The Award for Special Contributions to Taiwan Tourism this year was given to US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) presenter and director Joseph Rosendo for featuring the nation’s tourist attractions in Joseph Rosendo’s Travelscope, a travel show.
Rosendo last year won two Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for the ninth season of the TV show, which aired in 2016 and included an episode titled Taiwan Penghu Islands.
Rosendo won the Emmys for outstanding directing of a lifestyle/culinary/travel program and outstanding host in a lifestyle/travel/children’s series, the Tourism Bureau said, adding that he also secured an Emmy for outstanding host in 2014 for an episode featuring the Taiwan Lantern Festival.
Photo: CNA
“Travelscope has increased publicity about Taiwan in the international community, greatly contributing to the development of tourism in Taiwan,” the bureau said in a statement.
In addition to the lantern festival and the Penghu Islands, Rosendo’s team explored the nation’s railways in an episode titled Iron Pathways to Adventure in 2015.
The team received a Bronze Telly Award for a 2012 episode titled Taiwan’s Aboriginal People.
In his acceptance speech at the Tourism Festival Award Ceremony yesterday, Rosendo attributed his success in producing 10 award-winning episodes about Taiwan to a “creative, dynamic and fruitful alliance with the Tourism Bureau.”
“Like many foreigners, I believed Taiwan is a country of Taipei 101, a dynamic, modern, high-tech giant and one of Asia’s economic tigers,” he said. “While we discovered that is indeed true, Taiwan is much, much more: from the villages to cities, from its islands to its mountains, from the endemic wildlife to indigenous people and from sacred temples to lively markets.”
Rosendo said Taiwan is “a treasure chest of travel gems that gives visitors experiences that forever fulfill and enrich their lives” and is also the repository of the “spiritual heart and soul” of Chinese culture.
“We have witnessed the devotion that Taiwanese people give to their heritage and to their history through their festivals, like the Lantern Festival,” he said.
Season 10 of Travelscope, to be aired from next month, is to feature the Taichung International Matsu Festival, one of the largest religious pilgrimages in the world, he said.
Like US author Mark Twain, who famously said that “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness,” Rosendo said he believes that travel is an antidote to fear and hatred.
The TV show’s mission has always been to celebrate people and their cultures, which is drastically different from the tone set by the current administration in the US, Rosario said.
“While a segment of our American government seems to shamelessly express the opinion that Americans are uninterested in the world and its peoples, I promise you the overwhelming majority of Americans are ready to protect our planet and to embrace people and cultures,” he said.
The Taiwan Lantern Festival opens tonight in Chiayi County.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56