Workshops at the Center
The Community Services Center is hosting two workshops this month on topics including cultural adjustment, parenting and recognizing signs of stress. The workshops will include interactive discussions on adjusting to life in another country with longer-term expatriates. They will also provide an opportunity to meet the Center’s counselors. The first workshop will be held next Tuesday, Aug. 19, from 6pm to 7:30pm and the second two days later, Thursday, Aug. 21, from 11am to 12:30pm in Shilin (士林), Taipei City. The workshops are free of charge and refreshments will be provided. For more information or to register, call (02) 2836-8134 or go to www.community.com.tw.
Performance academy back in town
The American Performing Arts Academy in Taipei is back by popular demand to teach budding performers. A hip-hop and piano academy started on Sunday and finishes on Friday, with a student concert to be held on the final day. Students in the Broadway Musical course will attend classes from this Saturday to the following Saturday, also including a performance on the final day. Apart from learning the latest dance moves, hip-hop students are being taught how to maintain stamina and poise. Broadway musical students will learn acting skills and stage movement, while piano students are learning about American composers such as Gershwin and Samuel Barber. All concerts are free. For details, see apaa.tmue.edu.tw/EnglishFrameset.html.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique