This year two Hong Kong films that explore the city’s 2019 pro-democracy protests, as well as a Chinese documentary about Tibet, are nominated. ‘FREE OUTLET’Film critic Weng says the Golden Horse awards “sets the benchmark” for Chinese-language cinema as the only platform open to all subjects. Last year, two Hong Kong films that cast an uncomfortable spotlight on China won accolades, and one of the winners proclaimed support for democracy activists in an acceptance speech read by a representative. “I think the award has now become a free outlet especially for Hong Kong movies that cannot be distributed in Hong Kong,” said Hong Kong director Kiwi Chow (周冠威), who has a nomination this year. “I am gratified to see that the [Golden Horse] awards have managed to keep their courage,” Chow said.

Manufacturing confidence falls for sixth monthBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterBusiness confidence among manufacturers softened mildly last month, as lingering supply chain bottlenecks and rising COVID-19 cases in the West added uncertainty to a global economic recovery, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday. The sentiment gauge for the manufacturing sector slid 0.59 points to 101.25, retreating for a sixth straight month, the Taipei-based institute said. From second left, Taiwan Institute of Economic Research economic forecasting center director Gordon Sun, institute president Chang Chien-yi and researcher Arisa Liu hold a news conference in Taipei on Sept. 27. By contrast, the business confidence reading for service providers gained 1.58 points to 96.76, aided by pent-up consumer demand and the government’s stimulus measures, the institute said. The business confidence of construction firms and real-estate brokers fell 1.97 points to 108.85, ending three months of upswing, it said.

Pingtung festival to celebrate Czech arts and cultureStaff writer, with CNAActivities celebrating Czech music, literature and cinema are to be held in Pingtung next week as part of the “Czech in Pingtung” festival, the first big event organized by a foreign institute in Taiwan. In cooperation with the Pingtung County Government, the Czech Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei is to stage the festival from Wednesday to Sunday next week, sharing arts and culture from the Czech Republic with the people of southern Taiwan. Officials from the Pingtung County Government and Czech Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei yesterday tour Pingtung Civic Park in Pingtung City ahead of next month’s “Czech in Pingtung” festival. The Pingtung County Government in a statement on Monday thanked the office for “taking the Czech Republic to Pingtung,” praising it for giving locals the chance to enjoy Czech culture without having to travel abroad. Rumlar was eager to travel to Pingtung again as soon as he learned of the Taipei Chamber Players’ concert, which inspired the five-day “Czech in Pingtung” festival, the statement said.

Police seize record heroin shipment, detain 13 peopleBy Jonathan Chin / Staff writer, with CNAThe New Taipei City Police Department has seized 446.8kg of heroin and arrested 13 people in the country’s biggest-ever bust involving the substance, law enforcement officials said yesterday. Logs in the warehouse were found to have compartments that contained 1,172 bricks of heroin that could sell for NT$5 billion (US$179.9 million), Chen said. Premier Su Tseng-chang, second left, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi, third left, and other officials inspect bricks of heroin at the New Taipei City Police Department in Banciao District yesterday. Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who presided over the news conference, said that the heroin confiscated was notable because of its quantity and purity. New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), a former Criminal Investigation Bureau commissioner, said that the haul was unprecedented.

Delta planning to deliver three large battery unitsBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterDelta Electronics Inc (台達電) is planning to deliver three shipping container-sized energy storage systems to clients seeking to participate in Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower, 台電) new energy trading platform, the nation’s leading power management solutions provider said yesterday. Delta is seeking business opportunties in the rapidly growing energy storage market, Delta senior director Paul Ai (艾祖華) said. Delta Electronics Inc energy storage units are pictured outside the company’s office in Taipei’s Neihu District yesterday. Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times“Delta is a vertically integrated provider of power storage solutions from the design to the software,” Ai said. The three container-sized 7.5 megawatt (MW) battery units are undergoing tests before being shipped to customers, Ai said.

Movie Review: MoneyboysShot in Taiwan but set in China, this film provides a poignant look into the struggles of Chinese gay sex workers, but the glaring incongruities in language and setting are annoyingly distractingBy Han Cheung / Staff reporterForeign viewers at the Cannes premiere of Moneyboys (金錢男孩) may not have noticed the glaring incongruities that persist through the movie, but Taiwanese viewers certainly will. They’re apparent to the point that it’s difficult to enjoy the movie. This melancholy tale revolves around gay sex workers in China and the unique challenges they face, especially regarding traditional expectations, including marriage, and the large-scale rural-to-urban migration of young people. This is an interesting topic, as it’s taboo in China and significantly different from the LGBTQ situation in Taiwan. And it’s quite explicit in Moneyboys, especially the sex scenes.

COVID-19 patients in ICU mostly not vaccinated: Oxford scientistThe GuardianCOVID-19 is no longer a disease of the vaccinated, the head of the Oxford jab program said. The “ongoing horror” of patients gasping for breath in hospital is now “largely restricted” to people who are unvaccinated, said Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford. “Generally, COVID-19 is no longer a disease of the vaccinated; vaccines tend to limit its suffocating affliction, with a few exceptions,” he wrote. For most vaccinated individuals, these mild infections are little more than an unpleasant inconvenience,” he said. However, for those who are very frail, immunocompromised or have underlying health conditions, COVID-19 infections can still be “enough to destabilise them” and cause “serious, life-threatening health problems that add to the pressure on the NHS,” he said.

Taipei exhibit shows art by White Terror-era survivorBy Chen Yu-fu and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writerAn exhibit at Taipei’s Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall showcases work by artist Chen Wu-jen (陳武鎮), a survivor of the White Terror era. During this time, he became an art teacher, but only painted portraits and landscapes out of fear of being imprisoned again. In an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times), Chen told about a teaching job he had at a remote elementary school. After the lifting of martial law, Chen began painting works inspired by his experiences during the White Terror era. Chen said he hopes that the government would one day covert Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall into a national human-rights art museum, flanked on both sides by cultural parks.

Industrial production increasesGROWTH RUN CONTINUES: A statistics official said that there was a monthly dip in industrial production last month, likely due to supply chain issues and parts shortagesBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterIndustrial production in Taiwan last month increased 11.25 percent year-on-year — the 21st consecutive month of annual growth — but decreased 2.36 percent month-on-month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The ministry uses industrial production to gauge output in the nation’s five main industries: manufacturing, mining and quarrying, electricity and gas supply, water supply and architecture engineering. Manufacturing, which contributes 90 percent of overall industrial production, increased 17.28 percent year-on-year last month, rising for the 21st consecutive month, the ministry said. Photo: Wang Han-ping, Taipei Times“We did see a monthly dip in industrial production last month, likely due to supply chain disruptions and an ongoing parts shortage in the electronics sector,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) said. In the first 10 months of this year, industrial production rose by 13.75 percent compared with the same period last year on continued strong demand for tech and non-tech products, the ministry said.

The site is temporary while the ministry seeks another property where it could establish a permanent launch site for commercial use. Representatives from Syuhai Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township hold a community meeting with officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology in the county on Monday. The ministry is accepting applications from scientific teams that could use the site to test their sounding rockets, it said. The National Space Organization (NSPO) is to share profits generated by the launch site in a bid to promote technological development while protecting Aboriginal rights, the ministry said. Despite the delay, it is a positive development that the ministry is now providing guidelines to follow when testing sounding rockets, Wei said.

EU says Taiwan’s Lithuania office not a breach of policyStaff writer, with CNA and ReutersThe European Commission said it does not consider the opening of a Taiwanese representative office in Lithuania a breach of the EU’s “one China” policy, after Beijing downgraded its diplomatic ties with Vilnius because of the move. China downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania on Sunday, after Taiwan opened a “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania” in the nation’s capital on Thursday. Eric Huang, appointed representative to Lithuania, third from right, poses in Vilinus on Thursday with other staffers outside the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania. Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday praised Lithuania for its “moral courage” in allowing Taiwan to open the representative office, despite mounting pressure from China. “Establishing official diplomatic relations is currently not the main focus of our work,” he said.

Medigen to apply to Australian agency for provisional approval of its vaccineBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterMedigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) yesterday said it would apply to the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for provisional approval of its COVID-19 vaccine in the near term, after obtaining a provisional determination from the agency. A provisional approval in Australia is similar to emergency use authorization in other countries, Medigen said in a statement. Signage for Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp is pictured at the entrance to the company’s facility in Hsinchu on Aug. 31. It has also given a provisional determination to Novavax Inc.Medigen said it yesterday became the sixth firm to gain a provisional determination, after the agency granted a provisional determination to Grand Pacific CRO, the Australian sponsor acting on behalf of Medigen for its MVC-COV1901 vaccine. Provisional determination is the first step in the provisional registration process and means that Grand Pacific CRO is eligible to apply for provisional registration, the agency said.

Alonso returns to the F1 podium after 7-year gapReutersFernando Alonso feared he might never stand on a Formula One podium again until the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday ended a record seven-year wait and saw the double world champion hailed as driver of the day. The last time Alonso stood on the podium was as a Ferrari driver in Hungary in 2014, when he finished second, and the 105 races between successive podiums made for the longest gap yet for the sport. Alpine driver Fernando Alonso of Spain celebrates winning third place at the Qatar Grand Prix in Lusail, Qatar, on Sunday. Photo: APTo put the wait into perspective, the last time fans saw Alonso on the podium was before Red Bull’s 24-year-old championship leader Max Verstappen — second on Sunday — made his Formula One debut. He started third on Sunday after Verstappen took a five-place grid penalty and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas dropped three from third.

Teachers and principals were invited to give feedback on progress regarding the government’s goal of becoming a Mandarin-English bilingual nation by 2030. Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School English teacher Liu Ya-hsin, standing, speaks at a meeting on bilingualism and English teaching hosted by the New Power Party on Saturday. Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times“Students need an environment where the English they learn is used, or it just comes across as pretentious,” Taipei Municipal Zhong Zheng Senior High School principal Chiang Hui-chen (江惠真) said. Very few qualified bilingual teachers take on positions in Taipei, and schools lack bilingual curricula that fit the local education system, he said. Liu Ya-hsin (柳雅馨), an English teacher at Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, said there was a large consensus among those she asked in Taipei that the English-Mandarin bilingualism program is unpopular.

Rapid test free for new quarantine option: CECC saysStaff writer, with CNAFully vaccinated people who choose the “7+7 (+7)” quarantine option upon arrival in Taiwan would not have to pay for the required COVID-19 rapid tests, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said. While in home quarantine, they would be required to take a rapid test on the 10th day after their arrival, followed by one more PCR test on the 13th or last day of the two-week quarantine period, it added. Taiwan currently has only 26,000 quarantine rooms, but about 40,000 people are expected to arrive for the holiday, the center said. Initially, the center had said that people would have to pay for the rapid test they are required to take on the 10th day of the “7+7 (+7)” quarantine plan. The “10+4 (+7)” policy does not require travelers to have been fully vaccinated for at least two weeks, but they must spend their last four days of quarantine in a home where the other residents have been fully vaccinated for at least two weeks.