With hit mobile game Pokemon Go having achieved massive popularity since it became available nationally last week, cultural and educational facilities at all government levels have introduced varying policies on the game.
The Ministry of Education earlier this week said that facilities under its jurisdiction have not introduced punishments for gamers catching Pokemon on their premises.
Ministry official Lee Yu-chuan (李毓娟) said cellphones are banned in sections of the National Central Library, where ancient and rare books are stored, and at the National Museum of Natural Science, where precious specimens are stored.
She said that warning signs advising people against using their cellphones while walking would be placed at other facilities under the ministry’s purview, including the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium and the National Taiwan Arts Center, adding that employees at these facilities would ask gamers to mind both their own safety and that of others.
The National Palace Museum and its southern branch in Chiayi County adopted contrary stances on Pokemon Go.
The National Palace Museum said that the game is banned at all of its venues, adding that it would send a letter to the game’s developers to remove any game elements located at its venues.
However, Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) touted the National Palace Museum Southern Branch as welcoming people to visit to capture Pokemon.
Chang made the statement at a news conference with museum officials at the southern branch to promote a movie about the legendary Taiwanese-Japanese Kano baseball team from the Japanese colonial era.
The National Palace Museum Southern Branch said that, although it has not imposed a ban on the game, gamers should still mind their safety, especially when they are catching Pokemon on a bridge outside the museum.
Taipei Zoo said that it welcomed “Pokemon trainers.”
The zoo on Tuesday published on Facebook a map of about 100 “Pokemon gyms” and “Pokestops” on its premises, welcoming the public to visit and catch Pokemon.
It also posted a “letter” in English and Chinese warning gamers to pay attention to their safety.
“Do not forget that real animals live in the zoo enclosures... Our zookeepers have the ability to capture you too, so please do not cross into an animal perimeter,” the letter says.
The Taipei Department of Education said that none of the city’s educational facilities have banned the game, but added that people should ensure their safety while playing.
The Taipei Department of Culture urged gamers not to capture Pokemon while visiting the Shilin Residence (士林官邸) of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his wife, Soong Mayling (宋美齡).
People should also refrain from playing the game at the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum, which commemorates victims of the 228 Massacre, the department said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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
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