Diplomacy
UK closes consulate in Taipei
March 12, 1972: The British Consulate in Taipei closes after the UK and China upgrade relations to ambassadorial level. The UK switched recognition from the Republic of China (ROC) to China in 1950, but consular and trade-related activities continued. The UK establishes the Anglo-Taiwan Trade Committee in 1976 to maintain trade relations with the nation. The committee grew into the current British Trade and Cultural Office in 1993, handling affairs from investment to culture and education. The consulates’ former location in New Taipei City’s Tamsui area has become a popular tourist attraction.
Taiwan, US resume talks
March 10, 2013: Taiwan and the US resume talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA, 台美貿易暨投資架構協定) after a hiatus of nearly six years. First signed in 1994 to strengthen bilateral trade, TIFA had been suspended since 2007 due to disputes over imports of US beef. Taiwan eased the ban on beef imports containing ractopamine in July 2012, which is believed to have led the way to a resumption of talks. The American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei announced on Wednesday that the next round of talks will begin in the spring.
Cross-strait relations
Taiwan establishes Straits Exchange Foundation
March 9, 1991: The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF, 海峽交流基金會) begins operation as a semi-official body under the Mainland Affairs Council to handle economic and technical matters between China and Taiwan. China responds with the establishment of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS, 海峽兩岸關係協會) six months later.
The SEF-ARATS links have led to agreements on cross-strait affairs, such as the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) in June 2010, and the recently signed service trade agreement, which will open the service sector to further bilateral exchanges if ratified by the legislature.
Society
Express train kills maintenance workers
March 10, 2006: Five railroad maintenance workers are hit and killed by a Hualien-bound express train. The workers had notified the station master about their repair work, but the station didn’t ask the incoming train to change tracks. The then-Taiwan Railway Administration chief Hsu Da-wen (徐達文) resigned over the deaths.
Bread maker wins international acclaim
March 10, 2010: Baker Wu Pao-chun (吳寶春) wins the title of Master Baker in the bread category at the 2010 Bakery World Cup in Paris, France. His award-winning bread was made with millet wine, rose petals and dried lychees — ingredients that for Wu represent Taiwan. Wu’s story is later given cinematic treatment with 27°C — Loaf Rock (世界第一麥方), a movie released last year by director Lin Cheng-sheng (林正盛), who was also once a baker.
Protesters rally to end nuclear power
March 9, 2013: Anti-nuclear protesters across Taiwan take to the streets to oppose the completion of the nation’s fourth nuclear power plant. Since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, anti-nuclear groups have organized nationwide rallies around the incident’s anniversary on March 11. This year, anti-nuclear demonstrations took place on March 8 in Taipei, Greater Taichung, Greater Kaohsiung and Taitung City.
Health
WHO clears Taiwan’s status in H5N1 map
March 12, 2006: After mistakenly including Taiwan on a list of countries affected by the H5N1 avian flu strain, the WHO changes the color of Taiwan on its map from red, which suggests existing cases of human-contracted H5N1 virus, to white, meaning no such cases. The WHO classified the avian flu situation under “nation,” which put Taiwan along with China, where H5N1 bird flu had been detected in both animals and humans. The WHO made the clarification after Taiwan’s foreign affairs ministry filed an official complaint.
Obituary
Renowned activist-writer dies
March 12, 1985: Prominent author Yang Kui (楊逵) dies of illness at the age of 80. Yang, known for his resistance to authoritarian rule in Taiwan, spent 12 years in prison for Declaration for Peace (和平宣言), a book he wrote in 1949. The declaration renounces the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s violent suppression over anti-state movements in 1947, which led to the 228 Incident. Born and raised in Japanese-colonized Taiwan, Yang revealed his stern opposition to colonialism and imperialism through his literary works, such as Newspaper Boy (送報伕). The short story written in Japanese was published in a Japanese journal, Literary Review, which made Yang the first Japanese-language writer from Taiwan to enter the country’s literary scene. The story was later translated into Chinese.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located