SOCIETY
Art work crossing strait
An acclaimed installation at China’s Pavilion in last year’s World Expo in Shanghai — the animated Along the River During the Ching-ming Festival — will be displayed in Taipei from July 1 to Sept. 4. At 110m long and 6m wide, the animated version of the historical hand scroll will be on display for visitors to the Expo Dome, Taipei Deputy Secretariat Chen Yung-ren (陳永仁) said. The animated scroll was based on the work of 12th century Sung Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan (張擇端), whose lively portrayal of the daily life of ordinary people in the capital city of the Northern Sung Dynasty — Bianjing (Kaifeng) — has captured the fascination of people for generations. The original work is stored at the Palace Museum in Beijing. The electronic adaptation of the painting is 30 times bigger than the original and can switch between a daytime and nighttime view of the scene.
ENVIRONMENT
EPA to auction seized ship
A ship belonging to South Korea’s Samho Shipping that authorities seized earlier this year will be auctioned on June 15 to pay off fines incurred in a 2005 benzene leakage in Taiwanese waters from another vessel owned by the same company, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said. The Samho Onyx was detained by EPA and Ministry of Justice personnel on Feb. 25 when it entered Mailiao Harbor in Yunlin County. The money raised through the auction will be used to reimburse more than NT$60 million (US$2.1 million) in fines that the company accrued for water pollution after its vessel Samho Brother, carrying 3,100 tonnes of benzene, sank off Hsinchu County in October 2005. EPA officials said that although the South Korean company has paid more than NT$10 million in fines, it still owes more than NT$60 million. The reserve price of the auction for the Samho Onyx has been set at US$7 million, the EPA said.
SPORT
All-female race held
More than 7,000 women and girls wearing pink T-shirts joined the nation’s first long-distance foot race exclusively for women yesterday. The participants ranged from pre-schoolers to 60-year-olds in an event that featured a 9km and a 5km race. “It doesn’t feel so competitive when running with girls,” said Hsu Yu-fang (許玉芳), who won the 9km race in 30 minutes, 24 seconds. “It feels more comfortable.” The event, starting on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office, also included massage services, nail-painting, makeup activities and performances by local singers.
POLITICS
Tsai vague on running mate
During a campaign event yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) struggled to respond to questions surrounding a her choice of running mate. DPP -Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) is increasingly seen as a possible pick as Tsai seeks to shore up local and business ties. On Saturday, Tsai said to reporters that a joint ticket would be “prosperous,” because of their same year of birth, 1956, and their place in the Chinese zodiac calendar. However, in an apparent back-down yesterday, she repeated earlier comments that a running mate requires a party-wide consensus. The DPP “doesn’t have to rush the issue” and in the meantime would focus on coordinating the election campaign, she said. “There are many people that have the sign of the monkey within the DPP. You don’t have to look too far into this.”
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
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