Former Hong Kong legislator Tanya Chan (陳淑莊), who has been living in Taiwan for three years, has become the head chef of a new Taipei restaurant, following her suspended sentence in 2019 for her role in the 2014 Umbrella movement.
On Friday night, Chan wrote in English and Chinese on the Facebook account of the soon-to-open restaurant Red Cotton (紅棉) about her experience living in Taiwan and what motivated her to become a chef.
As a lawmaker in Hong Kong, she said she lacked the time to cook for herself, and often ate at the home of her friend, Danny Yip (葉一南), who owns the Michelin-starred restaurant The Chairman.
Photo: Screen grab from Red Cotton’s Facebook page
“Perhaps I was so well fed that after moving to Taiwan, alone, what I missed most was the flavors of Hong Kong,” she wrote.
One day while talking on the phone with Yip’s wife, who she identified only as “Mrs Yip,” she told her how much she missed their food, Chan said.
Mrs Yip told her it was time for her to cook for herself, saying that “as long as you are passionate and devoted to food, and willing to work hard, anyone can be a chef,” she said.
After three years of hard work and with her “fingers covered in cuts,” she became the head chef of Red Cotton, she said.
The restaurant in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) would begin accepting reservations on Oct. 14 for dates after Nov. 14, the post said.
The restaurant has gained more than 12,000 followers on Facebook, and her post has more than 13,000 likes.
Chan was a legislator in Hong Kong from 2008 to 2012 and again from 2016 to 2020. She was also a founding member of the territory’s Civic Party.
She was arrested and later put on trial for inciting a “public nuisance” during the 2014 pro-democracy protests, becoming one of a group of defendants known as the “Occupy Nine.”
After undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, Chan in June 2019 received an eight-month sentence, which was suspended for two years.
She announced her withdrawal from politics in 2020. In 2021, media outlets reported that she had moved to Taiwan.
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
RSS