After its “Love Yourself” world tour sweeping across North America and Europe, hit South Korean boyband Bangtan Boys, better known as BTS, has returned to Asia for more shows. The boyband is set to stage two shows on Saturday and Sunday at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium, which is capable of accommodating up to 25,000 fans at each show.
To prevent ticket scalpers from selling at excessive prices, buyers had to correctly answer a series of questions about BTS before they purchased tickets. Even then, the 50,000 tickets were sold out in mere minutes. The demand was so high that a ticket originally priced at NT$7,800 (about US$253) was reportedly sold at NT$170,000 by an online scalper.
With the huge success of its new album worldwide, BTS is perhaps the most popular Asian group today. However, controversy arose last month over a photo of member Jimin in a T-shirt featuring a "mushroom cloud" created by an atomic bomb. Japan’s TV Asahi later canceled its performance after the photo went viral online.
Photo: Wang Wen-lin, Liberty Times
照片︰自由時報記者王文麟
(Eddy Chang, Taipei Times)
在其「Love Yourself」世界巡演襲捲北美和歐洲後,南韓天團防彈少年團(BTS)光榮返回亞洲持續熱唱。該團預計週六、週日在桃園國際棒球場舉辦兩場演唱會,每場可容納近兩萬五千名粉絲。
為遏止黃牛高價轉賣,買家必須正確回答關於BTS的問題才得以購票。然而近五萬張門票仍在幾分鐘內完售。因門票太搶手,媒體報導一張原價七千八百元(約兩百五十三美元)的門票,竟被網路黃牛炒作到以十七萬元的天價售出。
隨著新專輯在世界各地都大獲成功,BTS可說是目前人氣最旺的亞洲樂團,不過上個月卻因一張照片而引發爭議,照片中團員Jimin身穿一件印有原爆「蕈狀雲」圖案的圓領衫。由於圖像在網路上瘋傳,日本朝日電視台稍後只好取消該團原訂的表演。
(台北時報張聖恩)
A: The 2025 World Masters Games will begin on May 17 and run until May 30. B: World Masters Games? A: It’s a quadrennial multi-sport event for people over 30, which will be jointly held by Taipei and New Taipei City. B: Cool, maybe we can go cheer for all the athletes from home and abroad. A: There will be an athletes’ parade in downtown Taipei prior to the opening ceremony on Saturday. Let’s go then. A: 2025雙北世界壯年運動會5月17日開幕,持續至5月30日閉幕。 B: 世壯運? A: 這是四年一度、以30歲以上青壯年為主的運動會,本屆是由台北市和新北市共同舉辦。 B: 好酷喔,我們去幫來自國內外的選手們加油吧! A: 週六在台北市區會有選手遊行,之後是開幕典禮,我們去看吧。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張迪)
A: Where will the 35 sports of the 2025 World Masters Games be held? B: Apart from Taipei and New Taipei City, some games will take place in Yilan County, Taoyuan County, and Hsinchu County and City. A: The news says about 25,000 people, including many celebrities and sports stars, have already registered for the games. B: Even Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, who is 47, registered for softball and squash. New Taipei Mayor Hou You-yi, who is 68, also registered for table tennis. A: And it will be the largest sports event ever in Taiwan’s history. How exciting. A:
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