The 20th annual Taipei International Book Exhibition (台北國際書展) may help you to live a longer and healthier life — and perhaps even save the planet. The theme for this year’s event, which opened on Wednesday and runs through Monday at the Taipei World Trade Center (台北世界貿易中心), is “green reading.”
“This year’s theme reflects global trends in green living as well as the importance of environmental awareness,” said Huang Pao-ping (黃寶萍), director of the Taipei Book Fair Foundation, which organizes the annual exhibition.
Huang added that the exhibition showcases reading trends past, present and future. Highlights include several Ming Dynasty texts as well as a Torah scroll, and a whole array of digital publications. The exhibition’s green reading pavilion, as well as the digital publishing pavilion, can both be found in Hall 1.
Photo: Taipei Times
Belgium activist Gunter Pauli, founder of the Zero Emissions Research and Initiative and author of The Blue Economy, will discuss sustainability issues in a speech tomorrow from 11:45am to 12:45pm at the Red Salon (紅沙龍), which is located in Hall 1.
Guest writers include Brandon Sanderson, the best-selling author of the Mistborn trilogy, who will hold a reading and book signing session today from 2:15pm to 3:15pm at the Red Salon. Jo Nesbo, a Norwegian crime writer whose novels have sold more than 8.5 million copies worldwide, will give a talk in the Red Salon tomorrow from 2:15pm to 3:15pm and 4:45pm to 5:45pm.
Hall 1 is divided into five sections — international publishers, Taiwan publishers, specialized publishers, digital publishers and government publishers — while Hall 2 is dedicated to foreign and domestic comic books, manga and anime as well as a whole host of activities such as cosplay competitions and puppet shows.
Photo: Taipei Times
Rebecca Dautremer, an immensely talented illustrator of children’s books, will lead a workshop today from 11am to 12:30pm at the Activity Area (活動區), located in Hall 3, which is devoted to books for children.
The foundation says 730 publishing companies from 60 countries are participating in this year’s book fair, which ends Monday.
Photo: Taipei Times
If you are a Western and especially a white foreign resident of Taiwan, you’ve undoubtedly had the experience of Taiwanese assuming you to be an English teacher. There are cultural and economic reasons for this, but one of the greatest determinants is the narrow range of work permit categories that exist for Taiwan’s foreign residents, which has in turn created an unofficial caste system for foreigners. Until recently, laowai (老外) — the Mandarin term for “foreigners,” which also implies citizenship in a rich, Western country and distinguishable from brown-skinned, southeast Asian migrant laborers, or wailao (外勞) — could only ever
Sept. 23 to Sept. 29 The construction of the Babao Irrigation Canal (八堡圳) was not going well. Large-scale irrigation structures were almost unheard of in Taiwan in 1709, but Shih Shih-pang (施世榜) was determined to divert water from the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) to the Changhua plain, where he owned land, to promote wet rice cultivation. According to legend, a mysterious old man only known as Mr. Lin (林先生) appeared and taught Shih how to use woven conical baskets filled with rocks called shigou (石笱) to control water diversion, as well as other techniques such as surveying terrain by observing shadows during
In recent weeks news outlets have been reporting on rising rents. Last year they hit a 27 year high. It seems only a matter of time before they become a serious political issue. Fortunately, there is a whole political party that is laser focused on this issue, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP). They could have had a seat or two in the legislature, or at least, be large enough to attract media attention to the rent issue from time to time. Unfortunately, in the last election, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) acted as a vote sink for
This is a film about two “fools,” according to the official synopsis. But admirable ones. In his late thirties, A-jen quits his high-paying tech job and buys a plot of land in the countryside, hoping to use municipal trash to revitalize the soil that has been contaminated by decades of pesticide and chemical fertilizer use. Brother An-ho, in his 60s, on the other hand, began using organic methods to revive the dead soil on his land 30 years ago despite the ridicule of his peers, methodically picking each pest off his produce by hand without killing them out of respect