CULTURE
Taiwan festival to begin
The annual Taiwan Plus cultural festival in Japan is to be held in Kyoto for the first time on Saturday and Sunday, showcasing the Taiwanese religious icon Mazu and featuring live performances by popular music acts, an event promoter said yesterday. The festival, which celebrates the rapport between Taiwan and Japan, would include an exhibition about the sea goddess enshrined in Fengtian Temple in Hsinkang, Chiayi County, the Kyoto City Tourism Association said. There would also be live music shows, featuring Taiwanese folk singer Chen Ming-chang (陳明章), Hakka pop singer Hsieh Yu-Wei (謝宇威) and Puyuma Family Band, an indigenous band whose members have won more than 10 Golden Melody awards. During the event, the Taiwanese artists would also collaborate with their Japanese counterparts, such as the Style Kyoto Orchestra and conductor Kimbo Ishii, the association said. Other well-known participants include Kyoto Tachibana Senior-High School marching band and Japanese Noh music performer Tatsunori Kongo, it said. Besides music, a bazaar featuring Taiwanese food and culture from about 100 local brands would offer delicacies including bubble milk tea, pastries, beer and jam, it said. The event is to run from 11am to 6pm.
EDUCATION
Teacher suspended
The Taichung Bureau of Education said it has fined and imposed a four-year teaching ban on a preschool teacher who threatened a child with scissors, while also ordering the school that employed her to halt new enrollments for one year. The bureau said it received a tip-off earlier last month and contracted an outside investigator on April 22 to examine the case. The investigator’s report said that the teacher forcibly held down a child with special needs, threatened a child with a pair of scissors and made children run laps around a track as a punishment. After a meeting on the situation on Tuesday last week, the bureau said it had fined the female teacher NT$400,000 and banned her from working at educational institutions for four years.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
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