Taiwan is on track to establish a global network of 100 Mandarin language learning centers by 2025, Overseas Community Affairs Council Minister Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said.
The council has so far established 43 Taiwan Centers for Mandarin Learning: 34 in the US, two each in France and the UK, and one each in Australia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and Sweden, Tung said last week.
The program has reached its implementation goals ahead of schedule, he said, adding that 28 new centers would open after being certified later this year.
The council’s other objectives include building solidarity among Taiwanese communities abroad, integrating the business resources of Taiwanese living abroad, and utilizing innovation in student recruitment and learning, he said.
The council is hosting competitions for speaking, singing and writing in Mandarin, and enhancing its use of Web-based resources, he said.
The Taipei Department of Education’s Taipei CooC-Cloud and the Ministry of Education’s online multimedia platform are working with the council to promote Taiwan-led Mandarin education abroad, he said.
The country’s promotion of Mandarin learning centers is in part to replace Beijing’s Confucius Institutes after governments and universities in many countries began closing the programs for allegedly engaging in censorship and propaganda in host countries.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
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A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
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