For thousands of years, farmers in East Asia have relied on solar terms, or the 24 points in the traditional solar calendar, to determine when to plant and harvest their crops. Solar terms also dictate many major religious festivals and important dates such as Tomb Sweeping Day.
South Village (南村落), an arts and culture center near Shida, will be marking the next four solar terms in March and April, which herald the coming of spring, with events featuring a mouth-watering selection of traditional snacks made from seasonal ingredients. The treats include fresh mantou sweetened with brown sugar and red beans, and pastries flavored with green tea, taro, yam and plum.
The first event is Thursday, which falls on the day before the two-week solar term known as “the awakening of the insects” (驚蟄). The spring equinox (春分) will be celebrated on March 20, Tomb Sweeping Day (清明節) on April 2, and the arrival of the “grain rain” (鼓雨) which helps crops grow, on April 20.
While South Village’s events are aimed at gourmets, the activities are intended to go beyond food tastings. The center, which regularly hosts dinners and cooking demonstrations in its combined gallery and kitchen space, hopes that highlighting the importance of the solar calendar will raise awareness about global warming.
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
China’s military launched a record number of warplane incursions around Taiwan last year as it builds its ability to launch full-scale invasion, something a former chief of Taiwan’s armed forces said Beijing could be capable of within a decade. Analysts said China’s relentless harassment had taken a toll on Taiwan’s resources, but had failed to convince them to capitulate, largely because the threat of invasion was still an empty one, for now. Xi Jinping’s (習近平) determination to annex Taiwan under what the president terms “reunification” is no secret. He has publicly and stridently promised to bring it under Communist party (CCP) control,
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
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