WEATHER
WRA starts cloud seeding
The Water Resources Agency (WRA) turned to seeding clouds to boost reserves at Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) yesterday morning, the WRA’s Northern Region Water Resources Office said. The office said it launched the cloud-seeding operation at 7:10am as it noticed a cloud system approaching Taiwan, and that the operation is expected to increase the chance of rainfall by 10 percent. As of 11am yesterday, the Shihmen Reservoir, which mainly supplies water for northern Taiwan, was at 29.34 percent of capacity, branch data showed. The branch said the cloud system is forecast to bring rain from yesterday to tomorrow, adding that it hopes water reserves can rebound with rain brought by the system.
LITERATURE
Chi Pang-yuan dies
Academic, educator and writer Chi Pang-yuan (齊邦媛), who was instrumental in introducing Taiwanese literature to the Western world through her translations, has died at the age of 100. Wenhsun Magazine president Feng Te-ping (封德屏) said on Friday that Chi’s death was confirmed by friends who were familiar with the retirement home where she resided. Chi was known for her autobiography The Great Flowing River (巨流河), which recounts the ups and downs of her eventful life in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and then her relocation to Taiwan. Born in China’s Liaoning Province, she graduated from Wuhan University with a degree in English studies. In 1947, she relocated to Taiwan and further her education at Indiana University in the US in 1968. She later returned to Taiwan to become director of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at National Chung Hsing University. Chi also worked for the National Institute for Compilation and Translation, where she initiated the translation of Chinese literature to English, included the publication of An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Literature” (中國現代文學選集). She retired as professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at National Taiwan University in 1988. The Ministry of Culture yesterday issued a statement describing Chi as a pioneer in promoting literary criticism and translation in Taiwan.
POLICE
Bullet casings found
New Taipei City Police officers have been reprimanded for leaving a box of bullet casings inside the basket of a YouBike. The incident was first brought to the attention of authorities on March 20 when a member of the public, surnamed Shih (石), found a box from Czech ammunition company Sellier & Bellot sitting inside the basket of a YouBike parked near Linkou Police Precinct, a spokesperson for the city’s Zhonghe Precinct said. The box contained 1,200 empty handgun bullet casings and were used on March 20 by precinct officers at a firing range in the city’s Linkou District (林口) during a routine training exercise, the precinct said. After the drill was completed at around 4pm the same day, equipment and depleted casings were collected and accounted for by supervisors who oversaw the exercise and their assistants. However, a box was left inside the basket of a YouBike, it said, calling it an instance of gross negligence. Those responsible for the casings have been issued with reprimands, it said. It will also initiate stricter officer training and education to ensure that in the future equipment and emptied casings are all checked, rechecked and returned after exercises, the precinct said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
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