In an example of traditional Taiwanese culture spreading its influence around the world, Taiwanese puppet theater has brought joy into the life of a young girl from the US suffering from muscular dystrophy.
A nine-year-old girl named Trisha Stanford fell in love with the artform when she saw the Taiyuan Puppet Theater Company stage a performance last October at the Salt Lake City children's hospital where she was being cared for.
The troupe, led by Huang Wu-shan (
PHOTO: CNA
The festival, sponsored by the Press Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco and various government agencies, featured Taiwanese film, performances, music and culinary arts.
Trisha, who had been in the hospital for three months awaiting spinal surgery, was immediately drawn to the colorful puppets in the puppet theater show.
"The visit by the puppet troupe was one of the highlights in Trisha's young life," her mother said.
After the show, Huang taught Trisha some puppet manipulation techniques.
Just recently, months after the troupe had left Salt Lake City, the US organizers of the Taiwan Cultural Festival received a package sent from Taiwan by the troupe containing a DVD of a famous Taiwanese puppet theater film and a full-sized puppet of the main character in the film that were meant as gifts for Trisha.
When the organizers sent the loving gift to the young girl, they got some good news. Trisha's surgery had been a success, and she was released from the hospital in November.
The nine-year-old was recovering well and was even able to walk short distances on her own.
Trisha expressed her love for Taiwanese puppetry and her wish to be able to visit Taiwan one day to see its many puppet museums.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS