The Hollywood starlet, known for her work in movies like The Avengers, had been spotted around Taipei in 2013 shooting scenes for director Luc Besson’s action-thriller Lucy.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/20
By: Wendy Lee , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – U.S. actress Scarlett Johansson, who is currently touring Asia

to promote her new film Ghost in the Shell, said in an interview that she enjoyed filming in Taipei and would like to visit the city again sometime.

The Hollywood starlet, known for her work in films like Lost in Translation, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and The Avengers, had been spotted around Taipei in 2013 shooting scenes for director Luc Besson’s action-thriller Lucy.

The film has put the capital of Taiwan on the center stage. While most Taiwanese know her through the role as Black Widow in The Avengers series, the actress gained more popularity across the island through her role in Lucy.

She is currently on a tour in Asia promoting new film Ghost in the Shell, a live action adaptation of Japanese animated science fiction.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/20
By: Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, March 20 (CNA) Taiwan has been ranked as the world’s 33rd happiest country

in a report that calls on nations to build social trust and equality as the optimal way to improve wellbeing.

According to the World Happiness Report 2017, produced by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) at the United Nations, people in the Nordic countries and Oceania are those most content.

Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden are the top 10 countries.

Germany was ranked 16th, the United Kingdom 19th and France 31st, while the United States was ranked 14th.    [FULL  STORY]

SUPERVISORY ARTICLES:A DPP legislator said that a review of the articles is not urgent, because Beijing has refused to negotiate with Tsai Ing-wen’s administration

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 21, 2017
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

Lawmakers yesterday clashed over supervisory articles governing negotiations with

China during a question-and-answer session with Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) at the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee.

“I feel that the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] is not taking a sincere swing at this issue,” said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗), who, as committee coconvener, has scheduled a review of draft bills to begin tomorrow.

The MAC’s and the DPP caucus’ positions on the urgency of the review are contradictory, he said, questioning whether the council and the caucus were playing “good cop, bad cop” on the issue.

“Even though the council says it attaches great importance to the issue, you have unbelievably refused to put forth your own version of the articles,” he said. “Your own draft version of the articles is supposed to stake out your position, strategy and policy direction, but you have not done any of this. Is that not strange?”    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan is a melting pot of food cultures, whose unique cuisine comes from a long history of colonization.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/03/19
By: By Lina Chen, TaiwaneseCulture.org

Taiwan has received increasing acclaim for its kind hospitality, breathtaking nature, world-renowned architecture and delicious food. But many are unaware of Taiwan’s prosperity and culinary individuality. It’s not uncommon for people to inaccurately classify Taiwanese cuisine as simply “a fusion of different regional Chinese flavors” as misrepresented in the article, “Regional Cuisines of China.” But keen observers will quickly notice that there is far more to Taiwanese cuisine.

Through generations of colonization and from immigration of people from all around the world, Taiwan is a melting pot of food cultures, whose cuisine now stands among the best in the world.
Throughout the years, Taiwan has been shaped by both Asian and Western influences from the various people that have lived there, and the result is the birth and development of creative fusion Taiwanese cuisine.    [FULL  STORY]

Ho Chia-wei takes home five awards at the annual competition

Taiwan News
Date: 017/03/19
By: Matthew Lubin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Ho Chia-wei (何家瑋), owner of marmalade company Bonjour!

Bonheur 你好,幸福 手工天然果醬 in Taiwan, won multiple medals at the World’s Original Marmalade Awards, part of the Dalemain Marmalade Festival Cumbria, in Penrith, U.K., this weekend, including a gold in the Artisan category.

Ho won a total of five medals, including two golds, a silver and two bronze. He is the first Taiwanese participant to win an award at the competition.

The gold for Ho’s passion fruit-jujube marmalade was not the top prize as Australian Dr. Lachlan Shackleton-Fergus won double gold, and entries from Canada, the U.S., Japan and Singapore were also award gold medals.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/19
By: Ku Chuan and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, March 19 (CNA) Tormented by the hundreds of thousands of presidential and vice presidential records and artifacts — including over 12,000 gift items — that are packing its warehouse, the national archive has proposed a revision of the relevant regulations so that some can be cleared to create more storage space.

Academia Historica, which is tasked with managing presidential and vice presidential records and artifacts, said Sunday that it has drafted a revision to the Act Governing the Administration of Presidential and Vice Presidential Records and Artifacts, promulgated in January 2004.

The amendment bill, which is pending legislative review, proposes that presidential and vice presidential gifts “be classified and then be written off from the inventory for disposal or given away to museums, other government units or charity organizations,” said Academia Historica.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: March 20, 2017
By: By Joseph Yeh

Anglers on a weekend fishing trip off the coast of Keelung caught more than they

bargained for Saturday, when they were rammed by one of the Navy’s 171-ton Kuang Hua VI-class missile ships.

The collision between the Navy ship and the recreational fishing boat, Bei Yang (北洋號), reportedly took place around 7 p.m., 9 nautical miles north of Bitou Cape (鼻頭角).

The fishing boat’s bow was seriously damaged in the incident but no one was injured.

The Bei Yang’s skipper said the Navy vessel “ran away” following the clash.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: March 18, 2017
By: Enru Lin

A ban on euthanasia for strays came into effect in February, a milestone policy that

shelters across Taiwan have been struggling to accommodate. Many public shelters are reducing the number of animals they accept, while private ones don’t have extra capacity to absorb the fast-growing stray population. The China Post has partnered with trusted local rescuers to introduce one animal each week. These are mostly ones that — because of their coloring, age, medical needs or other traits — have been overlooked by would-be adopters.

Hank is a happy-go-lucky mutt with a sprinkle of white fur on his muzzle. Rescuers found him on the street and, believing that he was lost, took him back to the person listed on his microchip, not knowing that his owner had not wanted him. Two months later, the owner called and said she could either give the dog to them or to the public shelter.    [FULL  STORY]