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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ SOCIETY

UDN seeks word of the year

The Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN) launched a search for this year’s “Word of the Year,” offering 48 Chinese characters for the public to choose from. The search was launched by the UDN and a private foundation in the hope that one Chinese character could summarize the situation of Taiwan this year, or reflect the feeling of Taiwanese about the year. The Chinese character that gets the most votes from the public would become the Word of the Year. To encourage the public to participate, UDN and the foundation are offering rewards that include a car priced at NT$500,000 (US$15,100). Several countries conduct selections for the Word of the Year, with the Society of the German Language starting the process in Germany in 1971.



■ EVENTS

Poetry festival opens

The ninth Taipei Poetry Festival opened yesterday, hoping to infuse the spirit of poetry into the daily lives of residents in the busy capital city. Sponsored by the Taipei City Government, the theme of this year’s festival is “Roving Desk, Walking Poetry.” The festival will experiment with many art forms poetry interdisciplinary exhibitions, music, stage performances, conversations with poets, poetry recitals and screenings, the event sponsor said. Many foreign poets have been invited to participate in a conference, including South Korean poet Kim Hye-soon, Chinese poet Yu Jian (于堅), Singaporean Madeleine Lee (李夙芯), Hong Kong’s Yau Ching (游靜), the Czech Republic’s Katerina Rudcenkova and France’s Emmanuelle Pireyre. The festival ends next Sunday.



■ EVENTS

Panda pen almost ready

Preparations for the arrival of a pair of giant pandas from China are entering the final stage as construction of a panda house and other facilities at the Taipei City Zoo are nearly completed, said the zoo, which will host the animals. Zoo director Jason Yeh (葉傑生) told reporters yesterday that the zoo had made a few changes to the panda hall and that work was almost completed. Animal caretakers have also recently ensured there would be no problems when they raise and take care of the two pandas, he said, adding that facilities designed to hold educational material and guidebooks had been installed in the main lobby of the hall. The construction of the exhibition areas, which includes a pool, bamboo shrubs and driftwood racks, would be finalized soon, he said, adding that the zoo would seek police assistance to shorten the transport time from the airport to the zoo.



■ MANUFACTURING

High-tech firm in Kinmen

A Taipei-based solar power kit maker inaugurated a manufacturing plant on Kinmen on Friday, becoming the first high-tech Taiwanese company to set up a factory on one of the country’s outlying islands. SolarGate Technology Corp (茂鑫能源科技公司) chairman Chuang Chin-pei (莊欽培) said the company would use Kinmen as a springboard to the Chinese market. SolarGate hopes to develop Kinmen into Taiwan’s first “solar-power model island,” he said. SolarGate provides international trading services for solar power products and systems, including solar cells and solar glass. The Kinmen factory would handle manufacturing and development, with raw material to be supplied by Taiwan proper. The products made at the Kinmen factory would be shipped to Xiamen, Fujian Province, whence they would be transported to other Chinese markets as well as to the US and Europe, SolarGate said.
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