A documentary about the first all-Taiwanese expedition to the South Pole is to be shown at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival next month, organizers said on Wednesday.
The documentary, Nature of Mother (無邊), follows a group of five Taiwanese adventurers. It was directed by Yang Li-chou (楊力州), whose 2006 work My Football Summer (奇蹟的夏天) won the Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary that year.
Yang also directed the Discovery Channel version of Nature of Mother, released in 2019 as Antarctica Expedition (前進南極點).
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival via CNA
The expedition included Albert Liu (劉柏園), chief executive officer of Taipei-based company Gamania which sponsored the event through its foundation, extreme sports athlete Tommy Chen (陳彥博), travel and adventure TV show host Chris Wang (宥勝), students in their 20s and a film crew led by Yang.
Liu, who had previously explored the North Pole, said that the South Pole expedition was designed to be the first visit by Taiwanese to the world’s southernmost point and aimed to encourage young people to have the courage to pursue their dreams.
The Gamania Cheer Up Foundation previously said that the team left Taipei on Nov. 13, 2018, and headed to Chile, from where they set out on their expedition.
However, after encountering blizzards and complications relating to their rations, the group decided to take a detour to reduce the distance, although it was more challenging than the original route. The team reached their destination on Dec. 22, 2018.
Nature of Mother is to be screened at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival held from Nov. 2 to 20. Tickets to the movies being shown, including a number of Mandarin-language features, documentaries and shorts that are celebrating their world premiere, can be purchased on the festival’s Web site from 1pm on Oct. 22.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
‘POOP ON STAGE’: The song, which talks about the reluctance to graduate and anxiety about a lack of job opportunities, resonated with many students’ feelings The original song Poop on Stage has been chosen as National Taiwan University’s (NTU) graduation song this year, sparking much debate regarding the song’s title and content, which describes students’ anxiety about post-graduation unemployment. The title, Shang Tai Da Bian (上台大便), is a play on words that literally means “go on stage to poop.” The first three characters, shang tai da (上台大), also mean “to attend NTU,” as “Taida” is a common abbreviation for the university. The last character, bian (便), can mean “convenient” or “then,” but is more commonly associated with defecation. The lyrics of the song describe students’ reluctance to graduate and
RSS