Greater Kaohsiung’s agricultural product safety mascot currently holds the top spot in the overseas division of a Japanese competition seeking the cutest, “most comforting” or “most emotionally pleasing” mascot.
Greater Kaohsiung Agriculture Bureau Director-General Tsai Fu-chin (蔡復進) said the creation of Kao Tung Tung (高通通) was inspired by reports that a Japanese mascot, Kumamon, had created an economic value of more than NT$30 billion (US$992 million).
Kumamon, which was created in 2010, represents Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan.
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
The city government has put more than 400 statuettes of Kao Tung Tung on display and aims to promote Taiwan and increase the nation’s international profile, Tsai said, adding that the set of figurines has received many invitations worldwide.
The city government launched a nationwide tour of the 400 figurines on Sunday in Greater Taichung, Tsai said, adding that the tour will hopefully bring the mascot luck in the Japanese competition.
Tsai said Kaohsiung has also allotted 2 hectares of land for the planned Greater Kaohsiung Product Museum, which would also serve as the home for the 400 figurines and showcase the municipality’s value.
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
“It would become a new landmark for the city government,” Tsai said.
The bureau intends to decorate paths through the museum with multihued LED lighting, Tsai said, adding that the museum would be a “spectacular scene” at night.
City officials said that they are considering allowing street musicians and artists to perform on the museum’s grounds on weekends, as well as inviting the Dream Building Market, a group of shows, food stalls and promotions of agricultural products and activities, to use the grounds.
The museum plaza will be opened to investors who want to operate coffee shops or restaurants there, the officials said, adding that information about the bidding process for outlet space is available online.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching