ENTERTAINMENT
‘Running Man’ crew leaves
The crew of South Korean variety-cum-game show Running Man waved goodbye to huge crowds of fans as they left Taiwan yesterday following a one-day shoot in a local theme park. Show regulars Yoo Jae-suk and Lee Kwang-soo and guest star Ji Chang-wook, who gained a local following for his role in the South Korean TV drama Empress Ki, waved to fans waiting to see them off at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. The crew of the show, which pits celebrities against each other in a series of challenges, filmed at Leofoo Village Theme Park in Hsinchu County yesterday morning. News of the crew coming to Taiwan for the first time drew about 2,000 fans to greet them when they landed on Monday night.
ENTERTAINMENT
‘Kano’ to return Sept. 25
Moviegoers who missed the opportunity to see the local baseball film Kano when it opened earlier this year will be able to do so when the film returns to local theaters starting on Sept. 25. The film is to get a second run because many people said they missed seeing it when it first came out, coproducer Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖) said on Monday. So far, 85,000 tickets have been sold for the second run, according to VieVision Pictures, the film’s distributor. Set in 1931, when Taiwan was a Japanese colony, Kano tells the story of a baseball team from Kagi (Chiayi) Agriculture and Forestry Public School, called Kano in Japanese. Directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Umin Boya, the predominantly Japanese-language film grossed NT$320 million (US$10.67 million) in Taiwan during a 94-day run earlier this year after opening on Feb. 27. The film is slated to arrive in theaters in Japan for the first time in January next year.
ENTERTAINMENT
Luc Besson, wife to return
Director Luc Besson and his producer-cum-wife Virginie Silla are to arrive in Taipei on Sunday to promote his new action thriller Lucy, parts of which were shot in Taipei. The French couple are to attend the film’s premiere at VieShow Imax Cinemas in Taipei the following day, and on Tuesday are to attend a press conference in Taipei before departing later in the day, according to Lucy distributor United International Pictures. Lucy stars US actress and two-time Esquire “sexiest woman alive” Scarlett Johansson. The trailer shows Taipei streets, Taipei 101, the Taipei Railway Workshop, the Yongle Fabric Market and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. The film is to open nationwide on Friday next week.
SOCIETY
Kinmen gets gift of library
Examination Yuan President John Kuan (關中), who is set to retire at the end of the month, has donated his collection of books gathered over his lifetime to National Quemoy University in Kinmen County. In a press release yesterday, the Examination Yuan, which administers all national exams and is responsible for civil service matters, said the collection includes more than 15,000 books on international relations, US diplomatic policies, China studies, and civic service and recruitment systems. Kuan made the donation because libraries in Kinmen, once a military front line pockmarked with artillery shells fired by China, lack access to valuable academic and cultural works due to its geographic location near China and historical role as a battleground, the press release said. Kinmen is just kilometers off of China’s coast and is home to just more than 120,000 people.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods