The opening ceremony of the World Games in Kaohsiung on Thursday night left many impressed, with a number of Internet users posting messages on the nation’s largest bulletin board system, PTT, to praise the show as the pride of Taiwan and Kaohsiung.
Posts began appearing on PTT while the ceremony was still in progress and continued yesterday, with the number of posts on that site alone exceeding 1,000.
“It was a glorious moment for the people of Kaohsiung,” an Internet user posted under the name “Tindong.”
Tindong said that he normally found traditional music irritating, but enjoyed it in the opening ceremony.
His post referred to part of the opening performance in which performers dressed as deities danced to folk music, evoking a scene from a typical Taiwanese temple celebration.
KAOHSIUNG PRIDE
“I’m proud to be a native of Kaohsiung,” another Internet user said.
“I can see the changes in Kaohsiung,” another wrote.
“I was so touched to hear [Kaohsiung mayor] Chen Chu [陳菊] deliver her speech in Taiwanese,” another post said.
Chen, who gave an address at the opening ceremony, said “no country in the international community should be forgotten, and Taiwan cherishes every opportunity to embrace the world.”
EXCITEMENT
An Internet user who posted under the name “Politik” described the World Games opening ceremony as exciting.
Politik said that although the opening ceremony may not have been on the same scale as that of other international sporting events, it was clear that all the performers had done their best to show the world the best of Kaohsiung.
Another Internet user, “Designet,” said he wanted to “shout out my love for Kaohsiung” and was so touched that he almost cried when he heard Chen say that “Kaohsiung has shown its confidence and its ability to shoulder the responsibilities of a member of the international community.”
CRITICISM
But some PTT posts leveled criticism at the Public Television Service (PTS), saying the quality of its broadcast of the opening ceremony was less than satisfactory.
A number of Internet users complained that PTS often lost the focus of action during the broadcast and aired too many commercials during the introduction of all the national teams.
“That showed a lack of respect for those countries’ teams,” one Internet user said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by