pin and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, Dec. 9 (CNA) Taiwan’s Automotive Research Testing Center (ARTC) is preparing

to put driverless cars on the road, saying that it now has all the necessary technology to do so.

Since the ARTC first invested in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) back in 2007, it has been working toward the goal of developing driverless vehicles, it said.

In a recent interview with reporters, ARTC General Manager Huang Lung-chou (黃隆洲) said that not only has the center acquired the technological expertise to develop a driverless car, but it has also conquered the challenges associated with navigating such vehicles in real traffic.

He said the ARTC has mapped out certain controlled areas in which its driverless vehicles will operate, in order to gather more data on the vehicles’ navigation, before taking them into traffic.    [FULL  STORY]

TOUGH TIMES? The KMT has NT$10.1 million in disposable cash in the bank and only NT$2 billion in real estate, Administration and Management Committee director Chiu Da-chan said

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 10, 2017
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said it is considering collecting a “special

party fee” and raising the contribution amounts required by KMT cadres and public office holders, in a last-ditch effort to remedy what the party called an “unprecedented financial crisis.”

“The challenge facing the KMT is unprecedented, as is its current financial crisis. To make matters worse, the passage of the Political Party Act (政黨法) last month significantly restricted the engagement of political parties in profit-making activities,” KMT Administration and Management Committee director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) said in his report on the party’s financial situation at a meeting of the KMT Central Committee in Taipei yesterday.

It was the first meeting of the 210 members of the Central Committee since they were elected in September.    [FULL  STORY]