As the number of Southeast Asian immigrants working in Taiwan rises, the Muslim population here, never significant in the past, has grown as well. This has further enhanced multicultural Taipei’s credentials as a culturally inclusive metropolis.
Originally from Egypt, Khaled Metwally and his wife have worked in Taipei for three years. They like Taipei’s convenience and friendliness. As a Muslim, Metwally has got a real understanding of how much Taipei has transformed in recent years. Compared with what it was like six years ago, when he first arrived in the city, Taipei has more Halal restaurants. This does not only mean that eating out in Taipei is more convenient, but also makes Muslims feel respected.
Salat is the Muslim’s mandatory form of worship, or prayer. “Muslims have to perform salat five times a day. To always conduct salat in a mosque is no small feat. So a clean and quiet Muslim prayer room nearby is much needed,” Metwally said. He discovered that more and more public spaces in Taipei, including Taipei Railway Station, restaurants and freeway stopovers, had set up Muslim prayer rooms; workers could also freely use conference rooms as prayer rooms. Evidently, Taiwan has made some progress in understanding Muslim culture.
Photo: Ethan Zhan, Taipei Times
照片：台北時報詹豐造
To make it convenient for Muslims coming to Taipei, whether for business or pleasure, to perform salat, Taipei City Government’s Department of Information and Tourism has set up a Muslim prayer room in the Discovery Center of Taipei inside the government building. It is a quiet, private prayer room, with prayer rugs placed on the ground, their niches pointing in the direction of Mecca. The government also encourages other public spaces, tourist attractions and hotels to provide prayer rooms and facilities for ritual ablution to make Muslims feel more at home. (Translated by Ethan Zhan, Taipei Times)
Source: Yeh Ya-wei, Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Government, originally in the Taipei Pictorial, edition 582.
隨著東南亞移工的增加，台北原本為數不多的穆斯林人口與日俱增，為台北市的多元城市風貌更添包容厚度。來自埃及的哈立德（Khaled Metwally），和太太在台北工作三年多，十分喜愛台北的便利與友善，身為穆斯林的他，深刻感受到台北這幾年的轉變。哈立德表示，對比六年前他剛來的時候，這幾年台北的清真餐廳變多了，解決外食不只方便，更重要的是被一個城市尊重的貼心感受。
「穆斯林每天必須做五次禮拜，不可能每次都到清真寺，所以很需要就近有一處乾淨寧靜的祈禱室。」哈立德發現，台北市有越來越多公共空間，包括台北車站、飯店，以及高速公路休息站都紛紛設立祈禱室，上班族也可以自在使用會議室作為祈禱室，足見台灣越來越了解穆斯林文化。
為了方便穆斯林來台北旅遊、洽公時仍能做禮拜，台北市政府觀光傳播局特地於市政大樓內的台北探索館設置「穆斯林祈禱室」，隔絕出安靜私密的祈禱空間，鋪設朝拜毛毯，並以箭頭清楚標示麥加方向，同時鼓勵其餘公共空間、觀光景點及旅館飯店增加祈禱設施，並且推廣設置淨下設施，讓穆斯林感受到用心。（台北時報詹豐造英譯)
文／葉亞薇，臺北市政府觀光傳播局《台北畫刊》第582期
Follow up 課後練習
1) How many times a day should Muslims perform salat?
穆斯林每天必須做幾次禮拜？
2) Where can you find a Muslim prayer room in Taipei?
台北哪些地方可以找到穆斯林祈禱室？
3) Where does the niche on a Muslim prayer rug point to?
穆斯林朝拜毛毯上的箭頭指向什麼地方？
Street lights are often taken for granted until a power outage plunges the world into darkness. When that happens, the value of these lighting installations becomes evident as the world turns into a more dangerous place for pedestrians and motorists alike. The Chinese could claim to be the first to have constructed a crude type of street light. Around 500 BC, residents of Beijing employed a type of street lamp that used hollow bamboo pipes and natural gas vents to create burning torches. Later, ancient Romans adopted lamps fueled by vegetable oil, which relied on slaves to light and
A: Who else is on Billboard’s list: “The 25 greatest pop stars of the 21st Century?” B: No. 15 to 6 are: Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Usher, Adele, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Britney Spears. A: I can’t believe that Adele’s only at No. 10. B: No. 5 to 1 are: Lady Gaga, Drake, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Beyonce. A: Well, they surely deserve the honor. A: 《告示牌》雜誌的「21世紀最偉大的25位流行歌手」，還有誰上榜啊？ B: 第15至6名是：麥莉希拉、大賈斯汀、妮姬米娜、阿姆、亞瑟小子、愛黛兒、亞莉安娜、小賈斯汀、肯伊威斯特、小甜甜布蘭妮。 A: 真不敢相信愛黛兒只排第10名。 B: 第5至1名是：女神卡卡、德瑞克、蕾哈娜、泰勒絲、碧昂絲。 A: 這幾位真是實至名歸！ （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩）
Undersea cables are conductors wrapped in insulating materials and laid on the seabed. Their main functions are telecommunications or power transmission. The core of the undersea cables used for Internet signals is optical fiber, using light to transmit Internet signals. Taiwan’s communications are currently handled by 10 domestic undersea cables and 14 international undersea cables. About 99 percent of Taiwan’s Internet bandwidth relies on undersea cables, making them Taiwan’s “digital lifeline.” The demands on the cables’ bandwidth are only set to increase with the development of artificial intelligence (AI), which relies on the data fed into it. Today, data is
Spoiler alert and shift blame 破梗&甩鍋 在新冠疫情期間，無論是因為封城 (lockdown) 還是居家隔離 (self-isolation at home)，人們關在家中使用網路的時間大增。這也讓一些原本只存在於網路論壇的用語廣為普及。我們來談一下破梗 (spoiler alert) 與甩鍋 (shift blame) 這兩個用語。 有位古典文學教授 Joel Christensen 針對領導統御與疫情控制寫了一篇以古喻今、相當深入的文章：“Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales”，文中出現一些講法，可用來翻譯上述的流行語： In the 5th century B.C., the playwright Sophocles begins Oedipus Tyrannos with the title character struggling to identify the cause of a plague striking his city, Thebes. (Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.) (Joel Christensen, “Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales,” The Conversation, March 12, 2020) 作者提到 Oedipus（伊底帕斯）想找出瘟疫何以降臨他的城邦的緣由，加了一句：Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.（破梗：領導無方）。Spoiler alert 就是「破梗」，如果用在有人洩漏電影劇情的情境中，也可以翻作「小心爆雷」或「劇透警告」。疫情之下，在家看影集、電影成了很多人的娛樂，但要小心劇透 (spoilers)，很多 YouTube 上的影評在開頭也都會說 Spoiler alert!，警告還沒看過電影的觀眾小心爆雷、劇透。 至於「甩鍋」，源自大陸網民用語，通常意指某人犯了錯之後想推卸責任、轉移焦點、甚至讓別人背黑鍋的做法。疫情爆發後，相關網路資訊量爆增，許多中國網民也想找人為這場疫情負責，紛紛呼籲地方政府首長、地方黨書記不要「甩鍋」。 其實，在古代文學《奧德賽》中，就有「將自己的責任怪罪眾神」的說法，試用時下流行的「甩鍋」來重新翻譯： Humans are always blaming the gods for their suffering, but they experience
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