A visit to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Yun-peng’s (鄭運鵬) office in the Legislative Yuan gives a glimpse of a different side to the politician.
Inside Cheng’s office are shelves lined with various figurines and models. On one wall hangs a sketch of Joe Yabuki, the main character from Japanese comic Tomorrow’s Joe, which Cheng, who represents Taoyuan’s first constituency, drew during an all-night session at the legislature.
He said that he previously kept beetles in his office — a classic case of parents taking care of the pets that their children wanted.
Photo: Chen Yu-chia, Taipei Times
His son, influenced by Japanese arcade game Mushiking: King of the Beetles and the animated movies it spawned, as well as his classmates, started raising rhinoceros beetles, Cheng said.
His son did not stop there and started raising other kinds of beetles, but soon there was not enough space at home for all of them, so he started keeping them in his office, he said.
Cheng said that his children are younger than those of his colleagues, and that he had not met anyone who was also interested in raising beetles.
Photo: Chen Yu-chia, Taipei Times
However, he said that he had learned that pan-blue commentator Tang Hsiang-lung (唐湘龍) has children of the same age and was considering raising beetles when they met on a talk show, so he gifted Tang a whole set of equipment and some larvae.
“It was a while before we met again and I fully expected the larvae to have grown into adult beetles,” Cheng said, but added that Tang told him the larvae had all died before entering the chrysalis stage.
Beetle larvae are not difficult to raise and only require that attention be paid to the temperature and moisture of the humus they are in to survive, he said, adding that he surmised that Tang had not paid attention and allowed the humus to dry out.
“Tang can talk up a storm, but boy he cannot raise beetles! I can attest to that!” Cheng said.
The life expectancy of a beetle after emerging from the chrysalis is about three months, he said, adding that he has collected the dead beetles to remind himself and his son about the time they raised the insects.
His son has moved on from beetles after the last one died and is now looking to raise hamsters, Cheng said, adding that he has been researching how to look after the animals.
Cheng urged people not to capture wild beetles, as doing so could upset the ecological balance.
People interested in raising beetles should instead buy larvae or adult beetles from specialty shops, Cheng said.
Beetle enthusiasts would find it worthwhile to visit the Yangchou Path in Taoyuan’s Lujhu District (蘆竹), as there are many beetles in the area, he added.
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
RSS