It tops the list of the nation's most instantly recognizable songs, but starting next month Mariden's Prayer will have company.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has signed up Any Empty Bottles for Sale? (
In addition, a rock version of the 20-year-old local favorite, arranged by Harlem Yu (庾澄慶), will be played at hundreds of fast-food chain stores across the country starting from next Tuesday.
The two artists agreed to allow the EPA to use their work for free.
"It's my pleasure to do so," Hou said yesterday at a press conference organized by the EPA. "The level of civilization in a country can partly be judged by reviewing its achievements in environmental protection."
In 1983, Hou married a segment of a Taiwanese slogan commonly used by recycling service peddlers to a major pentatonic scale, the basic scale of Chinese music. The song turned out to be one of Hou's best-loved pieces. Over the past two decades, the song has been translated into a number of different languages, including French and Japanese.
EPA Administrator Hau Lung-bin (
Hau said the rock arrangement will be played at 600 fast-food chain stores, where more trash cans will be installed for customers to recycle leftovers and paper containers.
Hau said the 400 million customers visiting fast-food chain stores annually were the target of the EPA's environmental education program.
"The six-month trial will be an ideal model of the cooperation between the government, the industry and the public to practice recycling on a daily basis," Hau said.
Hau said the recycling push is part of a follow-up to the EPA's policy of limiting the use of plastic bags and disposable dinning tableware.
Beginning Jan. 1 next year, officials said, the trial will become a compulsory regulation for all fast-food chain stores.
According to Chen Hsiung-wen (
"Paper tableware will be sent to paper factories for pulping and leftovers will be used to produce fertilizers or pig feed," Chen said.
Officials said yesterday that this year the EPA is aiming to increase low recycling rates of used batteries, fluorescent lamps and paper tableware.
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
RSS