A statue of a beggar with a pleading expression and begging bowl has become the star of the newly-opened Lanyang Museum, prompting compassionate visitors to hand out coins to him. The constant stream of donations has made the statue the museum’s “wealthiest” item.
The museum entered its second stage of operation last Friday, letting visitors in for free. The museum’s records showed almost 20,000 visitors passed through its doors over a weekend and many of them left favorable comments about its design and the content of the exhibitions.
The second floor exhibition shows life during the early days of the Republic of China in Taiwan. On a corner depicting life at the Ximen Ferry Point in Yilan, a few wax statues stand in front of pictures of streets and shops. One of the statues is of a bare-footed old beggar with white hair, holding a walking stick in his right hand and a broken bowl in his left hand, pleading for handouts.
His expression is so realistic it has caused compassionate visitors to put coins into his broken bowl. Museum staff are keen to prevent such donations but when the museum is busy visitors secretly put coins in the bowl when the staff are not paying attention. When business is good, the beggar’s income can reach NT$5,000 to NT$6,000 per day.
The donations have become a headache for the museum’s management. By putting money in the bowl, visitors often damage the statue. Sung Lung-chuan, acting director of Yilan County Government’s Cultural Affairs Bureau, said that when the accumulated donations reach a certain amount, the museum will give it all to charity or disadvantaged groups.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY TAIJING WU)
剛開放的蘭陽博物館內有一尊乞丐蠟像，由於托碗乞討的神態楚楚可憐、太過逼真，遊客當場掏錢施捨，讓乞丐「收入頗豐」，也成為館內最夯的展示品。
蘭博從上星期五進入第二階段試營運，開放給民眾免費進場參觀，根據館方統計，周末就湧進近兩萬名遊客，民眾對於館內陳設的文物、設計反應都相當不錯。
在二樓的「平原層」展區中，營造早期宜蘭市西門渡口的民眾生活場景，除了有圖繪的街景、店鋪，並擺放幾尊人物蠟像，其中一尊造型是白髮蒼蒼的赤腳老乞丐，他右手拄著柺杖、左手托著破碗開口行乞。
或許世蠟像太過逼真，激發遊客的惻隱之心，掏出零錢往破碗內放，雖然現場解說人員看到時會制止，但因為遊客太多，還是有許多民眾趁著解說人員沒注意時偷偷將零錢丟進碗內，讓這名乞丐每天都有五、六千元的「收入」，「生意」可說相當好。
但民眾的善舉愛心，卻也造成館方人員管理上的困擾，更怕會造成蠟像毀損，宜蘭縣政府文化局代理局長宋隆全表示，縣府並不鼓勵民眾如此做，但對於已經收到的善款，將會在累計到一定的金額後，全數轉贈給縣內的慈善、公益或弱勢團體。
(自由時報記者胡健森)
Computex, Asia’s biggest electronics conference, kicked off Monday in Taipei, and as in years past drew industry chieftains from Nvidia Corp.’s Jensen Huang and Qualcomm Inc.’s Cristiano Amon to Young Liu of Foxconn, which makes the bulk of the world’s iPhones and Nvidia servers. But while last year’s event was a celebration of the post-ChatGPT AI boom, executives this time are likely grappling with the uncertainty of the Trump administration’s effort to reshape the global trade order — disrupting a decades-old model for tech manufacturing. This year’s exhibition will of course feature the hardware required to bring artificial intelligence to life.
Dog owners often wish they could understand their pets’ thoughts. “Dog buttons” might turn their dream into a reality. These specially designed buttons, __1__ sound chips, enable dogs to communicate their needs by pressing buttons corresponding to pre-recorded words like “walk,” “play,” “outside,” and “food.” This bridges the communication __2__ between humans and their canine companions. The science behind dog buttons is based on the concept of associative learning. It’s a process __3__ learners can link actions with outcomes. For instance, if an owner consistently presses the “walk” button and then takes their dog for a walk, the dog
1. 眾所皆知，資訊產業是我國經濟的基礎。 ˇ As everyone admits, the IT industry is the backbone of our economy. χ As everyone admits that the IT industry is the backbone of our economy. 註：這裏 as 作關係代名詞，引導從屬子句。誤句多了 that， IT industry is. . . 就變成從屬句，欠缺了主句，結構上錯誤。又如： As my friend pointed out, necessity is the mother of invention. As is known to all, grammar is not the only important thing in language study. 2. 她心情總是非常好。 ˇ She is always in a good mood. χ She always is in a good mood. 註：always, often 一般放在行為動詞之前，連繫動詞、助動詞之後： He always behaves well. He is always happy and gay. He is always reading. 其他用法類似的副詞，還有 still、also、hardly、seldom、never 等。 3. 你看！他還在寫報告呢。 ˇ Look! He is still working
Continued from yesterday（延續自昨日） https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang Training a dog to use the buttons requires a great deal of time and patience, but certain techniques can be employed to speed up the process. Secure the buttons to the floor __4__ they don’t move and dogs can easily recognize their positions. Additionally, starting training with an activity that highly motivates the dog can accelerate learning. For instance, if a dog is more interested in walks than in food or water, it may learn to press the “walk” button __5__ than it learns to press the other two. By using these buttons, dogs are able to express
RSS