ENTERTAINMENT
Ang Lee to visit Philippines
Two-time Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (李安) is scheduled to visit the Philippines on Nov. 27 and Nov. 29 to conduct industry and cultural exchanges, just days after participating in the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan. At the invitation of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Manila, the Taiwanese director is set to attend a banquet in Manila and meet with local cultural and political figures. On Nov. 28, Lee is to attend a screening of his 3D adventure epic Life of Pi for which he won his second Oscar for best director, and share his experiences making the film with Philippine directors. Officials said Lee’s visit could be good for bilateral relations, which hit a low after a Taiwanese fisherman was killed by Philippine Coast Guard personnel in May. Before the visit, Lee will head the jury for the 50th Golden Horse Awards, which are to be held on Nov. 23 in Taipei.
ENTERTAINMENT
Chthonic on tour in Europe
Taiwanese metal band Chthonic (閃靈), which is known for drawing inspiration for its songs from Taiwanese culture and history, on Thursday started a tour that will take the band to 20 countries in Europe. The first show of the marathon tour was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Thursday, and is to be followed by 39 concerts in countries including Germany, France, Portugal and Slovakia until the tour ends on Dec. 20. Chthonic’s lyrics are inspired by Taiwanese legends, history and folklore and it incorporates melodies from Taiwanese opera and folk melodies in its songs. The band also uses traditional instruments such as the box zither and the erhu (二胡). The group is one of the best-known Taiwanese bands overseas. It won the Golden Melody Best Band award in 2003 and was voted the No. 2 band by readers of British magazine Terrorizer in 2009.
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,