Internet literature took a step closer to becoming a recognized form of writing yesterday with the announcement of the winners of the nation's first Internet literature contest.
The awards for the first PC Home Online Internet Literature Award, organized by PC Home Online -- one of Taiwan's first Chinese-language portals -- took place yesterday at an Eliste Bookstore, with over 100 contestants in attendence.
Candidates for the awards were chosen from the online writing group Mypaper, part of the PC Home Web site. The Mypaper Web site includes the personal Web sites of more than 50,000 people containing more than 620,000 online works.
In the first round of the competition, Web site owners voted for 102 of 2,753 contestants to proceed to the second round. Those who entered the second round submitted five writing pieces to the organizers to decide who the winners would be.
Because of the diversity of the online works, the organizers decided not to place any restrictions on the form, length or topics of writing.
"Internet literature is such a new form of expression that nobody really knows what it is," said Jan Hung-tze (
"The award is therefore aimed at discovering good writers rather than to find the best writers -- in a bid to promote the development of Internet literature," he said.
Participants in the contest said that Mypaper had provided them with a forum to express themselves and to share their feelings and creativity online with other Internet users.
"Writing on the Net is a way for people [who have experienced some form of trauma] to sort out their feelings and regain their peace of mind," said the runner-up, Juliana, who uses only her English name on her Web site.
Juliana's site records her experiences since her 17-year-old son was killed after being run over by a bus in 1998.
"It has given me a way to relieve my pain and sorrow," she said.
A member of the judges panel, the Internet novelist Neal Wu (
"As long as a work triggers your feelings, makes you laugh or touches your heart with its expression, it could be considered a good piece of Internet literature," he said.
But Siang Yang (
"In other words, to differentiate Internet literature from traditional literature, Internet literature should be a combination of text, visual images and music," he said.
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights