Taiwan in Time: The house of Sanmao’s dreams
Of course, there’s joy mixed in as well, but not much.”A portrait of the late writer Sanmao. The friends from Chingchuan visit me in my dreams almost every night, and these people’s faces make my heart ache,” she continued in the letter. This photo shows Sanmao’s house in Chingchuan around 2005, just after it was fixed up by the government for tourism. “The Little Prince sobbingly told me that he could no longer return to the Sahara,” Sanmao wrote. Martinson writes he received numerous calls asking about the house, and countless people from across Taiwan passed through due to Sanmao’s calling.
Source:Taipei Times
January 02, 2021 15:56 UTC
New Taipei eatery owners cater for students in need
New Taipei eatery owners cater for students in needBy Weng Yu-huang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe owners of a Japanese-style izakaya food pub in New Taipei City’s Lujhou District (蘆洲) have through 2019 and last year prepared 300 lunchboxes per month for disadvantaged students, free of charge. Hsu Jui-hsi, left, and Hsu Pin-jui on Friday hold lunch boxes at their izakaya in New Taipei City’s Lujhou District. Photo: Weng Yu-huang, Taipei TimesThey hope that those who received the lunchboxes will prosper and one day also help others, they said. Until 2009, when Hsu Jui-hsi graduated from high school, they had not often been able to eat out, the brothers said. About 120 students at the school benefit from the project every month, Shen said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 02, 2021 15:56 UTC
Groups march for Trump in Taipei and extend an invitation
Groups march for Trump in Taipei and extend an invitationBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterPeople rallied in Taipei yesterday to support US President Donald Trump and called for Taipei and Washington to normalize the relationship between the two nations. The group held banners and shouted: “Support President Trump, protect Taiwan,” “Welcome Trump to visit Taiwan” and other slogans while waving US flags, along with green-and-white flags bearing an image of Taiwan and its outlying islands. People march in Taipei yesterday to support US President Donald Trump. “I am here to thank President Trump, because he has done so much for Taiwan in the past four years,” Ong said. The groups invited Trump to visit Taiwan and expressed their hope that formal Taiwan-US ties would be restored.
Source:Taipei Times
January 02, 2021 15:56 UTC
Doctor urges no eating near monkeys
Doctor urges no eating near monkeysBy Jonathan Chin / Staff writer, with CNAPeople must be cautious in the vicinity of monkeys, especially while eating, experts warned, after a woman got her hand severely injured by a macaque at Kaohsiung’s Shoushan Zoo last month. Lee reportedly tried to drive away the monkeys when one of them scratched her left hand, severing the tendon of her ring finger. When a monkey reaches for their food, people should let go of it and walk off, as the animal is likely to leave them alone, Lin said. In response, Shoushan Zoo director Chuang Hsuan-chih (莊絢智) said that the macaques in the zoo have adapted their behavior to being fed by visitors. “When visiting Shoushan, you should keep food items in your backpack and check the trees for macaques before you eat,” he said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 02, 2021 15:56 UTC
E-cigarette resellers target youth: HPA
E-cigarettes contain a higher concentration of carcinogens, like formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, than cigarettes, he said. Similarly, an increasing number of high-school students are using e-cigarettes, with 5.6 percent using them in 2019, up from 3.4 percent in 2018, it added. Opportunistic resellers are taking advantage of young people and trying to depict e-cigarettes as trendy on Instagram, the HPA said. The study also found that e-cigarette resellers were using keywords like “ejuice” to evade censorship on social media platforms, said Chung Chi-hui (鍾起惠), a professor at the university. The researchers also identified a correlation between the amount of money a student has at their disposal and the likelihood of them using e-cigarettes, she said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 02, 2021 15:56 UTC
Executive Yuan orders watch on prices
Executive Yuan orders watch on pricesBy Lee Hsin-fang and Yang Yuan-ting / Staff reportersThe Executive Yuan has asked the Consumer Protection Committee to monitor pork prices after an eatery raised the price of its lunchboxes made with domestic pork by NT$10. The price hike came in the wake of the central government lifting a ban on imported pork containing ractopamine, which took effect on Friday. The committee said that it would cooperate with local departments to stabilize pork prices if gouging is discovered. Restaurant owner Lee Wei-ing (李偉英) said that due to public concerns about imported pork containing ractopamine, the restaurant switched to domestic pork. “Taiwan-produced pork is more expensive than imported pork,” Yuan said, adding that prices for domestic pork reached about NT$72 per kilogram recently, higher than the same period a year earlier, but still within reason.
Source:Taipei Times
January 02, 2021 15:56 UTC
Ma’s office rejects Tsai’s account of pork promise
The Tsai administration has surrendered without a fight on an issue that past presidents have proved could be withstood, it said, adding that the actions are not a solution, but instead create more problems. “We ask that President Tsai take responsibility for her administration’s own actions, instead of blaming previous administrations,” the statement said. Local governments should take their lead from the central government, Li said. If local governments impose fines for “violating local ordinances,” companies should be able to seek compensation from the central government. The KMT has pledged to help local governments seek a constitutional interpretation on the legality of the government’s move to invalidate local ractopamine bans.
Source:Taipei Times
January 02, 2021 15:56 UTC
Library, museum feature Maxwell, literature, art
Library, museum feature Maxwell, literature, artBy Wu Chun-feng and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNAThe grand opening of the Tainan Main Municipal Library today is to feature exhibitions on James Maxwell, a Scottish Presbyterian missionary and physician, and the literature of Tainan’s coastal areas, the Tainan Cultural Affairs Bureau said yesterday. The main branch of the Tainan Public Library is pictured yesterday. Two exhibitions about late British doctor James Maxwell and local literature development are set to take place at the venue starting today. The library is to display texts authored by Gustave Cheng (鄭順聰), illustrations of Tainan’s coastal landscape by Da Chang (大昌) and installation art pieces, the bureau said. For visually impaired visitors, the museum would provide a special audio guide and replicas of the chairs in the portraits, which visitors are allowed to touch, it added.
Source:Taipei Times
January 01, 2021 15:56 UTC
Tsai urges understanding for US pork import policy
Tsai urges understanding for US pork import policyADDITIVE ALERT: New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi asked for a labeling mandate for pork containing traces of ractopamine to ‘protect the public’s right to know’By Yang Hsin-hui, He Yu-hua and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporters, with staff writer and CNAPresident Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday in her New Year’s Day speech asked Taiwanese for understanding over the government’s decision to open up to imports of US pork containing traces of ractopamine. A shopper passes by a “ractopamine-free” pork section in a supermarket in Taipei yesterday. Ko was speaking during a visit to a “ractopamine-free pork” section of a Carrefour hypermarket, which was established after the Taipei City Government passed ordinances requiring importers to test pork for the substance and stores to label pork products. New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) yesterday visited a “ractopamine-free cuisine” section of the Global Mall at Banciao Railway Station. New Taipei City last month announced ordinances mandating ractopamine labels for nine types of vendors and the regulations would be implemented in stages, Hou said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 01, 2021 15:56 UTC
Rules to tie heavy electricity use to renewable power
Rules to tie heavy electricity use to renewable powerBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterEntities that require a lot of electricity are tied to a five-year “green” energy consumption plan with the promulgation of “heavy electricity user” rules this year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday, although experts added that the regulations would have a limited effect on the renewable energy market. The total installed electrical capacity in Taiwan is 44.7 gigawatts (GW), Taiwan Power Co (台電) manager Chang Ting-shu (張廷抒) said. Taiwan Power Co solar panels are pictured in Penghu County’s Cimei Township on Sept. 18 last year. According to Huang’s analysis, any government requirements regarding energy from renewable sources for large users is dwarfed by the appetite of the firms themselves. “This makes renewable energy seem more expensive than it really is,” she said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 01, 2021 15:56 UTC
Council of Grand Justices rules therapy for sex offenders ‘mostly constitutional’
Council of Grand Justices rules therapy for sex offenders ‘mostly constitutional’Staff writer, with CNAThe Council of Grand Justices on Thursday declared that laws allowing convicted sex offenders to be held in a designated facility for therapy after completing their sentence are “mostly constitutional.”However, the council ruled it “unconstitutional” that convicted sex offenders are not given an opportunity to express their opinion before holding them for potentially indefinite treatment. From left: Judicial Yuan Vice President Tsai Jeong-duen, Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li and Grand Justice Huang Horng-shya preside at the Council of Grand Justices on Thursday, as the council issued Constitutional Interpretation No. The council made the constitutional interpretation after four petitioners asked it to rule on the constitutionality of holding sex offenders for mandatory therapy after the end of their prison term. While the laws specify that offenders held at therapy facilities must be evaluated annually to determine their progress, they do not set a maximum length for the therapy, meaning that they can in principle be held indefinitely. About 60 sex offenders are currently receiving therapy, it said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 01, 2021 15:56 UTC
EDITORIAL: Regulation needed for online media
EDITORIAL: Regulation needed for online mediaThe National Communications Commission (NCC) has in the past few weeks come under fire over a draft digital communications bill that would allow it to regulate online platforms. Increasingly, people are consuming content through online platforms such as YouTube, Netflix and other paid subscription services. Given this trend toward online media consumption, the NCC must adapt and regulate content through streaming services, in the same way that it regulates radio and television content. It would also prevent minors from consuming content that is unsuitable for them, such as violence or sexual content, and prevent online slander or defamation, among other illegal acts. Laws must evolve, and this is the juncture where it has become important to regulate content broadcast online.
Source:Taipei Times
January 01, 2021 15:56 UTC
Central bank fights industrial land hoarding
Central bank fights industrial land hoardingCLEARING OBSTRUCTIONS: Trade groups have urged the government to step in, as firms seeking to move production lines home have had difficulty finding landBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterTo prevent land hoarding that could slow investment by companies returning home from China, the central bank on Thursday convened a meeting with 16 financial institutions to press for stricter review of industrial land financing. The central bank said that it urged the financial institutions to practice self-discipline and to demand concrete property development plans from borrowers seeking land financing. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-long speaks at a news conference at the bank in Taipei on Dec. 17. However, there are areas in the nation that have idle plots of industrial land. The price of industrial land has noticeably picked up over the past few years due to limited supply and growing demand from companies returning from abroad, the central bank said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 01, 2021 15:56 UTC
SCI outsourcing expected to aid sales after factory fire
SCI outsourcing expected to aid sales after factory fireBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterSCI Pharmtech Inc’s (SCI, 旭富製藥) plans to outsource production of intermediates to other Taiwanese firms are expected to help recover some of its lost sales, after its plant in Taoyuan’s Lujhu District (蘆竹) was severely damaged by a fire on Sunday last week, analysts said this week. Firefighters and security guards stand outside SCI Pharmtech Inc’s plant in Taoyuan’s Lujhu District on Tuesday last week. Photo: Wei Chin-yun, Taipei TimesSCI produces active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), intermediates and specialty chemicals, with intermediates contributing 26.66 percent to its total sales in 2019. In a regulatory filing on Friday last week, SCI said it was discussing with local manufacturers about outsourcing some production during the rebuild of its lines. The company would likely post losses for last year, with estimated losses per share of NT$1.15, compared with earnings per share of NT$7.19 in 2019.
Source:Taipei Times
December 31, 2020 15:56 UTC
Housing price index up 1.43% in Q3
Housing price index up 1.43% in Q3HEALTHY ECONOMY: Overall growth and low interest rates drove demand, the interior ministry said, one day after the legislature passed measures to curb speculationBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterThe nation’s housing price index in the third quarter of last year continued to increase, rising 1.43 percent from the second quarter to 106.89, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Among the six special municipalities, the housing price index in Tainan reported the largest quarterly increase at 2.56 percent, followed by Taoyuan at 2.12 percent and Taichung at 2.05 percent, the ministry said in a statement on its Web site. The index grew 1.59 percent in Taipei, 1.21 percent in New Taipei City and 0.91 percent in Kaohsiung, ministry data showed. “Coupled with strong sales in certain regions, the overall housing price index increased, while the total of outstanding balances on housing loans also hit a new high of NT$7.81 trillion [US$273.96 billion] at the end of the third quarter,” it said. Compared with a year earlier, the housing price index grew 3.21 percent, data showed.
Source:Taipei Times
December 31, 2020 15:56 UTC