【Music】Maybe you might remember the concert called “New talents from Taiwan” in Dusseldorf, Germany. Here is a video report in Mandarin with some recorded scenes from the concert. The problem of that report is, that it only focuses on the violist and leaves out the great performance of the pianist.
web.pts.org.tw
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【Image of Taiwan】A scooter ride in Taichung to let you feel how it is to ride there.
www.youtube.com
A scooter ride through the city of Taichung, Taiwan, with you in the driver seat.
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【Music】Report on the Burma concert in Kaohsiung by private blog “Letters from Taiwan”.
lettersfromtaiwan.blogspot.com
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【Art】”Having thought for many years about how to present the true spirit of Taiwanese lacquer ware, I found that using local materials was the best choice for showing the value and beauty of lacquer,” the designer, Liao Po-ching told the Central News Agency.
www.etaiwannews.com
A young designer collected driftwood by a river on a rainy day in September last year after Typhoon Morakot hit southern Taiwan. No one knew the artist’s intention then, but the mystery was revealed at an exhibition in Milan, Italy in April this year.
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【Music】The festival — called the Golden Melody Music Week — will be held for the first time beginning Saturday, ahead of the Golden Melody Award ceremony which will take place next Saturday.
www.chinapost.com.tw
TAIPEI, Taiwan –A music festival will be held this month to highlight the Golden Melody Awards — known as the Chinese-language Grammys, an official said Saturday at a press briefing in Taipei.
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【Environment】 Under the bureau’s plan, the new land will become part of the Kaohsiung Harbor free trade zone, and will be used exclusively to serve the manufacturing and processing of solar energy related products.
www.chinapost.com.tw
TAIPEI, Taiwan –The Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau is on its way to purchasing a plot of reclaimed land from the Kaohsiung City government to establish a solar energy industrial district in the harbor’s free trade zone, the bureau’s director-general said Saturday.
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【Tourism】“We hope service on the railway will be resumed in time for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Republic of China next year,” said COA Minister Chen Wu-hsiung. At a ceremony held at the Alishan station in Chiayi County to mark the resumption of service on two branch sections of the forest railway, Chen described the typhoon damage as “God’s test.”
www.chinapost.com.tw
TAIPEI, Taiwan –The government will do its best to fix all 41 sections of the Alishan (Mt. Ali) alpine railway that were damaged during Typhoon Morakot last year, and is hoping to resume full service on the line before the end of 2011, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.
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【Society】When Esperanza reached Taiwan in 1963, she took on the name“Teh”which means“virtuous”in Chinese. At the age of 51 at the time, Esperanza hardly spoke any Mandarin, but the language barrier and the cultural differences could not stop the feisty and energetic sister from rolling up her sleeves and diving into work straight away.
www.chinapost.com.tw
TAIPEI, Taiwan –For the 98-year-old Catholic sister, serving a mission in China has always been a dream of hers. But in her youth daydreaming of walking on the Great Wall or helping Chinese orphans, the thought of receiving one of the most prestigious awards — the Ohtli — offered by her government,…
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【Image of Taiwan】Ten-Drum Art Percussion Group – Drum Music Land.
www.youtube.com
Grammy nominations for the Best Traditional World Music Album and the Best Recording Package. This is indeed a glorious year for Wind Music, with two Grammy nominations for the Best Traditional World Music Album for Ten-Drum Art Percussion Groups Drum Music Land and the Best Recording Package for…
Read the video description for more info about Taiwanese drum music.
Read the video description for more info about Taiwanese drum music.
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【Foreign Affairs & Economy】 Results of the newest survey conducted by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) showed that 21.1 percent of the respondents were in favor of a quick signing of the tariff-cutting pact to avoid Taiwan’s marginalization, while 45.6 percent agreed to ink the ECFA after complementary measures have been put in place and 23.3 percent were fully opposed to the agreement.
www.etaiwannews.com
Taiwan is planning to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China by the end of this month.
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【Foreign Affairs & Economy】We must point out that FTAs are a double-edged sword for Taiwan. While the deals can help expand Taiwan’s exports, they also will require Taiwan to open its market, which can cause harm to some domestic industries.
www.etaiwannews.com
Opponents of the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China believe that the government should give priority to signing free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries.
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【Economy】The new measure is expected to take effect next year, according to CLA officials. They said the move is part of the government’s long-term plan of saving both foreign workers and employers in Taiwan from possible exploitation of employment service agents.
www.chinapost.com.tw
The Council for Labor Affairs (CLA) is set to further liberalize regulations to allow direct hiring of new foreign workers by employers. Executives at enterprises welcome the move that can help shave operating costs.
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【France】Bonneville said the French high distinction was awarded to Chang in recognition of the excellence of his scientific work on Europe in general and France in particular, as well as his essential contributions to the promotion of the French language in Taiwan and the strengthening of academic and cultural relations between France and Taiwan.
www.chinapost.com.tw
TAIPEI, Taiwan –National Chengchi University (NCCU) professor Chang Tai-lin was honored by the French government Thursday in Taipei for his persistent efforts to promote French studies and encourage exchanges between the Taiwanese and the French.
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【New Zealand】A New Zealand lawmaker Green Party co-leader Russel Norman accused the Chinese vice president’s security staff of pushing him, hitting him with an umbrella and tearing from his grasp a Tibetan flag during his one-man protest yesterday. Norman said he was surrounded by Xi’s guards as he waved a Tibetan flag and called for democracy in the Himalayan territory, which China invaded in the 1950s.
www.taipeitimes.com
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【Sports】Taiwan cyclists warm up before the upcoming international youth cycling competition held in South Korea.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/36zzb4o
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【Society & Law】Euthanasia legalized in Taiwan.
www.chinapost.com.tw
TAIPEI, Taiwan –The Executive Yuan (Cabinet) passed yesterday a draft revision of regulations that allows terminally ill patients or their family to express the wish of giving up futile medical rescue efforts.
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【Culture & Tourism】EVENTS & ENTERTAINMENT tonight, tomorrow and this Wednesday.
www.taipeitimes.com
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【Tourism】Following the completion of the first phase of the restoration of the railway, two sections — the Jhushan Sunrise-Watching Line (祝山觀日線) and the Divine Tree Line (神木線) — will be reopened to tourists.
www.taipeitimes.com
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【Foreign Affairs & Economy】Gambia, which has chosen to support Taiwan instead of China, has signed a new economic partnership agreement with Taipei, Gambia’s economic planning ministry said on Wednesday. Gambia is one of the few African countries that do not support Beijing’s “one China” policy.
www.taipeitimes.com
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【Art】 Taipei Arts Festival: Zhi-hong WANG – “Stifters Things” August 11th-15th
www.youtube.com
臺北藝術節邀請平面視覺設計 王志弘，根據藝術節演出作品《史迪夫特的事物》做延伸再創作，呈現完全不同的藝術家觀點。 《史迪夫特的事物》8/11-15 台北啤酒工場347成品倉庫
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【Economy】Volkswagen concluded that annual production would have to reach at least 100,000 vehicles to achieve an economy of scale, and that investment in the new Taiwan plant would amount to between NT$3 billion and NT$5 billion.
www.taiwantoday.tw
Speaking during a June 14 interview on air with local television commentator Sisy Chen, Premier Wu Den-yih said representatives of a leading global automobile manufacturer interested in establishing an assembly plant in Taiwan visited him at his office last week.
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【Sports】Lin, who began his sensational career from hometown California, made his name heard among professional scouts and university coaches after his Harvard Crimson beat the Boston College, a long-time competitive rivalry ranked 17th this year in the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), twice with a remarkable 21-9 this season. In his senior year.
www.etaiwannews.com
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【Economy】The poll conducted by 360d Human Resources found 59 percent of workers worked six days a week, while 16 percent worked seven days a week. Only nine percent of respondents never had to work overtime, the survey showed.
www.chinapost.com.tw
Over 50 percent of workers are not paid for working overtime, found a poll released by a human resources firm yesterday.
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【Culture Exchange】Wang’s show came after a classical music presentation by the Taipei Symphony Orchestra and a drum performance by Taiwan’s renowned U-Theatre. Many other Taiwanese singers and performing troupes, including aboriginal musician Hu Teh-fu and the Taipei Chinese Orchestra Ensemble, also performed at the “Taipei Day” program.
www.chinapost.com.tw
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【Environment】 Despite calls to save humpback dolphins living off the nation’s west coast, several lawmakers from the region asked environmental protection activists yesterday not to interfere with economic development.
taipeitimes.com
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【Foreign Affairs & Economy】To resolve the recent imbalance between production and marketing of Taiwanese bananas, the Council of Agriculture (COA) is seeking more help from the Chinese market. Between January and April, however, China purchased less than 2 tonnes of bananas. It bought 21.5 tonnes last year and none in 2008.
taipeitimes.com
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【Culture】Try it yourself: Balancing eggs on Dragon Boat Festival Students from Kiribati, left, and Vietnam try to make eggs stand upright during a competition held at the National Taiwan University yesterday. According to the traditional belief, it is easy to make eggs stand upright at the noon of the Duanwu Festival, or the Dragon Boat Festival, which is today.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/3aa2jua
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【Politics & Society】The local Miaoli County government (KMT) wants some piece of land so much, that they destroy the crops of the landowner’s fields in order to make it a cheaper price. Private blog “Letters from Taiwan” reports on that and published a video. (No English subs, but striking scenes to see)
lettersfromtaiwan.blogspot.com
EVA and I came across this story tonight. On June 9th 2010, caterpillar excavators moved into a track of land owned by local Miaoli farmers to destroy their crops against their wishes. These crops were two months away from harvest. …
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【Culture Exchange】Cheng Ching-wen noted that Taiwan’s literature, with its laudable depth and broadness, has won recognition from the world.
www.etaiwannews.com
Six Taiwanese writers gathered in Toronto, Canada today to join the 11th International Conference on the Short Story in English (SSIE), an annual feast of literature joined by 42 international writers in the York University, according to the Central News Agency reports today.
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【Tourism】The bureau noted that thanks to a great amount of investments in featuring facilities – including the sensational ropeway system in the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, the amusement parks had seen a strong growth of 24% in turnover and 20% in visitors respectively.
www.etaiwannews.com
The Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation yesterday announced the operating conditions of 23 local amusements parks between January and April this year: the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village was ranked first with more than 870,000 visitors, equivalent to a growth of 94%, according to…
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【Culture Exchange】“The exhibition shows different aspects of contemporary video arts in Germany,” Wernhard said. For instance the eight-minute “Taipei Impressions” includes scenes such as raining weather in Taipei, flowers after the rain, umbrellas, bridges and characters on temples.
www.chinapost.com.tw
TAIPEI, Taiwan –An exhibition featuring six works by three German artists opened Tuesday at the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Taipei (MOCA), in which the three artists also presented a new video work titled “Taipei Impression” reflecting their impressions and experiences during a one-week stay in Ta…
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【Tourism】The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) yesterday introduced a new mealbox cart designed to look like the Taroko Express tilting train.
www.taipeitimes.com
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【Politics】The Control Yuan yesterday said it would look into allegations of misconduct by members of the Referendum Review Committee after it rejected an opposition party-supported referendum proposal earlier this month.
www.taipeitimes.com
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【Politics】President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has proven itself adept at saying one thing, while doing another. Examples include hiking commodity prices while claiming to “take the people’s plight to heart” and refusing to hold a referendum while saying that doing so on important issues “pertains to the public interest.”
www.taipeitimes.com
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【Foreign Affairs & Education】Chinese students studying in Taiwan have to obtain a political awareness certificate before they go to Taiwan. The idea behind this certificate is not to make Chinese students aware of the Taiwan’s political environment but to ensure that they have the right ideology.
www.iterasi.net
Meng Fan, 19, learned about Taiwan in textbooks when she was in primary school. Since then, she has longed to go there. “It was called ‘treasure island ‘ in the textbook,” the freshman from China Institute of Industrial Relations in Beijing said.
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【Politics】Private blog “Frozen Garlic” about recent rassroots election for village heads and township representatives and their vote buying.
frozengarlic.wordpress.com
I haven’t had anything to say recently. This is strange. What is even stranger is that we just had an election, and I’m completely uninterested. The election was the really, really grassroots election for village heads and township representatives. …
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【Culture】A customer views sachets hanging at a shop in Taipei June 12. Many people carry sachets full of herbs to drive away insects or evil spirits during the Dragon Boat Festival. (CNA)
Source: http://tinyurl.com/3x5agqo
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【Tourism】Tourists view landforms at the Yehliu Geopark June 12. Registration for a summer camp held by the park was full in just one day. (CNA)
Source: http://tinyurl.com/33jnk4c
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【Society】“She has a magical voice that renders old songs more beautiful,” said Camake Valaule, director of the Tai-wu Elementary School Chorus, of which Djudju has been lead singer for the past three years.
www.taiwantoday.tw
Djudju Dalimalau, a 12-year-old girl from Taiwan’s indigenous Paiwan tribe, has received an invitation to give a series of performances in the South African State Theatre in Pretoria from Sept. 4 to 13.
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【Law】The Human Trafficking Prevention and Control Act also helped to boost Taiwan’s ranking. Combined with portions of the Criminal Code, the act criminalizes trafficking for both commercial sex exploitation and forced labor and mandates sentences of up to seven years in jail for violators.
www.etaiwannews.com
Washington, June 14 (CNA) Taiwan has regained its status as a country working to eliminate human trafficking after being downgraded for the previous five years, according to the U.S. State Department’s latest Trafficking in Persons (TIPS) Report released Monday.
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【Military】As the sum of last year’s outsourced contracts reached NT$83.1 billion, NT$86.4 is foreseeable this year and next year might even see a surge to NT$90.6 billion, the MND noted. However, as a member of the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) under the World Trade Organization (WTO), Taiwan should allow international bidders an access to domestic procurement projects above certain amount after the year 2012.
www.etaiwannews.com
To invigorate local economy plagued by dull demand and global recession, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) is planning to outsource more military supply contracts to domestic manufacturers, a policy beginning from 2003, according to Liberty Times report.
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【Education】In an effort to publicize Taiwanese student achievements, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has set up a Web site that features the “A-list” students who have won prizes in international competitions. http://award.moe.gov.tw/
www.chinapost.com.tw
TAIPEI, Taiwan –Taiwan’s successful education system has produced many outstanding students who have won awards at various international competitions and are “the pride and glory of Taiwan,” Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi said yesterday.
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【Society】Keating said the evidence provided to court by prosecutors differed from information police offered to media, but the media only listened to the police and presumed Dean was guilty.
www.taipeitimes.com
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【Foreign Affairs & Economy】Taiwan and China concluded the third round of negotiations on a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) in Beijing yesterday, but both sides were tight-lipped about when they would meet again to finalize the “early harvest” list.
www.taipeitimes.com
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【Foreign Affairs】Direct flight services between Taipei Songshan Airport and Shanghai Hongqiao Airport were officially launched yesterday, with many passengers complaining that the tickets were too expensive. Flights by TransAsia Airways (復興航空) and EVA Airways (EVA, 長榮) also took off at 1pm and 1:15pm respectively. All …three flights from Taiwan had an average passenger occupancy of about 80 percent.
www.taipeitimes.com
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【History】Home Media Magazine reviewed the movie “Formosa Betrayed”
www.homemediamagazine.com
‘Formosa Betrayed’ is an eye-opening historical drama that defies what most people commonly know about American relations with Taiwan, giving an informal, interesting history lesson. (Prebook 6/15/10; Street Date 7/13/10)
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【Image of Taiwan】Tainan Hsi-shu Elementary School choir sings a cute song in Taiwanese.
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【Society & Politics】The private blog “Letters from Taiwan” summarized recent events like in (un-)dangerous Taichung, Capital Punishment debate, Chinese students in Taiwan and some others.
lettersfromtaiwan.blogspot.com
Who’s cleaning up out there in the news today? First up, there’s a new Sheriff in town. Crime-ridden Taichung is getting a new Police Chief after the last one stepped down for gross lack of control over his officers courting of gangsters.
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【Politics】The DPP has won about 600 seats in the local head election, which showed that the reform enrolled by this party has obtained positive responses from the public, said Tsai. This proofs that the DPP stood up since the Chen scandals, people are trusting the DPP even more than before.
www.etaiwannews.com
Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) performed well in the election of village head and township representative in 17 counties and cities, winning doubled positions compared with the previous election, noted DPP spokesperson Tsai Chi-chang, the local media reported Monday.
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【Foreign Affairs】Taiwan’s sovereignty is questioned in China, Taiwan has decided to pull films from festival in Shanghai because Taiwan is denoted “Taiwan, China”. So much for so-called reduced tensions and president Ma’s more international space for Taiwan. Welcome to China.
【Foreign Affairs】Taiwan’s sovereignty is questioned in China, Taiwan has decided to pull films from festival in Shanghai because Taiwan is denoted “Taiwan, China”. So much for so-called reduced tensions and president Ma’s more international space for Taiwan. Welcome to China.
www.nytimes.com
Taiwan’s film commission withdrew eight Taiwanese films late last week from the Shanghai International Film Festival.
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【Foreign Affairs & Economy】Although the launch of direct flights between Taipei’s Songshan Airport and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport slated for today are expected to help boost Taipei City’s economy, most taxi drivers operating around Songshan Airport were reserved yesterday about the benefits the direct flights will bring them.
www.etaiwannews.com
Taxi drivers do not expect business boost since Chinese tourists are not allowed to travel alone
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【Foreign Affairs & Economy】Taipei Society members yesterday criticized the Referendum Review Committee’s decision to block a referendum proposal submitted by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) about the government’s plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China and challenged the committee members to a debate.
www.taipeitimes.com
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【Foreign Affairs & Economy】Officials at the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) described the ECFA as “a done deal” after the conclusion of the talks on the thorny issues concerning each side’s “early harvest” lists of goods and services to be subject to tariff waivers or easier market access terms under the landmark agreement.
www.chinapost.com.tw
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Trade officials from Taiwan and China concluded yesterday the latest round of talks on proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) across the Taiwan Strait with consensus reached on the text of the major accord and the five sets of attached documents.
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【Tourism】The Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Administration is proposing to build a second ropeway connecting Hsiangshan (向山) and Checheng (車埕) to increase tourism in scenic spots surrounding the Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) area.
www.taipeitimes.com
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【Law】Cyclists in Taipei City who park their bicycles illegally could have their bicycles towed starting next week. To avoid disputes, officers will take a photo of illegally parked bicycles before towing them. The owners could be required to pay a towing fee of about NT$100 and face a fine between NT$300 and NT$600.
www.taipeitimes.com
so how about this weather?