Director-general of the German Institute in Taipei Birgitt Ory, German expatriates and their Taiwanese friends unveiled the “Buddy Bear” for Taiwan at German Night in Taipei on Saturday.
First created in Berlin in 2001, the Buddy Bear — a sculpture about 2m tall — serves as Germany’s ambassador of friendship, traveling around the world to promote peace and international understanding.
There are 1,300 Buddy Bears and 140 are on exhibit around the world, with each having a unique name and decoration.
The Buddy Bear in Taiwan is painted black with plum blossom-shaped sunglasses, two clasped hands forming a white V-shaped strip across its chest and pants decorated with images representing Germany such as a German soccer player, the German high-speed ICE train and a picture of Albert Einstein.
The bear arrived last month and was unveiled on Saturday after being painted in Kaohsiung by students of the Fengshan and Fenghsin high schools, as well as students of the German School in Taipei, Ory said.
“The plum blossom is Taiwan’s national flower, the V-shaped strip is a feature of the Formosan black bear and the shaking hands symbolize friendship between Taiwan and Germany,” Ory explained.
She said the Buddy Bear would have a busy schedule in Taiwan.
“He will meet the German athletes at the World Games in Kaohsiung [next month] and at the Deaflympics in Taipei, and will make a brief stop at the German School in Taiwan,” Ory said, adding that the Buddy Bear would also attend a concert featuring German music, and an event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in October.
Another reason the Buddy Bear was brought to Taiwan is the theme of this year’s Taipei Film Festival, which began on Friday and will last until July 12.
After the unveiling ceremony, guests were treated to German cuisine and a screening of the movie Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis.
Ory invited everyone in Taiwan to submit suggestions for Buddy Bear’s name.
Richard Pfennig, a native of Berlin studying at National Chengchi University, quickly made his own suggestion: Taibear.
“‘Taibear’ is a combination of Taipei, Berlin and the bear itself,” Pfennig said. “It also reflects my own life as I’m from Berlin and I’m studying in Taipei now.”
“It’s interesting to find a film festival featuring movies about my city when I’m tens of thousands of kilometers away from it,” he said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS