The Chiayi District Court has ordered a mother to pay NT$5,000 in damages after she threw out her son’s collection of 32 Attack on Titan (進擊的巨人) comic books.
The fine can be commuted to labor and the ruling can be appealed, the court said.
The woman, surnamed Chien (簡), lives with her 20-year-old son, but the two have a strained relationship due primarily to the son’s habit of collecting manga and magazines, and refusal to dispose of them, the ruling said.
Photo: Lin Yi-chang, Taipei Times
Chien said they do not have space in their house to store all of her son’s collections, and she disposed of the manga series, because they had begun to develop mold from the humidity, it said.
The son was livid and sued his mother, saying some of the books were out of print, the ruling said.
Chien was contrite and asked to settle out of court, but she did not appear when summoned for further questioning, the ruling said.
The son was unwilling to engage in dialogue with Chien in court to attempt a settlement, so the prosecutors indicted Chien for destruction of property per the Criminal Code.
The court ruled that although the two were mother and son, Chien should respect the son’s rights to his property.
As the plaintiff did not wish to settle out of court, but the means employed in the act of destruction of property were mild, and the given price of the objects destroyed was not great, the court ruled that Chien should pay NT$5,000 in damages.
Commenting on the case, online author Neal Wu (吳子雲) on Tuesday shared his own experience, saying he was so angry at his mother for throwing away his comic collection in high school that he refused to speak to her for two years.
“The incident isn’t just about throwing away comic books,” he said, adding that he hoped Chien had learned from the incident or at least engage in self-reflection to learn why her actions drew such a strong response from her son.
Wu said that if a child purchases a book using their own pocket money, it is their possession, and even if the parents disagree, they should communicate to their child why they disagreed.
Wu said parents should not “throw things away” in an authoritarian manner.
Studying is not the only way to measure success in life, and as long as they do not turn “bad,” it is not bad for children to find solace in reading comics or playing games, he said.
Psychology consultant Wang Chih-yi (王智誼) said that digital products are often a source of conflict between parents and children.
Depriving children of their interests would result in stronger reactions, and sometimes self-harm, he said.
Parents should remember to consider the issue from the child’s perspective and try to de-escalate the situation, he said, adding that they should seek to handle the situation instead of punishing the child.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at