N ew Taipei City’s Department of Civil Affairs is trying to encourage childbirth and gives out 500 golden spades each year to boost people’s pregnancy rates. However, Dr. Liu Yuchih submitted a letter to the media, pointing out that pregnancy requires sperms and eggs, not shovels. If a couple’s sex life is vibrant, the natural pregnancy rate within a six-month period can be around 60 to 70 percent, he said. New Taipei City government claims that the 333 new couples who tied the knot in a joint wedding ceremony in New Taipei City and took the golden shovels home have a pregnancy rate as high as 60 percent. That the government would intentionally use statistics like this to make its performance look good and stress the golden shovels’ effect in boosting pregnancy is ridiculous, says Dr. Liu.
He pointed out that any person with their head screwed on knows that pregnancy requires sperms and eggs and has nothing to do with shovels. It should be seen as nothing more than harmless superstition, so why waste government money on activities like this that promote sheer pseudoscience? Furthermore, that the government would put instructions for using the golden shovels on its official website, explaining that displaying the front side of the shovel will give birth to boys and displaying the rear side will help bear girls, is unbelievably absurd, says Dr. Liu.
Huang Ching-i, Chief Secretary of New Taipei City’s Department of Civil Affairs, responded, saying, “‘Golden spade’ sounds similar to ‘getting a new baby soon’ in Taiwanese. The practice of giving golden shovels is a traditional custom for the purpose of encouraging childbirth and also to help people who are anxious to have a baby find peace of mind. The public strongly supports it, and many other cities and counties have followed suit. So people should look at the bright side of it. There is no need to be so harsh and critical.”
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Liberty Times
記者賴筱桐攝
(Liberty times, translated by Ethan Zhan)
新北市民政局提倡生育,每年發放五百支金鏟子推廣助孕效果,但醫師劉育志投書媒體批評,懷孕需要精子和卵子,與鏟子無關。一對夫婦如果性生活活躍,半年內自然懷孕機率有六至七成;市府宣稱贈送參加聯合婚禮的三百卅三對新人金鏟子,已懷孕新人高達六成。官方刻意用數據包裝充當政績,強調金鏟助孕功效,貽笑大方。
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Liberty Times
記者賴筱桐攝
他指出,任何腦筋清楚的人都曉得懷孕需要精子和卵子,跟鏟子沒有關係。當成無傷大雅的迷信就罷了,為何耗費公帑舉辦活動,宣傳不折不扣的「偽科學」,竟然在官網介紹金鏟子「正面求子、反面求女」的使用方法,實在荒謬離譜。
民政局主任秘書黃靜怡表示,金鏟子諧音「緊產子」的助孕涵義,是依循我國悠久的民俗文化,以此鼓勵生育,給求子急切的民眾心靈寄託。外界多持高度肯定,許多縣市紛紛跟進,美意應正面看待,不需如此嚴苛批評。
(自由時報記者游蓓茹)
Rice is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. Many foods are made of rice, adding more variety to our cooking, such as rice cake, or “gui.” Wagui is made by steaming rice flour batter in a bowl. The term “gui” refers to a type of food made from rice, while “wa” refers to a bowl. The pronunciation of “gui” in Taiwanese Hokkien is similar to the word for “nobility” in Chinese, so it is common for people to prepare various types of gui, including wagui, as offerings to the gods or ancestors,. 米是台灣重要的主食,用米製成的食品十分多元,豐富我們的飲食,如米做成的「粿」。粿的意思是米做成的糕點,碗粿是將在來米漿倒入碗中蒸熟,因而得名。粿因為音同「貴」,因此碗粿等粿食常用作供品祭拜神明和祖先。 nobility (n.) 高貴,高尚;貴族 offering (n.) 供品 While Taiwan may not be
Drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants provide people with the immense convenience of being able to purchase and pick up meals without needing to leave their vehicles. These restaurants have been around for decades, and their success has spawned a number of equally handy services. The drive-through concept originated with the drive-in restaurant, the first of which was established in the US in 1921. Patrons would order and eat the food that was delivered to their cars by workers called “carhops.” Ten years later, a drive-through service was introduced, but it was not until 1947 that the first exclusively drive-through restaurant opened its
On Tuesday last week, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony. It will then be carried through Greece for more than 5,000km before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens venue used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. The pageantry at Olympia has been an essential part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years since the Games in Berlin. It’s meant to provide an ineluctable link between the modern event and the ancient Greek original on which it was initially modelled. Once
A: “Forbes” magazine just revealed Hollywood’s top 10 highest-paid stars of 2023. B: How much did those superstars make last year? A: Denzel Washington was at No. 10, having made US$24 million, which is about NT$771 million. B: That’s an astronomical figure to me. A: No. 9 to No. 6 were: Ben Affleck with US$38 million, Jason Statham with US$41 million, Leonardo DiCaprio with US$41 million, and Jennifer Aniston with US$42 million. A: 《富比世》最近公布了好萊塢去年的片酬排行榜。 B: 大明星的片酬到底有多高? A: 第10名是丹佐華盛頓、片酬2400萬美元,大約7.7億台幣。 B: 天啊這根本是天文數字! A: 第9到6名是︰班艾佛列克、3800萬美元,傑森史塔森、4100萬美元,李奧納多狄卡皮歐、4100萬美元,珍妮佛安妮斯頓、4200萬美元。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)