■ ENVIRONMENT
EPA urges online worship
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday urged the public to stop burning incense sticks and ritual money to honor the dead and opt instead for online worshipping to better protect the environment. The call came ahead of Monday’s Tomb Sweeping Festival. The practice not only worsens air pollution but could also cause fires, the EPA said. “We can now choose to pay homage to our ancestors in a modern and environmentally friendly way by worshipping online or donating the money meant for the offerings to charities,” it said in a statement. Environmental agencies have also offered to collect the paper money from households and temples to burn in state incinerators that can treat the exhaust.
■ TOURISM
Taiwanese look to heavens
Eight Taiwanese have applied to take part in a space journey at a cost of US$200,000 per person, according to Royal China Express, the Taiwan agent for Virgin Galactic, a space tourism operator affiliated with billionaire Richard Branson’s London-based Virgin Group. Virgin Galactic has collected fares from more than 330 aspiring amateur astronauts who are willing to spend big money to experience about six minutes of suborbital spaceflight, the local travel agency said. Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spaceship SpaceShipOne will be airlifted into the skies for its maiden flight at the end of this year after receiving approval from NASA, it said. The eight Taiwanese aspiring space travelers include a surgeon, engineers at the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, businessmen, and a couple operating a jewelry business, the travel agency said.
■ ARTS
Yo-Yo Ma prepares project
Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma (馬友友) has prepared a “Taichung Project” for his visit to Taiwan later this month that will include an outdoor concert for local music lovers to see “how a cello talks with stars in the sky,” Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) said yesterday. “It is a music project especially for Taichung City,” Hu said as he and organizers announced the concert featuring Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, scheduled for April 24. In addition to the concert, the visit will include two seminars at which Ma will speak with local musicians. One will be aimed at young people between 12 and 18 years old, the organizers said. Hu said he expects the Taichung Project to “trigger a musical fever” in the city. Ma’s Taichung concert will be the only open-air performance of three he will give in Taiwan as part of his “Silk Road Project.” The other two concerts will be held at the National Concert Hall in Taipei on April 22 and at the Jhihde Hall in Kaohsiung City on April 25, the organizers said.
■ EDUCATION
Card goes multi-purpose
The International Student Identity Card (ISIC) issued to students in Taiwan has now become a multi-purpose card, an official of a cultural and education foundation said. The card, which was previously used mainly by students intending to travel abroad to obtain cheaper flights and other savings, can now be used as a student ID, an Easy Card for travel on public transport travel and an I-cash card, for making small purchases. “Five schools in Taiwan have so far signed up to use the ISIC,” said James Tsai, director of the Kang Wen Culture and Education Foundation, adding that more schools plan to adopt the cards. The ISIC is issued by the ISIC Association and is the only internationally accepted proof of full-time student status.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
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