Immigrants to Taiwan from Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries gathered at the bandstand in front of the Taipei City Government building to celebrate Christmas together.
The party was sponsored by the Taipei City Government and the Bread of Life Christian Church in Taipei.
Deputy Commissioner Jason Yeh (葉傑生) of the city's Department of Civil Affairs gave a welcome address to those in attendance.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"Taiwan is an open, democratic society and we welcome different groups," he said.
According to Yeh, there are roughly 28,000 residents in Taipei who have arrived from other countries.
"Those immigrants have made their roots in Taiwan, bringing more variety and interest to this country's cuisine," he said.
After the opening speeches, the event featured performances and prize drawings. Participants could also try enjoyed Indonesian satays, Southeast Asian curries and Taiwanese stir-fried rice noodles.
Most of those participating at the event were from the Bread of Life Christian Church community or their guests, Christian and non-Christian alike.
Pastor Ip Ling-nam of the Bread of Life Church offered a short prayer for the gathering.
Shaik Sabera, a Muslim from South India, did not feel like the religious content detracted from the party.
"My friends who belong to the church invited me," said Sabara, who has lived in Taiwan for a year. "The party feels really good."
"The New Life Church has 200 Indonesian members and about 100 Filipino members," Ip said. "We provide a sense of community and services in their own language."
Ip emphasized that all immigrants were welcome at the party.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathogen in Taiwan in the past four weeks and the influenza B virus accounted for 55.7 percent of the tested cases, exceeding the percentage of influenza A (H3N2) infections and becoming the local dominant strain, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news conference on Tuesday. There were 82,187 hospital visits for
Alumni from Japan’s Kyoto Tachibana Senior High School marching band, widely known as the “Orange Devils,” staged a flash mob performance at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday to thank Taiwan for its support after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The show, performed on the earthquake’s 15th anniversary, drew more than 100 spectators, some of whom arrived two hours before the show to secure a good viewing spot. The 26-member group played selections from “High School Musical,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and their signature piece “Sing Sing Sing” and shouted “I love
President William Lai (賴清德) today called for greater mutual aid between Taiwan and Japan in a post commemorating the 15th anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, saying that “true friendship reveals itself in hardship.” The magnitude 9 earthquake, the largest ever recorded in Japan, and the ensuing tsunami left 18,500 people dead or unaccounted for, and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. It was the world's worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Japan and Taiwan share a close bond built on mutual aid and trust, Lai said on Facebook, adding that he hopes they would
RSS