Mass weddings were held in several parts of the country on New Year’s Day yesterday, in the belief that the auspicious date, which also marked the beginning of the Republic of China’s (ROC) centennial, will bring good fortune.
In Taipei, more than 500 couples tied the knot, setting a new record in the capital for the number of weddings in a single day — about 12 times more than a regular day — keeping civil affairs offices around the city busy handling marriage registration for newlyweds.
Thirty-six-year-old Fu Chao-ying (傅昭穎) and his wife, 31-year-old Chen Yu (陳瑀), who both work in the US, returned last week to register their marriage in Taipei’s Daan Civil Affairs Office yesterday, saying that getting married while celebrating the ROC’s 100th anniversary would make the big day more meaningful.
Photo: CNA
“January 1, Year 100 of the ROC is a very special and auspicious day to get married. Besides, as Taiwanese, we must return to Taiwan and get married in our homeland,” Chen said.
Another couple, 30-year-old Hsiao Wei-sheng (蕭維昇) and 28-year-old Lin Ying-ching (林迎錦), also chose to register their marriage yesterday. As Lin is seven months pregnant, the couple will also be eligible for a NT$20,000 childbirth subsidy from the Taipei City Government when the baby is born.
The subsidy program, which is aimed at boosting the city’s birth rate, took effect yesterday. Couples who have lived in the city for more than a year will be offered an incentive of NT$20,000 for each newborn child, provided at least one of the parents has recognized household registration in the city.
The campaign also offers a monthly subsidy of NT$2,500 to families with children under the age of five years, providing both parents are registered Taipei City residents who have lived in the city for more than a year and are in an income tax bracket that places them in the bottom 20 percent of income earners.
Welcoming the newlyweds at the civil affairs office, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) promoted the city’s subsidy program and said the city government would consider increasing the subsidies if the city’s finances allowed.
There were also an increased number of newborns in hospitals around Taipei City yesterday, with many pregnant women choosing to give birth on New Year’s Day.
Taipei resident Tsai Ching-fang (蔡靜芳), who was originally due to give birth on Jan. 9, gave birth to a girl at 12:02am yesterday at Taipei City Hospital’s Hoping branch, saying her baby was the best gift for the New Year.
“I’m very excited and thankful to have a centennial baby,” she said.
Lin Chen-li (林陳立), medical director of the hospital, said the number of newborns at the hospital was 20 percent to 30 percent higher than the number on a regular day.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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