If there’s one thing that the doting parents of Taipei American School (TAS) care fervently about (besides their children’s SAT scores), it’s nourishing young minds. The international food fair organized by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is an event that draws thousands of foodies from the expat community of suburban Tianmu and beyond every year. The fair returns tomorrow for its 33rd year.
From Vietnam to Venezuela, more than 20 countries are represented and around 8,000 visitors are expected to show up. In addition to sushi, samosas and shaved ice — all prepared by the gracious parents — there will also be arts and crafts stations, a bouncy castle, as well as a haunted house full of goblins and ghosts orchestrated entirely by the high school students.
Speaking on behalf of the PTA, Priya Purswaney says: “The parents put in a lot of hard work months before the event to ensure that it goes smoothly.”
Photo courtesy of TAS
Purswaney adds that in recent years, the fair has drawn more volunteers from outside of the TAS community, and that local schools in Taipei even arrange field trips to visit the fair. More student associations and clubs at TAS have also been involved in planning the activities for this year’s fair, so expect to see new booths in addition to the usual face painting, water balloon toss and stands selling fake tattoos.
“The fair has become more international and features double the number of clubs, so that means double the fun,” Purswaney says.
Though it’s expected that when you bring a bunch of parents together, there’s bound to be some squabbles.
Photo courtesy of TAS
Nevertheless, the PTA says the preparation is mostly a concerted effort, and that what’s more important is that the parents have the students’ well-being at heart.
“The only thing the TAS parents get out of it is the satisfaction of doing something for the school,” Purswaney says.
If there’s one thing they can agree upon though, it’s promoting healthy eating (never mind the cotton candy stand that seems to have the longest line every year). The school’s cafeteria does indeed have an amazing assortment of gourmet dishes that would put many seasoned restaurateurs to shame. As for the fair, the food is mostly home-cooked or sponsored by top restaurants around Taipei.
“It’s definitely important to teach children at an early age the importance of a healthy diet.” Purswaney says. “The TAS cafeteria is a no fry zone, and vendors at the fair are also encouraged to reduce the amount of fried goods.”
The food fair starts tomorrow at 10am and is open to the public. A portion of the proceeds will go to developing the school, while the rest of the funds is allocated to different charities each year.
June 2 to June 8 Taiwan’s woodcutters believe that if they see even one speck of red in their cooked rice, no matter how small, an accident is going to happen. Peng Chin-tian (彭錦田) swears that this has proven to be true at every stop during his decades-long career in the logging industry. Along with mining, timber harvesting was once considered the most dangerous profession in Taiwan. Not only were mishaps common during all stages of processing, it was difficult to transport the injured to get medical treatment. Many died during the arduous journey. Peng recounts some of his accidents in
“Why does Taiwan identity decline?”a group of researchers lead by University of Nevada political scientist Austin Wang (王宏恩) asked in a recent paper. After all, it is not difficult to explain the rise in Taiwanese identity after the early 1990s. But no model predicted its decline during the 2016-2018 period, they say. After testing various alternative explanations, Wang et al argue that the fall-off in Taiwanese identity during that period is related to voter hedging based on the performance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Since the DPP is perceived as the guardian of Taiwan identity, when it performs well,
A short walk beneath the dense Amazon canopy, the forest abruptly opens up. Fallen logs are rotting, the trees grow sparser and the temperature rises in places sunlight hits the ground. This is what 24 years of severe drought looks like in the world’s largest rainforest. But this patch of degraded forest, about the size of a soccer field, is a scientific experiment. Launched in 2000 by Brazilian and British scientists, Esecaflor — short for “Forest Drought Study Project” in Portuguese — set out to simulate a future in which the changing climate could deplete the Amazon of rainfall. It is
Artifacts found at archeological sites in France and Spain along the Bay of Biscay shoreline show that humans have been crafting tools from whale bones since more than 20,000 years ago, illustrating anew the resourcefulness of prehistoric people. The tools, primarily hunting implements such as projectile points, were fashioned from the bones of at least five species of large whales, the researchers said. Bones from sperm whales were the most abundant, followed by fin whales, gray whales, right or bowhead whales — two species indistinguishable with the analytical method used in the study — and blue whales. With seafaring capabilities by humans
RSS