CULTURE
Chinese play to rock Taipei
A rock musical based on a play by Chinese writer Gao Xingjian (高行健), the 2000 Nobel Laureate for Literature, will be staged in Taipei next month, one of the producers said on Sunday. The musical was adapted from A Tale of Shan Hai Jing (山海經傳), said National Taiwan Normal University. The play is based on ancient Chinese mythology and includes legends like that of Houyi (后羿), a hero who shot down nine suns; Kua Fu (夸父), a giant who tried to catch the sun; and Yu the Great (大禹), a ruler said to be able to control floods. Beijing opera star Chu Lu-hao (朱陸豪), soprano Ho Kang-ting (何康婷) and university students will be cast in the play, which is being co-produced by Gao and the university. The musical will be staged from June 28 to June 30 at the National Theater.
CULTURE
Arts show vows adventure
This year’s Taipei Arts Festival will take visitors on adventures through art, organizers said yesterday. The festival opens on Aug. 1 and is to be held until Sept. 8 in different venues around the city. Events include 10 dance, theater and circus performances from Taiwa and abroad, said the Taipei Culture Foundation, which is organizing the festival with the Taipei City Government. The festival aims to explore the adventurous nature of art, said Keng Yi-wei (耿一偉), the event’s artistic director. For example, one piece to be performed is a play featuring a robot and a humanoid robot among its actors, while another performance blends contemporary circus stunts with traditional Quebec music, Keng said. German actress Anne Tismer, German musician Moritz Gagern and Taiwanese novelist Jade Chen (陳玉慧) will also co-produce a contemporary opera inspired by Wagner.
ENVIRONMENT
No casualties in CPC fire
A fire broke out yesterday at a residue desulfurization unit operated by state-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (CPC) refinery in Greater Kaohsiung, but there were no casualties, the city’s Environmental Protection Bureau said. A preliminary report indicated that hydrogen gas had been emitted after the fire broke out, the bureau said. It said the fire was caused by a fracture in a pipe in the residue desulfurization unit II. Nearby residents reported hearing explosions and smelling a pungent odor coming from the refinery. The fire began at 12:33pm and was extinguished at about 1:05pm by a team of 52 firefighters and 22 fire trucks. Operations at the refinery have been suspended pending investigations by the city’s fire department and labor affairs department.
DIPLOMACY
Changhua group tours Japan
Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) met with Gunma Prefecture Governor Masaaki Osawa during a visit to the prefecture in Japan on Friday. Heading a delegation of county officials and 70 elementary school students, Cho met with Osawa and a group of Japanese officials and schoolchildren at the prefecture government office as part of a mission to improve ties between the two areas. The children took pictures of each other and the mascots of Changhua County and Gunma Prefecture — a doll called Flying and a horse named Gunmachan, which stems from Gunma’s days as a horse breeding center. Cho said relations between Changhua and Gunma are close, as evidenced by Changhua’s exports of rice and grapes to Japan and the prefecture’s high-quality farm produce sold in Changhua County. The Changhua County group is on a five-day visit to Japan that began on Thursday last week.
SOCIETY
Organ donations encouraged
More than 8,000 people are waiting for organ transplants, but too few people are willing to donate organs in the event of an accident, the Taiwan Organ Registry and Sharing Center said on Sunday. Only 198 people made organ donations last year, but those donations benefited 680 people, the center said. Although the survival rate for organ recipients in this nation is about the same as that in Europe and North America, medical institutions are facing a severe shortage of organs, the center said. It urged the public to register their willingness to donate organs on their national health insurance cards and help family members make decisions to donate at critical moments. The center was set up by the Department of Health in June 2002. It is dedicated to improving the rates of organ donation and transplantation success, building a fair, open and transparent sharing system, and shortening the organ transplantation waiting times for patients.
EDUCATION
Children take health course
One hundred Aboriginal children from six townships in Taitung and Pingtong counties were invited to participate in a two-day training program on personal hygiene, disease prevention and disaster control in Aboriginal villages located in mountainous areas and on offshore islands. The Department of Health has been sponsoring the program since 2005 and has trained 668 elementary-school students from Aboriginal communities to deliver the message and the acquired health knowledge back to their communities, department official Lin Szu-hai (林四海) said.
Staff writer, with CNA
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai