CULTURE
Macau Orchestra to visit
The Macau Orchestra is to perform in Taiwan for the first time during a concert tour opening today, performing works by Rachmaninoff and other masters. Led by artistic director and principal conductor Lu Jia (呂嘉), the orchestra will hold concerts in Taipei today, in Hsinchu on Saturday, in Greater Kaohsiung on Monday and in Greater Taichung on Tuesday, said the tour’s promoter, New Aspect, Environment, Culture & Creation. Taiwanese pianist Rueibin Chen (陳瑞斌) is to join the orchestra in performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, while Chinese pipa player Zhang Hongyan (章紅艷) is to perform Little Sisters of the Grassland, a Chinese pipa concerto composed by Liu Dehai (劉德海), Wu Zuqiang (吳祖強) and Wang Yanqiao (王燕樵).
CULTURE
NY to show Taiwanese films
Four Taiwan-produced films will be screened at the upcoming 37th Asian American International Film Festival in New York, with each showing a different side of Taiwanese society. The films include director Cho Li’s (卓立) The Rice Bomber, based on the true story of Yang Ju-men (楊儒門), a man who planted 17 rice-filled explosive devices in Taiwan in 2003 and 2004 to protest what he saw as the government’s neglect of farmers. Also to be shown are director Chang Tso-chi’s (張作驥) A Time in Quchi, a film about a boy who comes of age while visiting his grandfather in rural Quchi in New Taipei City, and US director Henry Chan’s (陳發中) romantic comedy 100 Days, which concerns a career-obsessed man who returns to his hometown after his mother’s death, only to run into his childhood sweetheart. The black-and-white short A Breath From the Bottom by director Chan Ching-lin (詹京霖) is also to be screened at the festival, which takes place from July 24 to Aug. 2.
SOCIETY
Charities report missions
Taiwanese charity groups traveled to remote areas of Sri Lanka and Mongolia earlier this month to provide medical services to people in the countries, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which covered part of the missions’ costs. The Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps provided free treatment for people in southern Sri Lanka on a July 5 to 13 medical mission, Department of NGO International Affairs director-general Ray Mou (牟華瑋) said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Bliss and Wisdom Cultural Foundation sent a mission to Mongolia from July 6 until Thursday last week, Mou said. During its trip, the mission provided clinical services, basic checkups and seminars on health education.
SOCIETY
Global affairs camp to open
A summer camp aimed at increasing young people’s understanding of international affairs and the development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is to be held next month in Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The ministry is commissioning the Taipei-based Ming Chuan University to organize the five-day camp, which is to begin on Aug. 13, said Ray Mou (牟華瑋), director-general of the ministry’s Department of NGO International Affairs Lectures. The camp will include discussions on topics such as eradicating poverty, encouraging sustainable development and gender equality, he said, adding that visits to local NGOs would also be part of the itinerary. The camp is open to those aged 18 to 35, and proficiency in English is required, as it is an all-English-language program, Mou added. This is second year that the camp is being conducted solely in English.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
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