SOCIETY
Bank to hold draw
State-owned Bank of Taiwan on Monday said that it is accepting applications for a draw to pick three people who would be eligible to purchase a limited-edition commemorative coin set made by the Japan Mint for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Each set, which features 37 coins of different values and designs, would retail for NT$499,800, the bank said. The mint has produced 1,000 sets, but only 80 are destined for the global market, of which three were allocated to Taiwan, it said. Applications can be submitted through Thursday next week and the winners would be announced on the bank’s Web site on July 29, it said. Those interested can download an application form online and e-mail it to bot23306@mail.bot.com.tw, it said. The coins, made of gold, silver or an alloy, are in denominations of ￥10,000 (US$91), ￥1,000, ￥500 and ￥100, and are packaged in a walnut box bearing the Tokyo Games logo, the bank said.
DIPLOMACY
New AIT official arrives
American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director-designate Sandra Oudkirk arrived in Taiwan on Monday, the US’ de facto embassy said in a statement. “After following the regulations of the Taiwan Central Epidemic Command Center’s COVID-19 Prevention Program, including going through a 14-day quarantine and seven days of self-health management, director-designate Oudkirk will be ready to report for duty,” the AIT said. “She will assume her position as AIT director upon the departure from Taiwan of AIT Director Brent Christensen.” Oudkirk arrived on a United Airlines flight shortly before 7pm and was welcomed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials including Department of North American Affairs Director-General Douglas Hsu (徐佑典). Oudkirk speaks English, Mandarin and Turkish, and has been posted in Ireland, Turkey, Jamaica and Beijing, the AIT said last week. Oudkirk visited Taiwan in October 2019 to attend the inaugural Pacific Islands Dialogue. Taipei was also her first overseas assignment after she joined the US Foreign Service in 1991.
CULTURE
VR short film wins
A virtual reality (VR) production directed by Taiwanese Huang Hsin-chien (黃心健) yesterday beat 15 other nominees to win the VeeR Future Award for Best VR Story at Cannes XR, the Taiwan Creative Content Agency said. Huang is a professor at National Taiwan Normal University’s Department of Design. The 20-minute Samsara Ep. 1 (輪迴) explores multiple social issues, including the environment, technology, natural resources and war, the university said. Huang applies the concept of “embodied cognition” to allow audiences to switch bodies and experience the world depicted in the film from different perspectives, it said. The full version of the film is to begin its global tour in September and travel to Kaohsiung for its Asia premiere in October, it said.
SEISMICITY
Two quakes hit Hualien
Two earthquakes hit Hualien County at about 7:41am yesterday, but no immediate damage or injuries were reported, the Central Weather Bureau said. The quakes were 20 seconds apart, the bureau said, adding that such a close interval was not unusual in Hualien. The first, a magnitude 3.4 temblor, was centered 5.6km south of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 5.5km, the Seismology Center said. The second, with a magnitude of 3.6, was centered 6.1km south-southwest of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 8.6km, it said.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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