Win Win has been glued to social media for the past day, trying to work out whether her family in Myanmar’s Mandalay survived Friday’s powerful earthquake, distracting herself at the Taiwan restaurant where she works by serving samosas and other snacks.
“We spoke last night but then nothing today. I can’t get through. I’m so scared for them,” Win Win, one of Taiwan’s estimated 50,000 Sino-Burmese, said yesterday at the eatery in Little Myanmar in New Taipei City.
Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay, which lies close to the epicenter of the magnitude 7.7 quake, has a large ethnic Chinese population, many of whom have ties to Taiwan, whose government has offered to send rescue teams.
Photo: REUTERS
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has yet to receive a response to that offer.
Yee Yu Nai, sitting at a snack store in Little Myanmar, scrolled through her phone looking for the latest news from Mandalay, where her sister lives.
“I know their house is OK as it was newly built, but the street is very badly damaged,” she said.
Taiwan’s Burmese community traces its history back to the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, when many of the defeated Republic of China soldiers fled into what was then called Burma before eventually being evacuated to Taiwan.
Others have come more recently, fleeing repression and anti-Chinese sentiment.
Ethnic Chinese in Myanmar have historically faced discrimination, especially under the rule of General Ne Win, who seized power in 1962.
He barred ethnic Chinese and other foreigners from owning land, banned Chinese-language education and stoked anti-Chinese violence. Bloody anti-Chinese riots erupted in 1967.
Another resident of Taiwan’s Little Myanmar, who asked to be identified by her family name of Huang to avoid repercussions for her relatives still in the country, said the precarious state of civil strife-hit Myanmar was her biggest concern.
“I just don’t think anyone is coming to save them,” she said of her relatives still in Mandalay.
Separately yesterday, the Ministry of Education said school counselors would begin reaching out to Burmese students in Taiwan to offer support, while academic advisors have been instructed to assess their living conditions on campus.
The ministry said it was concerned that the students might experience anxiety and distress over the well-being of family members in Myanmar.
There are 2,973 Burmese studying in Taiwan, it said, adding that universities have been asked to offer flexible course arrangements or alternative teaching methods for those who might need to temporarily return home.
Any leave or class absences taken by students to return home and manage family matters due to the earthquake would not be recorded in their attendance records, the Ministry of Education said, adding that it would continue to monitor the situation closely and work with schools to ensure that Burmese students receive comprehensive support.
Burmese students in need can also call the Network for International Student Advisors hotline at 0800-787-007, which operates from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, it said.
Additional reporting by Rachel Lin
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS