Culture

Santa Comes to Wulai Saturday

Santa in Wulai District, New Taipei City
Culture 
Phillip Charlier 0 Comment , ,

Saturday, December 23, will see Santa come to Wulai for the seventh annual Christmas in Wulai event organized by the Atayal organization. Santa will appear from noon until 5:30pm, giving presents and candy to children and the child at heart at the Wulai Atayal museum. Wulai District is a predominantly aboriginal community at the periphery of New Taipei City, known for its hot springs, beautiful scenery, and the traditional food and handicrafts of the Atayal people. Atayal.org is a Taiwan-based,

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Australian Artist Reproduces Kaohsiung Street-grit in Miniature

Joshua Smith
Culture 
Phillip Charlier 0 Comment , ,

Australian artist Joshua Smith recently completed a model of a locksmith’s shop in Kaohsiung City and it will be on display in an exhibition at the Arcade Art Gallery in Kaohsiung from November 10. According to My Modern Met, Smith, a former stencil artist and gallerist has focused on creating miniature urban landscapes for the past two years. Smith’s previous work featured a building in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The Kaohsiung locksmith building is replicated on a 1:18 scale and includes

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White Wolf: Taiwan Aborigines are Chinese, and Confucian

Culture 
Phillip Charlier 0 Comment , , ,

Chang An-lo, also known as the “White Wolf,” declared that Taiwan’s indigenous people are actually Chinese at an Amis “harvest festival” organised by the Chinese Unity Promotion Party in Hualian yesterday, September 9. The event was styled as “The Chinese Unity Year of Confucius 2568 Bumper Harvest Festival”. Making a speech as host of the event, the erudite gangster-turned-politician declared, “Everyone is Chinese; aboriginal people are Chinese.” Wearing a costume that resembled a traditional Chinese-style robe but with Amis aboriginal

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Aboriginal Hunting Rights Protected Under Wildlife Conservation Law

Council of Indigenous Peoples and Council of Agriculture members pose at a press conference
Culture 
Phillip Charlier 0 Comment ,

The right of aboriginal people to hunt for personal, non-profit use has been upheld with provisions made in the Wildlife Conservation Act, it was announced at a press conference at noon today. The press conference was held jointly by the Council of Indigenous Peoples and the Council of Agriculture. It was explained that under Article 21 of the Wildlife Conservation Act, indigenous people are legally able to hunt for personal use in aboriginal areas. The provisions were made to uphold

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Taiwan Rapper’s American Visa Canceled

Taiwan rapper Dwagie (Doggie G)
Culture 
Phillip Charlier 0 Comment ,

Taiwan rapper Doggie G (aka Dwagie), was disappointed to find his American visa canceled shortly before he was due to perform at a music festival in Texas. After an interview yesterday at the USA’s defacto embassy, the American Institute in Taiwan, Tseng Kuan-jung (曾冠榕) said he will definitely miss his favorite Texan music festival this year. The popular Taiwanese rapper held a visa valid until September 2017, but it was suddenly canceled without warning. AIT officials today told him they

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Legislator Calls for Maori Exchanges

DPP legislator Chen Ying
Culture 
Phillip Charlier 0 Comment ,

[Picture: Liberty Times Network] Democratic Progressive Party legislator Chen Ying today requested the Ministry of Health and Welfare help establish a project group to make a record of Maori medicinal herbs. Chen said there should be more exchanges on health with the New Zealand indigenous people. Chen told the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee that the ancestors of the Maori people had migrated to New Zealand more than 700 years ago from a place called Waikiki, and that Waikiki

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Bungee Jumpers Banned

Dongpu Bridge Nantou County is the longest and highest suspension bridge in Taiwan
Culture Health and Safety 
Phillip Charlier 0 Comment ,

Local police and representatives of Nantou County Government showed up at a suspension bridge in Xinyi Township this morning to stop a bungee jumping event slated for today February 19. The authorities were informed by members of the public that bungee jumps from the bridge were planned for February 19 and March 5. However, the organizers had not obtained permission from the county government or relevant authorities. The Dongpu Suspension Bridge is the longest and highest in Taiwan, with a

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Taipei Railway Workshop to be Redeveloped as Railway Museum

Steam engine being restored at Taipei Railway Workshop
Culture 
Phillip Charlier 0 Comment ,

The Culture Bureau and Ministry of Transport signed a memorandum of agreement yesterday to jointly develop a railway heritage museum in the old Taipei Railway Workshop complex. The Taipei Railway Workshop is a large facility built in 1935 during Taiwan’s Japanese colonial era. It has remained unused since it closed down in 2012. Buildings and yards occupy a 16.82 hectare site on Civic Boulevard in Xinyi District. The workshop was declared a national historic site in 2015. Buildings on the

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Beijing Gives the Hush Order on Scholar’s Funeral

Zhou Youguang, inventor of pinyin
Culture Regional 
Phillip Charlier 0 Comment ,

Picture from a Communist Chinese website. Chinese Communist Party officials quashed plans for a grand farewell for late scholar Zhou You-guang, in his hometown of Changzhou Saturday, January 21, 2017. The 111 year-old scholar, known as “the father of pinyin” passed away January 14, just one day after his eleventy-first birthday. Beijing let Changzhou know who’s boss by insisting that only family members and friends could attend his funeral, and no outsiders or media were allowed. It was a quiet

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Taiwan White Terror Period Featured in New Video Game

detention video game scene
Culture 
Phillip Charlier 0 Comment ,

A new video game set during Taiwan’s martial law era went live on Steam January 13 and has received “overwhelmingly positive” reviews on the game platform in the few days since release. “Detention” is a 2D horror genre game developed by Taiwan’s Taipei-based game studio Red Candle Games. It features horror elements from Buddhist and Taoist religions, as well as Taiwanese folk superstitions. Called “Back to School” in the Chinese language version, the game is set on an isolated school

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