The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday announced Taiwan’s finalists for the worldwide “Democracy Video Challenge” (DVC).
AIT Director Stephen Young, who presented certificates to the Taiwanese finalists at a news conference, said the AIT launched the contest in Taiwan in October to engage individuals from Taiwan in a global dialogue on democracy.
“The challenge provided an opportunity for dialogue and exchange on the important subject of democracy,” Young said. “Democracy is a fundamental value shared by the people of the US and the people of Taiwan.”
Michael Kau (高英茂), former deputy foreign minister and a senior fellow of event partner Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD), said the competition was significant on three levels.
While it demonstrates the US’ soft power in promoting democracy, it also serves as a platform for young people to think about what democracy is, Kau said.
“It also provides a chance for Taiwanese people to think about the nature of our own democracy and in which direction our democratic development should go,” he said.
Announced by the AIT last fall, the DVC is a worldwide competition initiated by the US Department of State that asks budding filmmakers, democracy advocates and the general public to create three-minute YouTube videos that complete the phrase, “Democracy is ....”
Selected by a panel of democracy advocates, film scholars and AIT representatives, the Taiwanese finalists are DBC Jmovie-Democracy, Goldfish, Ocean, Democracy and Democracy.
Lee Chia-hua (李佳樺) and Chang Chia-yun (張佳筠), freshmen at National Taiwan University’s Department of Filmmaking who made Democracy, said that to them, democracy is respecting and listening to others so that everyone can create a better world together.
Lee said that through making the video, she had a deeper understanding of the meaning of democracy, especially when she had to research Taiwanese pro-democracy events.
Asked if the theme of the challenge might be a bit too serious, Chang said democracy did not have to just be a serious topic, but rather an interesting one, depending on the angle from which people approach it.
Seven winning videos — one each from Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe, the Near East and North Africa, South and Central Asia, and the Western Hemisphere, as well as one anonymous video — will be chosen through public voting on YouTube.
They will be eligible for an all-expenses paid trip to the US that includes screenings of their videos in New York, Hollywood and Washington, meetings with film directors, public officials and democracy advocates, and visits to film sets and TV studios.
Yesterday’s awards ceremony was co-hosted by the Taiwanese partners of the DVC, the TFD, the Council for Cultural Affairs, Chinese Taipei Film Archive, Taiwan Film and Culture Association, SPOT Taipei Film House and National Taiwan University of the Arts.
The Taiwanese finalists’ videos can be found at www.videochallenge.america.gov/video.html
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in