English speakers around the world who are interested in Taiwanese culture, arts and entertainment have increased access to information through a Web site officially launched yesterday.
Culture.tw, funded by the Council of Cultural Affairs (CCA) and run by the Central News Agency (CNA), aims to be the main Internet portal that "showcases the rich and colorful culture of Taiwan in English," Chief Editor of the site Miranda Loney told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
After more than a year of planning, culture.tw was launched quietly in July on a trial basis, council Vice Chairman Wu Chin-fa (吳錦發) said.
"During the trial run, an average of 800 plus unique users viewed the Web site from 53 countries around the globe every day," he said.
Accounting for 45.53 percent of all hits, US Internet users were the largest group of regular visitors to the Web site, while English speakers in Taiwan accounted for 42.64 percent of hits, Wu said.
Taiwan-related cultural events and activities can be found in the frequently updated events section, while the "stories section offers in-depth, high quality written features on various facets of Taiwan culture augmented by audio, video, and photographs," Loney said.
Users may also discuss or comment on issues related to Taiwanese culture, Loney said.
David Blundell, a linguistic anthropologist who teaches at National Chengchi University, praised culture.tw as excellent.
"[The site is] an excellent tool for my students in Taiwan to learn about Taiwan?and it's [also] something so convenient and easy to use for my students in California to discover Taiwanese culture," Blundell said.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman