After a competition earlier this year, Taipei came out as one of the 22 cities listed on the new world edition of the board game Monopoly, its creator Hasbro Inc said.
In January, Hasbro launched an online vote inviting Monopoly fans worldwide to vote for cities they wanted to see represented on the new Monopoly game.
In addition to voting for 70 cities on a list, Monopoly fans could also suggest other cities of their choice to add to it.
“More than 5.6 million votes were cast for 70 world-class cities, which determined 20 of the 22 cities featured in the game,” a Hasbro press release said.
The 20 most-popular additional cities faced off in a bonus vote with the two gaining the most votes added to the new edition of the board game, the statement said.
The result was finally released on Wednesday — with Taipei and Gdynia, Poland, coming out as the top two bonus cities on the new board.
“I’m very, very happy [to hear the news],” said Crane Lee (李鶴婷), an Internet user and a passionate campaigner for Taipei during the voting process. “I voted every day myself, and asked as many people as I could to vote for Taipei.”
Lee was not the only enthusiast, as many other Internet users nationwide mobilized their families and friends to vote for Taipei using e-mails, text messages or online messengers.
Some even used words urging their friends to vote for Taipei as the screen name on their online messengers.
“I hope that more people learn about Taipei and become interested in the city through playing Monopoly and with their interest in Taipei, I’d hope they would want to know more about Taiwan,” Lee said.
“We are thrilled that the first-ever global game board includes an interesting mix of cities that showcases the dynamic cultures, sights and history of the planet,” Monopoly global marketing vice president Helen Martin said in the press release.
The new game will feature cultural events around the world and tokens, houses and hotels will represent styles from all continents, the press release said.
Outside the bonus vote session, Montreal, Canada, and Riga, Latvia, were the two cities that received the most votes.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up