Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/21
By: Tang Sheng-yang and S.C. Chang

Taipei, March 21 (CNA) The head of Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau on Monday used the word masochism to describe those Taiwanese who buy a Japanese forecast that temperature could drop to a low of 5 degrees Celsius on March 27 in Taipei.

The Japan Weather Association (JWA), a private weather forecasting company in Japan, predicted Monday that Taipei temperatures will start to drop March 24. On March 27, the mercury will dip to only 5 degrees and rise to 15 degrees at the highest, with occasional rain, it said.

Taiwan’s CWB said a strong cold air mass from southern China will arrive in Taiwan March 24, bringing temperatures down sharply over the weekend, with the mercury likely to dip to 9-10 degrees Celsius in northern parts of the country.

Temperatures throughout the country are expected to rebound slightly and the rain will ease up March 27, the CWB said.

And yet the Japanese forecast still got played up by the local media, upsetting CWB chief Hsin Tsai-chin (辛在勤) so much that, in a Facebook post, he wrote, “As Taiwanese, do we have to be so masochistic? Do we have to mock ourselves often that Taiwan’s moon is not as round as a foreign one?”     [FULL  STORY]