The 20th annual Taipei International Book Exhibition (台北國際書展) may help you to live a longer and healthier life — and perhaps even save the planet. The theme for this year’s event, which opened on Wednesday and runs through Monday at the Taipei World Trade Center (台北世界貿易中心), is “green reading.”
“This year’s theme reflects global trends in green living as well as the importance of environmental awareness,” said Huang Pao-ping (黃寶萍), director of the Taipei Book Fair Foundation, which organizes the annual exhibition.
Huang added that the exhibition showcases reading trends past, present and future. Highlights include several Ming Dynasty texts as well as a Torah scroll, and a whole array of digital publications. The exhibition’s green reading pavilion, as well as the digital publishing pavilion, can both be found in Hall 1.
Photo: Taipei Times
Belgium activist Gunter Pauli, founder of the Zero Emissions Research and Initiative and author of The Blue Economy, will discuss sustainability issues in a speech tomorrow from 11:45am to 12:45pm at the Red Salon (紅沙龍), which is located in Hall 1.
Guest writers include Brandon Sanderson, the best-selling author of the Mistborn trilogy, who will hold a reading and book signing session today from 2:15pm to 3:15pm at the Red Salon. Jo Nesbo, a Norwegian crime writer whose novels have sold more than 8.5 million copies worldwide, will give a talk in the Red Salon tomorrow from 2:15pm to 3:15pm and 4:45pm to 5:45pm.
Hall 1 is divided into five sections — international publishers, Taiwan publishers, specialized publishers, digital publishers and government publishers — while Hall 2 is dedicated to foreign and domestic comic books, manga and anime as well as a whole host of activities such as cosplay competitions and puppet shows.
Photo: Taipei Times
Rebecca Dautremer, an immensely talented illustrator of children’s books, will lead a workshop today from 11am to 12:30pm at the Activity Area (活動區), located in Hall 3, which is devoted to books for children.
The foundation says 730 publishing companies from 60 countries are participating in this year’s book fair, which ends Monday.
Photo: Taipei Times
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
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Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated