CULTURE
Minnan festival to be held
The nation’s largest-ever Minnan culture festival will be held from Saturday to May 4 to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of Fujian Province, according to the General Association of Chinese Culture. The week-long festival will feature the adventurous culture of the region, long a major hub of immigration, said former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), president of the organization. The festival will be held in Taoyuan County, Greater Tainan and on Kinmen — which have been the main gateways for Minnan immigrants to Taiwan since the 17th century. Academics and immigrant community leaders from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan will also be invited to the festival to share their views on Minnan cultural heritage, Liu said. Kinmen County Commissioner Li Wo-shi (李沃士) added the event will also include a city god festival that will reach its climax early next month. More than 1,200 people from 37 city god temples in Taiwan and China will hold a parade to pray for good fortune, Li said.
CULTURE
Taiwan studies forum begins
An international conference on Taiwan-related research will open today at the Academia Sinica. The World Congress of Taiwan Studies is aimed at facilitating exchanges among academics doing research on Taiwan, which will lay the groundwork for future collaboration and raise the profile of Taiwan-related studies, the director of the Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology Michael Hsiao(蕭新煌) said. Taiwan studies programs have been established throughout Taiwan, Academia Sinica Vice President Wang Fan-sen (王汎森) said. About 170 researchers from 11 countries are expected to participate in the conference, which will run through Saturday.
SOCIETY
Student, 14, gives birth
A junior-high school student in New Taipei City (新北市) yesterday gave birth inside a school restroom, prompting intervention from social workers and a police investigation. The school said it was difficult to recognize the student’s pregnancy because of her physical size and thus it did not know of her status. After complaining of a stomach ache, the 14-year-old rested in the school’s infirmary and gave birth to a girl at about 8:40am after going to the restroom, the school said. The nurse rushed in after hearing the cries of both the mother and infant and sent them to a hospital where a doctor removed the placenta. While the identity of the father is not yet confirmed, police have opened an investigation as the girl is a minor and it is an indictable offense to impregnate minors. The baby was nearly full term and healthy, the doctor said, adding that whether the baby would be put up for adoption would be discussed with the mother after she recovers.
POLITICS
‘General response’ nixed
The Presidential Office rejected a media report yesterday that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is assessing the possibility of giving a “general response” to legislators’ questions following a “state of the nation” report. Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) reiterated said it would violate the Constitution if the president accepted questions from lawmakers, whether in the form of an alternating question-and-answer format or as a “general response.” Fan Chiang said that according to the Constitution, the Cabinet, not the president, is responsible to the legislature. If legislators were allowed to question the president, it would confuse the constitutional roles and duties of the president and premier, he said.
WILDLIFE
Hualien has 30 bat species
A bat research project commissioned by the Hualien Forest District Office found that Hualien County is home to 30 bat species, which is the most of any county, according to a statement released by the office. The one-year project to investigate the diversity of bat species in Hualien was conducted by the Bat Association of Taiwan, it said. The association identified 20 bat species in the project, but, after considering previous research results, it settled on a figure of 30, which accounted for 91 percent of all bat species found in Taiwan, the statement said. In addition, two endangered bat species were found to be living in the county, the Formosan flying fox and the Formosan tailless leaf-nosed bat. First-time sightings of East Asian free-tailed bats in the county were also reported. The natural environment in Hualien, which contains dense forests, rivers, plains and caves, make the county an ideal habitat for bats, the statement quoted association standing director Fang Ying-pin (方引平) as saying.
POLITICS
Chai to stay in DPP race
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) yesterday refuted media reports that said his candidacy for the DPP chairperson position could be in jeopardy after being found guilty in a defamation suit filed by former National Security Council secretary-general Su Chi (蘇起). Chai said his candidacy for the May 27 vote would not be affected because the case was not related to the DPP’s corruption clause and he had registered his candidacy before the verdict was handed down by the Taiwan High Court on Tuesday. The senior added he plans to file for a retrial or an appeal.
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