The Taipei City Zoo yesterday announced that the stuffed body of the famous elephant Lin Wang (
The company donated the money to finish stuffing the elephant's body and reconstructing the skeleton -- a job which has already been two-thirds completed during the past eight months, said Lin Hua-ching (林華慶), general curator of the zoo's animal department.
Yulon vice chairman Kenneth Yan (嚴凱泰), who attended the press conference, said that Lin Wang's life experience was a mirror image of the Yulon Motor Co's history, which was also a reflection of the economic history of Taiwan.
"This year Yulon celebrates its 50th anniversary. Through endless efforts, Yulon has carved out a niche for itself in the market and is recognized by both local and international consumers," Yan said. "And we want to honor Lin Wang's spirit, which was similar to that of our business."
Known as "Granddad Lin Wang," the elephant died from cardiopulmonary failure.
The elephant has been voted the most popular animal in the zoo and was loved by old and young alike. He was also the world's oldest Asian elephant in captivity.
Taipei Mayor Ma-Ying-jeou (馬英九), who also attending the press conference, unveiled a wooden sculpture of the elephant by Lin Wang (林旺), a woodcarver who has the same name as the elephant.
Lin said he studied many pictures of Asian elephants before carving the sculpture of the famous elephant.
"Asian elephants are just like human beings. Every elephant has its own face," Lin said. "Our Lin Wang had a countenance that was kind and sincere. The expressions in his eyes were full of shyness and timidity."
"Lin Wang is the animal that influenced Taiwanese people the deepest," he said.
The wooden sculpture will be placed in front of the "White House," which was the elephant's enclosure.
"Lin Wang symbolizes the common memories of four generations of people in Taiwan. We watched him grow old, and he was ever-present when we grew up," Ma said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the