Next Magazine has issued a full page apology to Nobel Literature Prize laureate Gao Xingjian (高行健) after it claimed he was entertained by bar girls while visiting Taiwan.
"The paragraph regarding Gao Xinjian's visit to Taiwan in Feb. 2001 and his entertainment by bar girls had not been verified and therefore is a false report," the magazine said in its latest issue, which hit newsstands on Wednesday.
"Mr. Gao has been greatly bothered by this report. For our oversight, Next Magazine offers its deepest apologies to Mr. Gao."
Next Magazine's report triggered controversy in Taiwan's literature circles over whether highly praised writers could visit red-light areas.
"There are so many sensational scandals, such as extramarital affairs, prostitution and sexual harassment, in celebrity circles that the public has gotten used to hearing about them," wrote UK-based Taiwanese author Huang Bao-lian (
Living overseas for years, Huang said he had witnessed how Chinese academics were eager to explore pornography abroad.
"In 1983, I was living in New York when a friend who was a college instructor was visited by a group of Chinese academics. Once these Chinese academics had dropped their luggage off, they asked my friend zealously to show them the red-light district on 42nd Street. Furthermore, they also requested to watch porn movies. Back then, China's sex industry was not as prosperous as today. Therefore, I can understand how these men felt frustrated," Huang wrote.
Huang also said that Gao had the freedom to pursue any kind of living style.
"Gao is not a saint nor a monk, he just unfortunately turns out to be a Nobel prize laureate. However, this title should not have deprived him of his right to pursue happiness," Huang wrote.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
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