The Taipei City Government sponsored a Vietnamese cultural festival yesterday to honor the thousands of migrant workers and new immigrants from the Southeast Asian country.
The festival, offering a variety of entertainment, attracted more than 1,000 migrant workers to Da-an Forest Park in Taipei.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) greeted the participants with “How are you?” in Vietnamese.
PHOTO: CNA
He then expressed his condolences and sympathies for the victims of recent typhoons in southern Taiwan and northern Vietnam.
Morakot brought heavy rainfall in southern Taiwan from Aug. 7 through Aug. 9, triggering serious flooding and landslides in remote mountainous areas, leaving more than 600 people dead or missing and displacing thousands more.
Around the same time, northern Vietnam was hit by a typhoon that led to heavy human casualties and property loss.
“Let’s come together on this occasion to express our condolences and concern for all the surviving victims and pray for their wellbeing,” Hau said.
The festival was part of a series of cultural activities being held by the city government this year to promote cultural exchanges with Southeast Asian countries, many of which are major sources of migrant workers and new immigrants.
“The festival is also designed to celebrate Vietnam’s Sept. 2 National Day,” Hau said.
Hau said the capital city now has more than 1,300 Vietnamese married to locals, as well as more than 5,000 workers and caregivers from the Southeast Asian country.
“We appreciate the contributions … the Vietnamese workers and new immigrants have made to our city and country,” Hau said, adding that all those who have encountered problems in work and daily life are welcome to contact the city’s Bureau of Labor Affairs, where city officials will offer counseling services or other forms of assistance.
Three well-known Vietnamese pop singers were invited to perform at the festival, while various Vietnamese delicacies were also available, along with a lucky draw with cash and other prizes.
Nguyen Ba Cu, director of the Vietnamese Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, and many city officials attended the festival and offered their best wishes for the migrant workers.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
RSS