CULTURE
Manga artist wins silver
Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba presented a Taiwanese artist with a silver medal at Tokyo’s 5th International Manga Award at the ministry’s Iikura Guesthouse on Friday. The 30-year-old manga artist, Ke Ying-mei (柯瑩玫), who goes by the pen name Cory, is the first Taiwanese artist to win an award at the annual contest, which was established by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2007 to recognize foreign nationals who have made contributions to promoting manga abroad. The self-taught artist said she grew up reading the Japanese manga series Doraemon, adding that the comics inspired her to learn more about Japanese culture and become a manga artist. The gold medal went to JM Ken Niimura of Spain for I Kill Giants, and two other silver awards were given to Tani Werasakwong of Thailand and China’s Pan Liping (潘麗萍) for The Man Who Followed His Own Voice and When You’re Standing on Your Tiptoes respectively.
Photo: CNA
HEALTH
Four die from flu
Another four people were confirmed to have died from influenza-related illnesses, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said in its latest update on the nation’s flu situation, adding that the victims, who passed away between late last month and early this month, were more than 50 years old, with the oldest an 86-year-old woman residing in southern Taiwan. All of the victims suffered from chronic diseases and none had received flu vaccinations before catching the flu, the CDC said. The four fatalities brought the total number of flu-related deaths since July 1 last year to 68, down from 167 deaths over a corresponding period during the previous flu season. The number of total flu cases leading to complications has reached 1,089, down from 1,609 during the previous flu season, according to CDC figures. Taiwan’s flu season usually runs from July 1 to June 30 the following year.
HORTICULTURE
Orchid wins top prize
A Taiwanese orchid won an award at the prestigious Japan Grand Prix International Orchid Festival in Tokyo on Friday. Kao Shui-en (高水恩), chairman of the Ching Hua Orchid Co, said his work, “spring fire,” was given the third-highest award at the festival, earning him a trophy and cash award of ¥200,000 (US$2,510). “It’s the first big award [I’ve won] since first taking part in the festival two decades ago,” Kao said. He said he nurtured the winning foxtail orchid for more than 10 years. A total of 2.5 million flowers representing 3,000 species will be exhibited at the festival.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater