SOCIETY
Last ‘comfort woman’ dies
The last known Taiwanese “comfort woman” died on May 10 at the age of 92, the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation said yesterday. The term refers to women who were forced to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers during World War II. A private funeral was held by the woman’s family, the foundation said in a Facebook post, adding that it was attended by foundation chair Theresa Yeh (葉德蘭). The news of her passing was announced only yesterday, because the woman had asked for privacy before her passing, it said. Hopefully, the history of sexual slavery will not be forgotten with the passing of “comfort women” in Taiwan, the foundation said. It added that it would continue to demand that the Japanese government apologize and compensate such women and their family members for exploiting them during the war.
AVIATION
Unknown object halts flights
An unidentified flying object detected at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport resulted in flight disruption that affected more than 1,000 passengers yesterday morning, Taoyuan International Airport Co said. Flights were halted in and out of Taiwan’s main international gateway after a China Airlines pilot spotted the object, the company said. The closure lasted for about 40 minutes before air traffic resumed at about 10:10am, the company said, adding that seven flights were affected. Five flights approaching the airport for landing or preparing for takeoff — those belonging to Peach Aviation, EVA Airways, Starlux Arlines and AirAsia — were delayed, affecting 919 passengers. A Cathay Pacific and a Xiamen Airlines flight arriving from overseas carrying 280 passengers were diverted to Kaohsiung International Airport, the company said. Airport authorities were unable to identify the object, which was spotted only by the China Airlines pilot, but they do not rule out the possibility that it was a drone, the company said. Members of the public are encouraged to report suspected drone sightings to the airport at (03) 273-2043, it added.
SOCIETY
Choreographer dies at 97
Choreographer Liu Feng-shueh (劉鳳學), the first Taiwanese to hold a doctoral degree in dance, the first to promote Chinese modern dance and one of the first National Arts Award winners, died at home in Taipei on Wednesday. She was 97 years old. Born in China in 1925, Liu began learning ballet when she was a child. In the 1950s, she began to study, collect and document the dances of Taiwan’s indigenous communities. Neo-classical Dance Co, founded by Liu in 1976, lists on its Web site the “four small trees” Liu said she planted: her modern dance works, Confucian dance works, Tang dynasty court dance and music, and a study of indigenous dances. She won acclaim from the Congress of Research on Dance in the US as an outstanding academic of dance in 1977 and 2004, according to the National Culture and Arts Foundation, which named her one of the five winners of the first edition of the National Arts Awards in 1997. The New York-based Dance Notation Bureau in 2005 called Liu “an authority on the Chinese dance tradition” and “a pioneer of modern dance in Taiwan.” Her digitized dance notation that documents the styles she studied has been credited as a precious recording of the oriental dance history in Taiwan.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
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