ENTERTAINMENT
Mayday concerts sold out
All 320,000 tickets for Mayday’s eight concerts at the Taipei Dome next month and in July sold out within 10 minutes, the ticketing platform tixCraft said. Sales opened at 11am yesterday, with a small portion of tickets available earlier that day for families and holders of credit cards from sponsor E.Sun Commercial Bank. The concerts are part of the “Mayday #5525 Live Tour,” which began in December 2023 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the rock band’s founding. The concerts would also be the five-member band’s debut at the 40,000-seat Taipei Dome, which opened in late 2023. The eight concerts are scheduled for June 27 to 29, July 4 to 6, and 11 and 12.
Photo courtesy of B’in Music
ASTRONOMY
Meteor shower expected
The Aquarid meteor shower would be visible in the eastern sky from midnight until dawn over the next few days, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said yesterday. The shower is expected to peak early on Tuesday before dawn, with up to 50 meteors visible per hour, the museum said. The moon would be in its first quarter and set before the meteor shower begins, offering good viewing conditions, with little interference from moonlight it said.
DIPLOMACY
Japanese delegation visits
A five-member parliamentary delegation from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is scheduled to meet with President William Lai (賴清德) during a four-day visit to Taiwan that runs through Tuesday. The delegation, led by former Japanese minister of economy, trade and industry Yasutoshi Nishimura, a member of the lower house of the Japanese Diet, would also meet with former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement yesterday. Nishimura is joined by four other LDP representatives: Kosaburo Nishime, Kazuo Yana, Hajime Sasaki and Ryusho Kato, the ministry said. Nishimura, 62, has also served as Japanese minister of state for economic and fiscal policy and as minister of economic revitalization. He promoted bilateral cooperation between Taiwan and Japan in the semiconductor industry while heading the economy and trade office from 2022 to 2023, the ministry said. The delegation is also scheduled to visit the Hsinchu Science Park and meet with Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝), it said.
ART
Coffin exhibit returns
Five graduating students from Chinese Culture University yesterday brought back their thought-provoking “coffin experience” exhibit at Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB), following high demand after its initial presentation in March. The team, which call themselves “Wanderers,” are from the university’s Department of Mass Communication. Through photography, they explore the themes of life and death, inviting visitors to lie in an actual coffin to contemplate their own mortality. The students said that by breaking the taboo of encountering coffins only in the context of death, they aim to create a space for visitors to reflect on what truly matters in life — who they love and what remains unsaid. The exhibit, which first debuted at the “Wetland” art space in Taipei in March, attracted about 500 visitors in two days and sparked online discussion. The exhibit would be featured as part of the department’s graduation show, “ViewFinder.” The show is to run from 10am to 7pm today on the second floor of the C-LAB Library Exhibition Space in Taipei.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
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