Children once again have a chance to step into a magic world of fun and creativity with the opening of the third Taiwan International Children’s TV and Film Festival (TICTFF), the event organizers said yesterday in Taipei.
Eight-year-old Chiou Hsien-song, who has been playing the guitar for just one year, gave a solo performance that won the hearts of the audience.
Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉), in his opening speech, explained to the overseas guests the significance of the Chinese character “兒” which means “children.”
He said the character is constructed of two parts — a big head and two small feet — which he said is similar to the appearance of an infant. The top part of the character signifies that a child’s head is open to the world and that everything is possible, he said.
He also pointed to the unlimited scope of the imagination as one of humanity’s greatest assets.
“The biggest nation in the world is not the United States, nor is it China or India, but rather the imagination, which is the children’s domain and ours, too,” Shieh said, drawing laughter and a big round of applause.
The third TICTFF, launched yesterday to commemorate Children’s Day, was organized by the Public Television Service, and Fubon Cultural & Educational Foundation, under the supervision of the GIO. It brings film and TV productions from all over the world to children in Taiwan.
Nicole Elena Dreiske, founder and artistic director of the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, said that what is most valuable about the festival is that it induces children to think about what they watch.
“Media education is one of the most important common issues in global culture,” she said, adding that children will become “passive consumers and uninformed voters” if they do not digest, discuss and reflect on what they are watching.
This year’s TICTFF features four exhibitions and 10 workshops at Eslite Bookstores on Xinyi Road and Dunhua South Road in Taipei City. The biennial will also screen 105 films from 31 countries. The festival ends on Tuesday.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods