Public Television Service (
PTS won in 11 award categories. The best lead actor honor went to Chang Chen-kuang (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
The awards ceremony took place last night at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, and opened with a star-studded red-carpet walk that drew hundreds of fans.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Croatian pianist Maksim, Korean actors Ahn Jae-wook and Ha Ji-won, both of whom have large fan bases in Taiwan for their TV dramas, pop diva Stefanie Sun (
The four-hour gala event was hosted by Kevin Tsai (
PTS demonstrated its power for producing quality programs at the Golden Bell Awards -- Taiwan's answer to the Emmy Awards -- especially in drama and cultural programming.
The TV company took home four awards for its programs, including the best TV drama Banquet (
PTS won 18 award categories at Golden Bell Awards last year, well ahead of all the other TV stations in Taiwan.
In the variety show categories, Taiwan's veteran TV host Chang Fei (張菲) won the award for the best TV host for variety shows for his popular show Variety Big Brother (綜藝大哥大). The award for best variety program, however, went to Variety Sum-up (綜藝大集合).
Having hosted TV shows for 30 years, Chang expressed his gratitude to all his guests who have been entertained and "tortured" in his shows. He also gave thanks to his alleged girlfriend from Belarus, Margarita, who serves as the assistant hostess and comedienne in his show.
Drones are widely recognized as a critical weapons technology of the future. Because of this, the pro-China Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) appear to be obstructing their development. One approach to handling this obstruction is to circumvent it by building robust drone capabilities across a wide swathe of the population. Taiwan is doing just that, but more is needed. The Penghu County Government on Monday said it was testing flying drones on routes from Magong City (馬公), the county seat, to Jibei Island (吉貝嶼). Because all of the inhabited islands lie within 40km of Magong,
For a time, it became popular to describe the tactics of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in encroaching on sovereignty and militarizing islands in the South China Sea as “salami slicing.” Those slices have been getting chunkier. The People’s Liberation Army has been increasing its navy and air force activities in the region. The Chinese Coast Guard has likewise been ramping up their activities, and the civilian paramilitary People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia has been backing up the navy and coast guard with alarming swarming maneuvers. The PRC claims most of the South China Sea through its U-shaped 10-dash
For most train journeys, where you are going is the main consideration. On the Shanlan train (山嵐號) in eastern Taiwan, however, it’s not the “where” but the “how” that matters. On this pricey but meticulously crafted train journey running between Hualien and Taitung County’s Chihshang (池上), what you’re paying for isn’t to get from Point A to Point B, but rather a sensory, aesthetic and cultural experience. On the platform, the train stands out vividly next to the other Taiwan Railway carriages. Its exterior is painted in a yellow-green gradient intended to blend harmoniously with the ripening rice paddies of the East
The comical bit of parachute journalism by Simon Shuster in the Atlantic last week under the title “Will Taiwan Just Give Up?”, drew much attention for its numerous minor errors, largely forgivable, its total lack of understanding of Taiwan and its history and its strange, pro-China interpretations, including taking Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) seriously. The laughter and indignation that essay generated among Taiwan aficionados is an indicator of how far Western journalism on Taiwan has come. Twenty years ago, it would have been another piece for the pile. Today, it is an obvious outlier. Shuster’s piece was