The China Post
Date: November 25, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Legislative Yuan held a public hearing on same-sex marriage Thursday, the first

of two sessions amid ongoing public debate.

Last Thursday, the legislative caucuses of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and opposition Kuomintang (KMT) agreed to each hold a hearing to air opinions on the legalization before continuing deliberations.

The sessions were scheduled for Nov. 24 and Dec. 1.

The DPP and KMT caucuses also agreed to a complete review of different versions of the bill before the end of the current legislative session in December and pledged not to boycott the reviews.

Hosted by KMT lawmaker Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華), Thursday’s public hearing included 25 experts, religious leaders and academics — among whom 11 people said they supported same-sex marriage, 12 opposed it and one was neutral. Each had 10 minutes maximum to express their views.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/23
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, Nov. 23 (CNA) People with obesity or abnormal health examination reports face six times the risk

of getting dementia 20 years later, a European expert on the medicine of aging said in Taipei Wednesday.

Jean-Pierre Michel, co-founder of the European Academy of Medicine of Aging (EAMA) and former president of the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS), said that parents should teach their children to have a healthy diet and avoid smoking.

Healthy aging is not only having no illness, but maintaining a good quality of life and functional capacity, said Michel.

Doctors, nurses and social workers should learn the medicine of aging and cooperate with each other to ensure that the elderly can enjoy healthy twilight years, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/22
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The service at barber shops in Taiwan varies but that type of business lost its edge among expanding fancy salons all over the place. There is one in Hualien, however, generating buzz on social media not only for its old-school service, relaxing experience and excellent cutting skills, but also for the unique background of its owner.

Daniel Bullivant, 28 years old, was born in Birmingham, England. He started working in a barber shop when he was 13 and started to learn how to cut men’s hair and trim beards at the age of 16. He continued his training until the age of 20.

Today, Daniel is living in Hualien with his Taiwanese wife, a 1.5 year-old barber shop in the center of the city, four barbers including himself, and a bunch of loyal customers across the country. Very soon, Daniel is going to open another store in Taipei City.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/22
By: Chang Shu-ling, Sabine Cheng and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Nov. 22 (CNA) Writer Chen Ying-chen (陳映真) died in Beijing on Tuesday after a long-time illness, at the age of 79, his wife said. Friends and Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) offered the family their deepest condolences.

Chen, formerly known as Chen Yung-shan (陳永善), was born in 1937 in Taiwan. His major works include such novels as “My Brother Kang-hsiung,” “The Generals,” “The Comedy of Tang Chien” and “Home Coming.”

In 1985, Chen established “Among the People” magazine (人間雜誌), which heralded the development of “reportage literature” in Taiwan by focusing on the life of common people. He also engaged in a heated debate with writer and scholar Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明, no relation) on the differences between Taiwanese and Chinese literature in 2000.

Critic Yao Yi-wei (姚一葦) once praised Chen Ying-chen for “filling his works with messages of human love” and yet, “beneath that human love is a deep melancholy, an eternal sadness that is as heavy as a mountain.”

Yeh Shih-tao (葉石濤), another critic, once described Chen Ying-chen’s writing as “sensitively reflecting a restless time and a tumultuous society, depicting the hardships endured by multitudes of people, particularly intellectuals, in Taiwan over those 40 years.”    [FULL  STORY]

ONGOING FAILURES:KMT Legislator Alicia Wang said that TransAsia failed to give the 60-day notice required for a massive layoff and has not halted online ticket sales

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 23, 2016
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it would request that Minister of

Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) deliver a special briefing to the legislature’s Transportation Committee tomorrow to explain how the Ministry of Transportation and Communications plans to handle the fallout from the decision to dissolve TransAsia Airways.

The airline’s decision to suspend flights for one day has inconvenienced and incurred losses for its customers, KMT caucus secretary-general Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.

Chiang questioned whether the government has a full grasp on the gravity of situation and if the ministry or the Civil Aeronautics Administration had received prior notice about the problems facing the airline.

“The committee is scheduled to review a budget plan proposed by Taiwan International Port Corp and the appropriation of port construction funds on Thursday [tomorrow],” he said. “We have asked the committee’s convener, KMT Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生), to change the meeting’s agenda and invite the minister to deliver a special briefing on the TransAsia case.”    [FULL  STORY]