TOASTING WHAT?Those invited to Oct. 10 festivities would be stunned, as they celebrate the nation’s birth, but the cause for celebration is missing, a KMT official said

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 01, 2017
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

Unlike in the past, invitations for next week’s Double Ten National Day celebrations

sent by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration do not include the nation’s flag and name, and are aimed at discrediting the Republic of China (ROC), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said yesterday.

The national title and flag were missing on invitations for the celebrations in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, as well as for an evening party at the athetics field of the National Taiwan University of Sport in Taichung.

Both events are themed “Better Taiwan” in English and “Let us become better in 2017” in Chinese.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese girls like to have fair skin and therefore they stay away from the sun as much as possible.

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/09/29
By: Juvina Lai, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan is an island influenced by Japan, Korea and China

but most of its democratic lifestyle is also very similar to that of the West and  the United Kingdom. Aside from being a beautiful island country it is also unique because of its history and cultural facts. Here are some interesting and fun facts about Taiwan:

20. Taiwan is an eclectic mix of enterprises and individuals, including governmental officials, small business owners, farmers, and artisans. The working class is one fifth of the population and another fifth is made up of middle class.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/29
By: Hsieh Chia-chen and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Sept. 29 (CNA) Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Friday

declined to comment on a Chinese media report of a close air encounter between military aircraft from the two sides over the Taiwan Strait in 2015.

MND spokesman Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said, however, that the military is alert to and on top of situations in Taiwan’s surrounding waters and airspace.

Taiwan can also keep comprehensive track of the movement of China’s military aircraft and will take proper measures to protect the country’s security, he added.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 29, 2017

“Jen Pa” Jen Min-ting, father of pop star Selina Jen and a celebrity in his own right, led 50 dancers in their fifties in a demonstration of a flash mob dance at a World Heart Day awareness event held by Nestle’s Klim Senior formula.

The event, held in an elderly-friendly Carrefour hypermarket, featured a flash mob dance was choreographed by Chang Ping-wei, who participated a Guiness World Record-winning effort for most people (over 2,500) performing with rattle-drum simutineously. Chang instilled movements that can help strengthen cardiopulmonary function in the dance and developed the “Klim Senior 5-step Healthy Exercise”.

Statistics showed that 36 percent of Taiwanese popular are over 50 years in age, making Taiwan the country with the fastest graying population in the world. The the “Klim Senior 5-step Healthy Exercise” is designed for the growing number of elderly people in an increasingly health-aware society.    [SOURCE]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-09-28

President Tsai Ing-wen has met with a senior cardinal from the Vatican in charge of

issues relating to refugees and migrants. That’s as an agency of the Roman Catholic Church prepares to hold its first event in Taiwan.

The 24th World Congress of the Apostleship of the Sea will take place in Kaohsiung in the first week of October. The agency offers pastoral care to seafarers through chaplaincies in ports around the world. Some 50 countries will be represented at the event.

On Thursday, President Tsai met Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The agency has a humanitarian mission and became effective at the start of this year.    [FULL  STORY]

The series of the promotional activities is aimed at turning visiting a hot spring into a daily habit in Taiwan.

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/09/28
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau launched the “2017-18 Taiwan Hot

Spring” festival that will see hot spring areas across Taiwan holding a series of promotional activities for the remainder of this year and going into next year, including promotion of  the “new hot spring style” concept that encourages people to make visiting a hot spring into a daily habit.

Most Taiwanese people are under the mistaken impression that going to a hot spring is not a part of daily life but a luxury to enjoy only in the seasons of autumn and winter, according to the bureau. The concept is contrary to the prevailing view among people of other countries that visiting a hot spring is health-enhancing activity that can be done year-round.

This misconception has created the hot spring off-season in Taiwan, according to the Tourism Bureau. Therefore, the series of the promotional activities is aimed at turning visiting a hot spring into a daily habit in Taiwan and giving a strong boost to Taiwan’s hot spring tourism, according to the bureau.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/28
By Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Sept. 28 (CNA) A representative of the local Mexican community said

Thursday that the community will hold a fundraiser Oct. 15 to help the victims of Mexico’s 7.1-magnitude earthquake that occurred on Sept. 19.

Luis Morales, spokesman for the event titled “One Mexico,” said the Mexican community has received great support from both local Taiwanese and the Latin American community since the devastating earthquake.

“We have received many expressions of condolence, but more than condolences, we have received messages of hope and strength,” Morales told CNA in an email.

Morales said he has been impressed by the level of attention the public is paying to the earthquake, adding that his community was told by the Mexican Office in Taipei that it has received many calls from Taiwanese people wanting to help.
[FULL  STORY]

SPLITTIST?Yok Mu-ming said the premier seems to be splitting the ROC’s sovereignty, and he said he was giving the KMT a week to decide whether to join his party’s lawsuit

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 29, 2017
By: Chen Yu-fu and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The New Party has called on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to join it in filing a

formal complaint against Premier William Lai (賴清德) for sedition after he said he is a “political worker who advocates Taiwanese independence.”

Lai made the remark on Tuesday during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei when asked to comment on China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang’s (馬曉光) comment that cross-strait relations are not state-to-state relations.

New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) said Lai’s statement was “very mysterious.”

As head of the Executive Yuan, Lai is the highest executive authority of the Republic of China (ROC), Yok said.    [FULL  STORY]