The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said it hopes the recent controversy between a Taiwanese taekwondo athlete and the Seoul-based World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) will not affect the new Taiwan-Korea working holiday program.
Applications for the bilateral youth exchange program will be accepted starting tomorrow, said Ger Bau-shuan (葛葆萱) deputy director-general of the ministry’s Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. The program will allow up to 400 Taiwanese and South Koreans aged between 18 and 30 to apply for one-year multiple-entry visas. During their stays, they will be allowed to take part-time jobs to earn money to fund their visits. Ger said judging from the enthusiastic response to the existing programs, Taiwanese youth are highly interested in taking a “workation” in a foreign country and it is hoped the taekwondo feud will not dampen the public’s interest in South Korea.
Last month, Taiwanese gold medal hopeful Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君) was accused of cheating by the WTF during this year’s Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, for allegedly using non-authorized footgear. Video footage of the match, however, revealed that the sensors were not used during the bout.
Her controversial disqualification ignited a wave of anti-Korean sentiment in Taiwan.
“We hope the controversy will not affect the program. The government has made it clear to the Taiwanese public that what happened to Yang has nothing to do with the Korean people or the government,” he said.
To apply for the program, applicants must provide proof of at least US$2,500 in finances and insurance, Ger said, adding that only those with no criminal record and a clean bill of health would be considered.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
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