■ SOCIETY
UDN seeks word of the year
The Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN) launched a search for this year’s “Word of the Year,” offering 48 Chinese characters for the public to choose from. The search was launched by the UDN and a private foundation in the hope that one Chinese character could summarize the situation of Taiwan this year, or reflect the feeling of Taiwanese about the year. The Chinese character that gets the most votes from the public would become the Word of the Year. To encourage the public to participate, UDN and the foundation are offering rewards that include a car priced at NT$500,000 (US$15,100). Several countries conduct selections for the Word of the Year, with the Society of the German Language starting the process in Germany in 1971.
■ EVENTS
Poetry festival opens
The ninth Taipei Poetry Festival opened yesterday, hoping to infuse the spirit of poetry into the daily lives of residents in the busy capital city. Sponsored by the Taipei City Government, the theme of this year’s festival is “Roving Desk, Walking Poetry.” The festival will experiment with many art forms poetry interdisciplinary exhibitions, music, stage performances, conversations with poets, poetry recitals and screenings, the event sponsor said. Many foreign poets have been invited to participate in a conference, including South Korean poet Kim Hye-soon, Chinese poet Yu Jian (于堅), Singaporean Madeleine Lee (李夙芯), Hong Kong’s Yau Ching (游靜), the Czech Republic’s Katerina Rudcenkova and France’s Emmanuelle Pireyre. The festival ends next Sunday.
■ EVENTS
Panda pen almost ready
Preparations for the arrival of a pair of giant pandas from China are entering the final stage as construction of a panda house and other facilities at the Taipei City Zoo are nearly completed, said the zoo, which will host the animals. Zoo director Jason Yeh (葉傑生) told reporters yesterday that the zoo had made a few changes to the panda hall and that work was almost completed. Animal caretakers have also recently ensured there would be no problems when they raise and take care of the two pandas, he said, adding that facilities designed to hold educational material and guidebooks had been installed in the main lobby of the hall. The construction of the exhibition areas, which includes a pool, bamboo shrubs and driftwood racks, would be finalized soon, he said, adding that the zoo would seek police assistance to shorten the transport time from the airport to the zoo.
■ MANUFACTURING
High-tech firm in Kinmen
A Taipei-based solar power kit maker inaugurated a manufacturing plant on Kinmen on Friday, becoming the first high-tech Taiwanese company to set up a factory on one of the country’s outlying islands. SolarGate Technology Corp (茂鑫能源科技公司) chairman Chuang Chin-pei (莊欽培) said the company would use Kinmen as a springboard to the Chinese market. SolarGate hopes to develop Kinmen into Taiwan’s first “solar-power model island,” he said. SolarGate provides international trading services for solar power products and systems, including solar cells and solar glass. The Kinmen factory would handle manufacturing and development, with raw material to be supplied by Taiwan proper. The products made at the Kinmen factory would be shipped to Xiamen, Fujian Province, whence they would be transported to other Chinese markets as well as to the US and Europe, SolarGate said.
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
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