CULTURE
Japan, Taiwan share tea
Six Japanese shared their country’s tea-making rituals and other customs with Taiwanese at an exhibition in Taichung yesterday as a way of saying thanks for Taiwan’s help after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March last year. The Japanese instructors from Okinawa demonstrated cultural traditions related to kimonos, tea, wagashi (a sweet desert) and pottery, said Yukino Obayashi, one of the organizers of the event. As part of their efforts to thank Taiwan for its disaster assistance, the instructors gave visitors a chance to sample freshly made wagashi, participate in Japanese tea-making ceremonies and wear kimonos, Obayashi said. Taiwan donated about ¥20 billion (US$260.6 million) in cash, 90 percent of which came from private donations, to help Japan after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11 last year.
DIPLOMACY
Lung ready to visit China
Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) said yesterday she is willing to visit China if invited, as her Chinese counterpart came to Taiwan two years ago. Lung made the remark at a press conference held to brief the media on her visit to the US and Canada last month. Asked if she is likely to visit China as culture minister, Lung said her title would first have to be accepted by both sides and the best time for such a visit would be early next year. “I think since [Chinese] Minister of Culture Cai Wu (蔡武) visited two years ago, I should visit him out of courtesy. If Beijing invites me after the legislature approves our [2013] budget in the upcoming session, in November or December, I would be really willing to go.” Lung’s trip to the US and Canada was aimed at promoting cultural exchanges and Taiwan’s role in the international community.
POLITICS
Hau invites Paris mayor
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said he has invited Jean-Pierre Lecoq, the mayor of the 6th District of Paris, to attend the opening ceremony of a cultural park in Taipei in April next year. Hau, currently on a visit in France, held a dinner meeting with Lecoq in Paris on Monday. He said he hoped the two cities could conduct more exchanges in the fields of education and trade. France is the first stop on Hau’s 11-day trip to Europe, during which he will also visit Finland and England to learn from their experiences in holding large-scale events ahead of the 2017 Universiade in Taipei. In response to Hau’s invitation, Lecoq said he was well-informed about Taiwan and was willing to visit the country next year.
CRIME
Seven detained for fishing
Seven crew members of a Chinese fishing boat were taken into custody for questioning after trespassing into Taiwan’s waters, the Coast Guard Administration said. The Chinese boat was discovered fishing illegally about 12km off Miaoli County, a coast guard team based in Greater Taichung said. Coast guard officials arrived at the scene at about 3:20am on a patrol vessel and boarded the fishing boat for investigation, the team said. The skipper of the fishing boat jumped into the sea in an attempt to escape and threatened to stay in the water until coast guard officials left the scene, the team said. Another patrol boat was dispatched to the scene and seven fishermen were arrested and taken to Taiwan for further investigation, it said. Coast guard team captain Wang Cheng-hsin (王正信) said that since March this year, 177 China-registered boats had been fined a total of NT$21.75 million (US$727,300) in the Greater Taichung area.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,