ENTERTAINMENT
Ang Lee wins US award
Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee (李安) received the 2012 best director award from the North Carolina Film Critics Association (NCFCA) on Tuesday for Life of Pi (少年PI的奇幻漂流), his third such honor for the year. Lee defeated several other hopefuls, including Kathryn Bigelow, who directed Zero Dark Thirty, David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook, Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master, Wes Anderson for Moonrise Kingdom and Rian Johnson for Looper. The award was Lee’s third best director award for the film, following a Kansas City Film Critics Circle award announced in December and another from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society that same month. Lee’s 3D fantasy was also nominated by the NCFCA for best adapted screenplay, but did not win.
TRAVEL
Travel program expanded
A program that allows Chinese tourists to travel independently to Taiwan will be expanded, a tourism official said yesterday. Chang Shi-chung (張時中), deputy director-general of the Tourism Bureau and vice president of the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association (TSTA), said the association and its Chinese counterpart, the Cross-Strait Tourism Association, have reached an agreement to extend the free independent travel program to an additional number of Chinese cities. Currently, residents of 13 cities — Jinan, Xian, Fuzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, Tianjin, Chongqing, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Chengdu — are permitted to travel as independent visitors and not just in tour groups. Arrivals from China last year totaled 2.58 million, an annual increase of 44.96 percent, according to the TSTA’s Beijing office. Of that number, 190,676 were independent travelers, which represented an annual increase of 529.69 percent, the office said.
WEATHER
Cold weather expected
The weather could be at its coldest between today and tomorrow, with northern and eastern parts of the country likely to see rainfall, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The bureau also warned of strong winds between today and Saturday in southern areas, as well as in Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. The chill could start to ease up on Saturday, when clear skies are expected countrywide, it said. Tamsui recorded the lowest temperature this winter on Dec. 30, reaching a low of 7.3°C.
ENTERTAINMENT
Taipei-based film to open
The romantic comedy film Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? (明天記得愛上我), directed by Arvin Chen (陳駿霖) and set in Taipei, has been included in the Panorama program of the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival. The film will have its world premiere at the 63rd annual film festival, which runs from Feb. 7 to Feb. 17. It is part of a lineup of 31 fictional features from 23 countries that have been selected for Panorama’s main program to provide insight into the world of contemporary cinema production. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? is the second Mandarin feature film from Chen, a 34-year-old American of Taiwanese descent, following Au Revoir Taipei (一頁台北), also a romantic comedy set in Taipei, which won the Best Asian Film Award from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema at the 60th Berlin Film Festival. Chen’s first short film, MEI (美), won a Silver Berlin Bear at the festival in 2007.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
MEDICAL: The bills would also upgrade the status of the Ethical Guidelines Governing the Research of Human Embryos and Embryonic Stem Cell Research to law The Executive Yuan yesterday approved two bills to govern regenerative medicine that aim to boost development of the field. Taiwan would reach an important milestone in regenerative medicine development with passage of the regenerative medicine act and the regenerative medicine preparations ordinance, which would allow studies to proceed and treatments to be developed, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) told reporters at a news conference after a Cabinet meeting. Regenerative treatments have been used for several conditions, including cancer — by regenerating blood cells — and restoring joint function in soft tissue, Wang said. The draft legislation requires regenerative treatments
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese