FOOD
Poll shows lack of trust
Nearly 80 percent of Taiwanese do not trust food ingredient labels and a similar percentage has low trust in the government’s management of food safety, a survey by Global Views Monthly found. The magazine found that 78.7 percent of respondents do not trust the government’s ability to manage food safety, compared with only 15.1 percent who said they trust the authorities. The survey, conducted from Dec. 3 to Dec. 6, was based on 1,026 valid samples from people over the age of 20. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The results reflect several food scandals that have rocked the nation over the past year. The magazine urged the government to regain public trust by demonstrating its intent to push through tougher regulations on food safety.
SOCIETY
Yunlin sculpture unveiled
An 8m-tall steel sculpture entitled Exploration — Farmer’s Foot, was unveiled on Wednesday at the Erlun Sports Park in Yunlin County as part of the Yunlin Agriculture Exposition. Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) said the sculpture by Lu Ping-cheng (呂秉承) symbolizes the future of the county and its agricultural sector. Su said the sculpture was one of the highlights of the exposition, which opened on Dec. 25 and will run until March 6. Lu said the sculpture, which features a walking foot, represents the persistent spirit of Yunlin’s farmers in their daily lives and work. Exploration refers to efforts to explore and move forward, while the steel used to produce the work represents technology and innovation, Lu said, adding that the piled-up texture of the sculpture’s surface represents agriculture’s long history.
ORNITHOLOGY
Oriental stork eludes birders
A group of bird watchers had a good time looking for wild birds in Kinmen County on Wednesday, although they failed to find the species they most wanted to see. Led by the Wild Bird Society of Kinmen, about a dozen birders spotted several rare species, including black-faced spoonbills and black storks, near Lingshui Lake. However, they were not lucky enough to spot the oriental stork — an endangered bird that was the reason for Wednesday’s field trip. The bird, which can reach 1.29m in height and weigh up to 4.4kg, with a wingspan of 2.22m, was spotted seven weeks ago in the offshore county, prior to which it had not been sighted since 2000. It is likely that the birds were scared away by traffic and traveled to more remote wetland areas, local bird watchers said.
LITERATURE
Literary critic praised
Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) praised the contributions of renowned Chinese literary critic Hsia Chih-tsing (夏志清), who died on Sunday last week in New York at the age of 92. Hsia was a unique figure in contemporary world literature, Lung said, adding that he was familiar with Western literature and had “prophet-like” aesthetic insights into Chinese-language literature. The critic’s passion and lifelong dedication to literature will be remembered, she said. Hsia, born in Shanghai in 1921, is known for introducing modern Chinese literature to the West and was credited with helping Chinese writers such as Eileen Chang (張愛玲), Shen Congwen (沈從文) and Qian Zhongshu (錢鐘書) to gain greater recognition in the West. Hsia’s book A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, published in English in 1961, was a pioneering study of 20th-century Chinese fiction.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
ENGLISH-MANDARIN: A lawmaker said that he believed the change was made to follow common practice while operating in international airspace The air force this month started issuing Chinese-English bilingual radio warnings to expel Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft that fly into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), a senior military official said on July 9. Air Force Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Wang Te-yang (王德揚) said the decision was made after considering three factors: enemy threat, the global situation and aviation safety. Previously the air force only used Mandarin when intercepting PLA aircraft that fly into the ADIZ because both sides use it as their official language. An ADIZ is a self-declared area in which a country claims the right to identify,