A new TV drama that explores the plight of migrant fishers in Taiwan is to be aired weekly starting today, Formosa TV said.
The Rootless (無主之子) follows the life of 25-year-old Le Van Thanh, who leaves his wife and children in Vietnam and arrives in Taiwan on March 10, 2001.
While working on a fishing boat, he faces constant discrimination and abuse from the boat’s Taiwanese captain and engineer.
One day while being physically attacked by the captain, Le retaliates and escapes to start a new life as an undocumented migrant worker.
He also starts a second family. The drama unfolds as a son he has with his Taiwanese partner is born without official paperwork and struggles to find his place in society when he turns 18.
There are more than 7,000 children who have been born in Taiwan without proper paperwork or identification, Ministry of the Interior statistics showed.
“We wanted to film the topic of migrant workers, and also undocumented migrant workers — the so-called vulnerable groups. So we thought a lot about whether our work would result in any exploitation of them, just like the moral challenges documentary makers face during the shooting process,” Huang Chih-hsiang (黃志翔), the drama’s producer, said on Tuesday.
The production team then decided to make migrant workers the central focus, so that viewers could experience the story from their perspective rather than through the eyes of a Taiwanese, Huang said.
Representatives from the Taiwan International Workers’ Association, a migrant worker rights group, praised the drama for its presentation of the plight of the foreign blue-collar workers.
The drama is the most accurate work in the past 20 years with regards to the issues that migrant workers face, the association said.
Migrant workers have been in the media spotlight in the past few years, as news reports have surfaced about the harsh conditions they face.
As of the end of last month, there were 707,308 migrant workers in Taiwan, Ministry of Labor statistics showed.
There were also 50,343 undocumented migrant workers in the country, National Immigration Agency statistics showed.
The Rootless is to be aired weekly on Sundays at 10pm.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
RSS