A: Then what’s the most popular film in the first half of this year?
B: The Taiwanese movie “The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon” is a dark horse.
A: I know the Chinese name of the movie refers to the story of bully Zhou Chu eliminating three evils.
Photo: Liberty Times / 照片：自由時報
B: It grossed over 500 million Chinese yuan in China, which is nearly NT$2.5 billion. It even topped the online charts in many countries.
A: This shows that the theme of cracking down on evil cults is also popular in foreign countries.
A: 那上半年最強的電影又是哪部？
B: 台片《周處除三害》今年可說是部大黑馬！
A: 中文劇名原本是指惡霸周處除掉三害的故事。
B: 它在中國狂賣超過5億人民幣，近25億新台幣，還登上多國線上影音平台冠軍。
A: 可見打擊邪教的主題在許多國家都引起共鳴。
（By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩）
Taiwan Travelogue, the novel by Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi and translated into English by Lin King, won the prestigious International Booker Prize in London on May 19. It marks the first time a Taiwanese literary work has received the International Booker Prize, setting a historic milestone both for Taiwanese literature and for the award itself. Prior to this achievement, Taiwan had only once appeared on the Booker radar, when Taiwanese author Wu Ming-yi was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2018 with The Stolen Bicycle. The International Booker Prize honors works of fiction translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland.
A: Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage on May 24, 2019, so this week marks the seventh anniversary of that milestone. By the end of 2024, a total of 32,126 LGBT couples had tied the knot. B: How many of them got married to foreign partners? A: In 2024, there were 504 cross-border same-sex marriages. By the end of that year, there were 130 cross-strait same-sex marriages between Taiwanese and Chinese — accounting for only about 0.4 percent of the total. B: I’ve heard that a seven-year marriage brings the “seven-year itch.” I bet some couples regret their decisions now. A:
A: While Taiwan is celebrating the 7th anniversary of legalizing same-sex marriage, a poll shows that the support rate for same-sex marriage rose sharply from 37.4 percent seven years ago to 69.9 percent last year. B: Actually, I’m a bit curious about the size of Taiwan’s LGBT population. A: I’m not sure. But if we take a Gallup poll in the US as an example, 9.3 percent of American adults identified as LGBT in 2024. B: Wow, is it because the Americans are relatively open? In many other countries, the figures hover around 5 percent. A: Based on this,
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