Police in New Taipei City took a 35-year-old man into custody as a suspect in the stabbing death of his elder sister, in a family tragedy that police say resulted from the man’s frustration due to years of failing the civil service entrance examinations.
The incident occurred on Thursday, when the suspect, surnamed Lee (李), is accused of having killed his older sister with kitchen knives in their house in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋).
Lee’s family members called the police, and the woman was rushed to a local hospital for emergency treatment, but she died from her injuries, five cuts to various parts of her body.
According to the police, Lee had graduated from university with a degree in mathematics, but for the past seven years, he had been trying to secure a government job by taking the annual civil service entrance examinations.
Since graduating, Lee had not held a steady job, but only took part-time work, then in recent years he quit working altogether to study at home in the hopes of gaining a government job, a member of the family said.
The results of this year’s examination were announced on Wednesday, and once again Lee found he did not make the grade, and he seemed to be frustrated at his plight, the family member said.
Then, on Thursday afternoon, his elder sister, who had suffered from chronic depression, made a ruckus and woke Lee from his afternoon nap.
According to the family, Lee yelled at his sister to tone it down, then in a fit of anger grabbed three knives from the kitchen and proceeded to stab her, while he shouted: “I failed my civil service examination because of you.”
Lee’s father, a carpenter, was grief-stricken, and told the police he had not pressured his son to obtain a government job, and that he should have taken his daughter out of the house to prevent the tragedy.
Yeh Chih-pin (葉啟斌), head of psychiatry at Taipei’s Tri-Service General Hospital, said he had some patients who suffered from stress, sleep disorders, memory loss and other problems due to long years of studying for the civil service entrance examination.
“If unable to succeed at the examination, then I advise them to talk about their frustration with families and friends, and adjust their expectations. They should also assess their personal interest, to see if maybe they are more suited to other kinds of jobs,” Yeh said.
He added that parents should not pressure their children into only studying, earning advanced degrees and obtaining government jobs, but should allow them to pursuit their personal interests and choose from among the many different careers available.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS