Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) yesterday urged people to avoid “spreading fear and fake news” online amid rumors that children readingthe book King & King would become gay.
King & King is an illustrated children’s book coauthored by Stern Nijland and Linda De Haan that tells the story a young prince falling in love with another prince.
The Ministry of Education has placed the book on this year’s recommended reading list for first graders.
Groups opposed to marriage equality claimed it was a “plot by the ministry to make children gay.”
One has even threatened schools and demanded that they remove the book from their shelves and recommended reading lists, Huang said.
“The essence of love is understanding. It is not something you can control or force,” Huang quoted the ministry as saying.
The ministry has said that the book provides “emotional education” and teaches children how to deal with others trying to control their emotions.
The book is appropriate for elementary-school-aged children and offers guidance on respecting cultural diversity, it said.
The groups are twisting the message behind the book and spreading misinformation, Huang said.
Other books that teach about diversity had also been targeted by the groups, including Oliver is a Sissy (奧力佛是個娘娘腔), The Boy Who Wears Skirts (穿裙子的男孩) and And Tango Makes Three (一家三口), she said.
The groups called for a boycott of these and other books, including Butterfly Duo Duo (蝴蝶朵朵), which teaches children about sexual assault and about telling people they trust if they become victims, she said.
“Gender equality education has never been aimed at cultivating homosexuality. Teaching children about the LGBT community will not turn children into homosexuals,” Huang said.
The groups should put aside their prejudices and earnestly attempt to understand the message behind the books teaching about diversity, she said.
“Do not hide in darkness spreading false and one-sided information that misleads society, and causes injury to minority groups,” she said.
She would “fully investigate all anti-gender equality messages” she finds, Huang said.
She would also form a gender-equality supervisory group with other city councilors, which would also promote equality education, she said.
SCENARIOS: A potential conflict with Beijing would not be similar to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and China would target energy and food supplies, a researcher said China is likely to continue using economic and cyberoperations against Taiwan to force it to capitulate without resorting to a military attack, Fox News reported yesterday, citing the outcome of a tabletop exercise. Washington-based think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) earlier this month held a tabletop exercise in Taipei focusing on Beijing’s use of economic and cybercoercion against Taiwan. The FDD mentioned an “anaconda strategy,” in which Beijing would likely use cyberwarfare and disinformation campaigns followed by a blockade or other measures to strangulate Taiwan, rather than attempting an invasion, the report said. A large-scale cyberattack would be
HSINCHU CASES: Five people among 35 who were reported being sick were still in hospital after eating at a vendor in a market in Jhubei, the local health agency said Thirty-five people have sought medical treatment for acute symptoms after allegedly eating banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) from a vendor in Jhubei City (竹北), the Hsinchu County Public Health Bureau said yesterday. The bureau said that since Saturday, it has received several reports of suspected food poisoning from hospitals. The vendor has been ordered to temporarily suspend its business, it said, adding that tests were being conducted to determine whether the people had food poisoning, with results expected in about two weeks. A preliminary investigation showed that the people who sought treatment had recently eaten banh mi at a vendor at a retail market
GOOD MODEL: Speaking at his book launch, Law said that Taiwan is the most democratic Chinese-speaking country, which is why Hong Kongers relocated here China has suffocated Hong Kong’s civil society and its next target could be Taiwan, Nathan Law (羅冠聰), cofounder of the disbanded pro-democracy Hong Kong political party Demosisto, said in Taipei yesterday. Law made the remarks at a launch in Taipei for his book When the Wind Blows — the Struggles for Freedom of Hong Kong (時代推著我們前行:羅冠聰的香港備忘錄). Law has been living in the UK since he fled Hong Kong in 2020, and the book is about his fighting for the cause of freedom in the area. He was granted political asylum in 2021. “Fleeing is a long and distressing process, but it also
IMITATING OTHERS? Tsai Ing-wen’s office said the former president rents a commercial unit for her personal office and had never used election funds to purchase real estate Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday confirmed that he used about NT$43 million (US$1.35 million) from his presidential election subsidy to purchase an office unit near the Legislative Yuan in May. Ko made the remarks after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) earlier in the day told a news conference that she received a tip-off that the TPP chairman had purchased a 48.76 ping (161.2m2) office unit at Jinan Building (濟南大樓), a commercial building in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正). Lin said that Ko purchased the unit on May 10, paying about NT$43 million in cash,