Following the success of soap opera The Fierce Wife (犀利人妻) in Latin America last year, another Taiwanese TV drama is set to debut in the region this month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on Friday.
The award-winning drama The Way We Were (16個夏天) is to be broadcast on 13 TV channels in Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic — seven of Taiwan’s 22 diplomatic allies — and in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, the ministry said.
The Fierce Wife — the first Taiwanese TV show to be broadcast in the region — was a hit among Latin American audiences, and many viewers were eager to see other Taiwanese TV dramas, Department of International Information Services acting director-general Jeremy Liang (梁洪昇) said at a news conference.
MOFA in conjunction with the Ministry of Culture selected The Way We Were from several Taiwanese contenders, he said.
In an effort to promote popular Taiwanese culture, the two ministries provided funding for TV channels that broadcast the show so that the show could be dubbed in Spanish, a process that took about half a year.
The TV channels broadcasting the show do not have to pay for the rights, MOFA said.
The show focuses on friendship and love, Liang said, adding that he believes it will touch the hearts of many in the region.
The show stars Taiwanese actresses Ruby Lin (林心如) and Ann Hsu (許瑋甯), Taiwanese actors Weber Yang (楊一展) and Jason Tsou (鄒承恩), and Malaysian-Chinese actor Melvin Sia (謝佳見).
The show follows a romantic story that spans 16 years, from the summer of 1998 to 2014. It is set against historical events that occurred during the 16 summers, such as a massive earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the outbreak of SARS in 2003 and the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.
It won three awards at the Golden Bell Awards last year, including for best TV series and best director for a TV series. Ruby Lin was also nominated for best lead actress at Singapore’s Asian TV Awards last year.
Taiwan is not the first Asian country to export its TV dramas to Latin America, with South Korean TV shows having been popular in the region for many years.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
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
RSS