Recent events seem to suggest that the line between entertainment and politics is easy to cross. In the US, Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger took the California governorship. In Taiwan, former actress May Chin (高金素梅) now serves as a legislator, while television star and singer Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) is expected to run for office. And in Japan, newly-elected Councilor Ren Hou is the celebrity-turned-politician of the moment.
\nHowever, in Taiwan, Ren Hou's claim to fame is not her status as 1988's "Clarion Girl," an award generally seen as a springboard to other opportunities in the entertainment industry.
\nNor is she known for her work as an information broadcast personality. In Taiwan, Ren Hou is known as the first ethnic Taiwanese to be elected to Japan's upper legislative house, the House of Councilors.
\nRen Hou was born to a Taiwanese father and Japanese mother, and is a naturalized Japanese citizen, but she has been called Taiwan's native daughter nevertheless. She is known as Lien Fang (
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
A student at National Chengchi University jumped from the roof of his apartment in the early hours of Sunday after he was allegedly bullied online. The 21-year-old student, surnamed Huang (黃), on Friday last week posted on the university’s online discussion forum asking the public to judge a dispute he was having with a female roommate about rent. An anonymous post on the online forum Dcard appeared on the same day, saying he was the last person to judge others, and that he was “a heavy smoker, lazy, a terrible group member for class projects and a person with a poor
POPULAR PRODUCTS: Most of the devices were made by Da-Jian Innovations, a drone maker, and TP-Link, which sells routers and other networking equipment More than 2,500 public schools and government offices are using 19,256 blacklisted Chinese communications and electronic devices, raising national security concerns, a National Center for Cyber Security Technology (NCCST) report said. The report, released late last month, showed that many of the blacklisted products were from Shenzhen-based Da-Jiang Innovations Technology (DJI, 大疆創新), which makes drones and cameras for aerial photography. The Executive Yuan has previously instructed schools and government offices to report back on their use and installation of blacklisted communications and electronic devices, which are to be replaced by the end of the year. If they are not replaced, due to budget
The military is to mount two tank guns purchased from the US on domestically made armored vehicles to aid in the research and development (R&D) of mobile gun systems, sources said on Saturday. Two sets of M68A2 105mm tank guns are to be mounted on Taiwanese-built CM-32 Clouded Leopards, the sources said. The official R&D would start next year, and the military hopes to produce two prototypes by 2023, they added. A 105mm tank gun is expected to be the main weapon of armored vehicles, with a secondary system to incorporate a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun with a 12.7mm remote-controlled machine gun turret. Sources
‘IT FEELS DESOLATE’: Foot traffic has all but stopped in the district, but some traditional stores that offer online shopping have seen their revenues increase Businesses in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華) would take at least six months to recover from the effects of a COVID-19 outbreak, a merchants’ association said on Sunday. Wanhua, home to the Ximending (西門町) shopping area, is usually one of the most visited parts of Taipei. However, people have been avoiding the district since last month, when a COVID-19 outbreak was discovered there. Now, only local residents can be seen on the streets of Wanhua and they pass by quickly without entering the shops, Taipei Business District and Industrial Confederation chairman Hung Wen-ho (洪文和) said. “Most businesses have shuttered up. Only a
RSS