This year’s Thai Festival is to be held in Taipei next week, featuring food, performances and an artificial intelligence (AI) exhibit that would let visitors virtually try on national costumes developed by Thailand’s late queen mother, the Thailand Trade and Economic Office said yesterday.
This year’s Thai Festival would feature a diverse lineup of performances and exhibits aimed at giving visitors “a firsthand sense of the creativity and beauty of Thai culture,” office Executive Director Narong Boonsatheanwong, Thailand’s top representative to Taiwan, told a news conference in Taipei.
The festival, themed “Creative Life and Creative Heartbeat,” would be held at the Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 from Friday to Sunday next week, featuring food stalls and exhibits by 10 selected Thai brands, Narong said.
Photo: CNA
The office would also use the festival to honor Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit, who died in October last year, by highlighting some of her past contributions, especially her “invaluable” role in developing Thailand’s national costume, he said.
In the 1960s, Thai women did not yet have a clearly defined national costume, so the Queen Mother directed experts to study ancient court attire and incorporate modern tailoring techniques in developing traditional royal dress, Narong said.
Those designs later became a model for today’s national costume for Thai women and were designated as part of Thailand’s national cultural heritage in 2023, he added.
During the festival, visitors would be able to use an AI-powered interactive exhibit to virtually try on Thailand’s national costumes and take photographs at the venue, Narong said.
Thai performers have been invited to the festival, including dance group Sbunnga, music group the Ping Reverie and boy band Lad, he said, adding that another 13 T-Pop artists would also appear and interact with the crowd.
With the opening ceremony set to begin at 3pm on Saturday next week, three lucky visitors would be selected to win round-trip tickets from Taipei to Bangkok, the office said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS