A promotional film about Formosan rock macaques on Kaohsiung’s Shoushan (壽山) has won a Platinum Remi Award at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival in Houston, Texas, in the Short Subject Film and Video Productions-Documentary category, the Shoushan National Nature Park Management Office said on Thursday.
In the nearly seven-minute film titled Adventure of a Lifetime (猴諧和諧), director Yang Sean-wen (楊湘文) uses a popular nursery rhyme to show the macaques in a positive light and correct some of the public’s misconceptions, the office said.
The film adopts the perspective of a child hiking with his father, who explains the long family lineage of the macaques on Shoushan and how the primates learn through observation, such as staying close to humans for food.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
The Shoushan macaques have a peculiar relationship with humans, as they are often nearby and have learned to eat human food, the office said, adding that this has changed the animals’ foraging habits and generated conflict.
The office said that it has therefore established a “three noes” policy to encourage visitors to refrain from feeding, provoking or touching the macaques.
As of yesterday, eight people had been fined NT$3,000 each for failing to comply with the regulations, the office said.
WorldFest is one of the US’ oldest film festivals and one of the three largest international film festivals in North America. This year, Adventure of a Lifetime was chosen from among 4,500 entries from 74 countries.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) yesterday apologized after the suicide of a civil servant earlier this month and announced that a supervisor accused of workplace bullying would be demoted. On Nov. 4, a 39-year-old information analyst at the Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) northern branch, which covers greater Taipei and Keelung, as well as Yilan, Lienchiang and Kinmen counties, was found dead in their office. WDA northern branch director Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容), who has been accused of involvement in workplace bullying, would be demoted to a nonsupervisory position, Ho told a news conference in Taipei. WDA Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said he would
RSS