Fact is often stranger than fiction. Take, for example, Shih Lai-fa from Changhua County. He had always felt that his ancestry linked him with ancient Ceylon. Shih recently found out that this was really the case -- he was the 19th generation descendant of Ceylonese royal Prince Parakrarnabau II.
A Sri Lankan delegation visited Shih and his family last week to present him with a Sri Lankan national flag and to formally invite him to "return" to his homeland in Sri Lanka.
Delegation leader Gangodawila Nugegoda, a member of the Sri Lankan Parliament, expressed his pleasure that a direct descendant of the prince, who lived around 500 years ago, had been found in Taiwan.
The delegation was organized after Nugegoda received a request from Shih for assistance tracing his roots. Shih sent the Sri Lankan official a copy of his family tree and related data in July.
Shih, 50, said he had always wondered why his family name was Shih, a very unusual name among Chinese.
According to a family tree in Shih's possession, Shih Chen-chih, an official working in Hangzhou during the Ching dynasty (1644-1911), moved to Taiwan after he was robbed by bandits, becoming the first generation of the family in Taiwan.
Shih Lai-fa said that in the family burial ground near Changhua's Paguashan there is a tombstone on which two Chinese characters "Xi Lan" -- which means Ceylon -- are clearly engraved.
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
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