As a result of the “Year of the Dragon” effect, the number of newborn babies has reached a historic high, the Ministry of the Interior has estimated, though it added that it was worried that the figure may decrease next year because fewer couples opted not to marry this year.
While the nation’s birthrate has been declining continuously over the past decade, it has increased 14.5 percent from January with last month compared with the same period last year, the latest figures from the ministry showed.
Since the beginning of the year, around 163,000 babies have been born and the ministry estimates that the annual number of births could surpass 220,000 by the end of the year.
In a press release, the ministry attributed the increasing birthrate to the “Year of the Dragon” effect.
In traditional Chinese beliefs, children born during the Year of the Dragon are believed to be lucky and Chinese emperors were thought to be dragons in human form.
However, the ministry also has some worries.
“Compared with the same period [January to September] last year, the number of couples getting married has dropped by 7,060 — or 6.7 percent,” the ministry said. “It remains to be seen whether the childbirth fever will continue.”
Last year — the centenary of the Republic of China — was a popular year for couples to marry because it was seen as symbolic.
The ministry said the number of childbirths from binational couples has also been on the rise in recent years.
“On average, 9 percent of newborn babies are born from couples in which the father or the mother are of Hong Kong, Macanese, Chinese or other origin,” the ministry said.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS