The Ministry of Culture on Thursday outlined plans for this year’s Taiwan Culture in Europe initiative, with arts events in more than 10 European countries highlighting Taiwan’s commitment to human rights.
This year’s program builds on the momentum of last year and aims to showcase Taiwan’s diverse cultural identity through high-profile film festivals, academic collaborations and live performances, the ministry said in a statement.
Cinema anchors the yearlong initiative, which started at the One World International Human Rights Film Festival in March, where Taiwan was represented by the documentaries SPI (烤火房的一些夢) and Slave Island (奴隸島), along with the feature film Yen and Ai-Lee (小雁與吳愛麗).
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Culture
Yesterday, the ministry-supported Queer East Festival opened with the 4K premiere of director Yu Kan-ping’s (虞戡平) The Outsiders (孽子), featuring restored footage previously cut by martial law-era censors.
Taiwanese films are also slated to appear at the Helsinki International Film Festival, Germany’s MOVE IT! Human Rights Film Festival and WATCH DOCS International Human Rights Film Festival later in the year, the Ministry of Culture said, although specific titles have yet to be announced.
Beyond film, highlights include “Walking with Taiwan” at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania, which took place last month, a Taiwan cultural festival hosted by KU next month, and “Taiwan Export,” a literature program organized with the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations in August.
In September, the National Cultural Association of Taiwan is to launch a “Taiwan Day” European tour featuring the MeimageDance troupe, Taipei Gong Le Xuan and the Lei Sheng traditional arts group.
The tour is to visit Austria, Poland and Hungary, blending contemporary dance with traditional Taiwanese temple fair elements to strengthen cultural ties with central Europe, the ministry said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
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
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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