With a flawless card trick, a 26-year-old magician from Taipei has become the first Taiwanese to win a top prize at the World Championship of Magic.
Horret Wu (吳何) was the winner of the close-up card magic category, performed in close proximity to the judges and audience.
“Card magic is commonly a European area of expertise,” the Chinese-language United Daily News quoted Wu as saying. “There aren’t many that can take the championship from them without remarkable innovation and skill.”
Wu said he was advised to change categories to increase his chances of winning, but for Wu the competition was not just about winning, it was a way to challenge himself, he said.
Wu is the first Asian to win that category, giving a performance that was considered a flawless display of card trickery at the highest level of technical skill.
Following his performance, Wu received a five-minute standing ovation for his first performance in a global competition held by the International Federation of Magic Societies (FISM).
He has won multiple awards from the Taiwan Magic Association and he placed second last year in a different category at a FISM competition in South Korea.
A self-described “underground master of sleight,” Wu specializes in card magic and sleight-of-hand. Well known on the Taiwanese magic scene, he has crafted original acts.
The FISM is one of the top organizations in the international magic community, founded in 1948. The triennial World Championship of Magic is the most prominent FISM event, which is attended by thousands of magicians from around the world.
This year’s competition was held in the Italian town of Rimini from July 6-Saturday last week.
For Wu, the next step is Japan and France, with the aim putting Taiwan into the international magic spotlight.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS