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| Persepolis This is an award-winning French animated film based on the autobiographical graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi, and is also nominated for best animated film at the Oscars on Sunday. It’s about a spirited girl growing up in Tehran before and after the Islamic revolution. Her worried parents send her to live in Vienna after fearing for her safety, but there she finds herself an outsider. When she returns to Iran as an adult, things are no better. The story may be downbeat but critics are raving about its humor and humanity. It’s worlds away from Hollywood animated product, and makes for a fascinating comparison with Rambo, another cartoon about political and social oppression that starts today. |  |
| Traveling with Yoshitomo Nara Yoshitomo Nara is a renowned Japanese pop artist whose works feature cute, cartoon-like children and creatures, sometimes with sinister elements thrown in. Nara is well regarded around the world, and this documentary follows him on an international tour, which includes Taipei, as the artist takes on collaborative projects for the first time.
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| Perng Mang: The Haunted Drum More eclectic Thai horror in this period piece as a young man of social standing in the early 19th century learns how to play the possessed drum of the title, which turns out to have romantic advantages but fatal consequences for a good number of characters. Thai film buffs sneered at this one, which was made by two first-time directors. Good for a few kooky death scenes, though, as the drum — made from the skin of a beautiful woman — attracts the attention of a rival musician. |  |
In 2020, a labor attache from the Philippines in Taipei sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding that a Filipina worker accused of “cyber-libel” against then-president Rodrigo Duterte be deported. A press release from the Philippines office from the attache accused the woman of “using several social media accounts” to “discredit and malign the President and destabilize the government.” The attache also claimed that the woman had broken Taiwan’s laws. The government responded that she had broken no laws, and that all foreign workers were treated the same as Taiwan citizens and that “their rights are protected,
The recent decline in average room rates is undoubtedly bad news for Taiwan’s hoteliers and homestay operators, but this downturn shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. According to statistics published by the Tourism Administration (TA) on March 3, the average cost of a one-night stay in a hotel last year was NT$2,960, down 1.17 percent compared to 2023. (At more than three quarters of Taiwan’s hotels, the average room rate is even lower, because high-end properties charging NT$10,000-plus skew the data.) Homestay guests paid an average of NT$2,405, a 4.15-percent drop year on year. The countrywide hotel occupancy rate fell from
In late December 1959, Taiwan dispatched a technical mission to the Republic of Vietnam. Comprising agriculturalists and fisheries experts, the team represented Taiwan’s foray into official development assistance (ODA), marking its transition from recipient to donor nation. For more than a decade prior — and indeed, far longer during Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule on the “mainland” — the Republic of China (ROC) had received ODA from the US, through agencies such as the International Cooperation Administration, a predecessor to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). More than a third of domestic investment came via such sources between 1951
For the past century, Changhua has existed in Taichung’s shadow. These days, Changhua City has a population of 223,000, compared to well over two million for the urban core of Taichung. For most of the 1684-1895 period, when Taiwan belonged to the Qing Empire, the position was reversed. Changhua County covered much of what’s now Taichung and even part of modern-day Miaoli County. This prominence is why the county seat has one of Taiwan’s most impressive Confucius temples (founded in 1726) and appeals strongly to history enthusiasts. This article looks at a trio of shrines in Changhua City that few sightseers visit.
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