A thief who stole a NT$700,000 violin from a poor graduate student returned it to the anxious owner after his plea and pressure from peers, local media reported on Friday.
The reports said the graduate student, surnamed Huang (黃), of Soochow University in Taipei, was only able to purchase the violin after working part-time for more than six years. Coming from a single-parent family, he said his mother was the main income earner.
He stored the violin in a musical instrument storage room on April 22 to avoid carrying it in a downpour, but when he returned the next day, the violin and bow were missing from the case.
Huang said he could not eat or sleep after the incident and he posted a message about his “held-up violin” on the Internet three days later, imploring the thief to return the violin and saying he would not pursue the person if it were returned. His classmates also offered to help, with more than 300 leaving him messages. Huang also contacted violin importers to deter the thief from selling it.
The school looked into the matter, viewing footage from a surveillance camera in which officers noticed a suspicious female student.
The school then issued an appeal to graduate students in the music department, asking that “if anybody has seen or retrieved the violin to return it to its owner as quickly as possible.”
Huang received a call on his cellphone on April 30 in which the caller told him the violin was at the printing shop at the entrance of the school campus and then abruptly hung up.
Huang was overjoyed to get his violin back, saying that he would not pursue the person who stole it.
Although Huang will not pursue the case, Yen Nai-wei (顏迺偉), deputy chief prosecutor of the Shihlin District Public Prosecutors’ Office, said burglary was a prosecutable offense, and that the office would consider whether to handle the case after reviewing it.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry