Taiwan braces for the new COVID subvariant XBB as it spreads across Asia

Taiwan braces for the new COVID subvariant XBB as it spreads across Asia

2022-11-06

There were 24,309 local cases of COVID reported on Sunday. That’s 1,214 fewer than Saturday’s number. The BA.5 subvariant continues to rage in the U.S. while six omicron subvariants are still spreading in Taiwan. What’s worrying is the rise of the XBB subvariant across Asia, which is posing a threat to Taiwan.

In the U.S., in addition to the BA.5 subvariant, the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are both making their presence felt. But the specter that’s most feared is still the XBB subvariant. As a recombinant of two different BA.2 subvariants, the XBB has a high rate of re-infection. Philip Lo of the CECC says despite the higher re-infection rates of the XBB and BQ.1, their symptoms are not markedly more severe than other subvariants. Still, he’s calling on the public to get vaccinated with a next-generation vaccine soon, so as to be protected.

確診者7+0接觸者免隔離恐怖新變異株XBB恐流行

2022-11-06

今日COVID-19本土仍有24309例，新增的病例數，較昨天減少1214例。美國目前除了主流變異株BA.5流行，也持續偵測到6種變異株在本土作亂，更擔憂亞洲多國流行的XBB，可能成為噩夢變異株。

在美國的變異株除了BA.5，包括BQ.1，BQ.1.1都不容小覷。但最讓人不安的噩夢變異株莫過於XBB，它屬於BA.2家族，有2種BA.2的重組變異株，有較高的重複感染機率。指揮中心羅一鈞指出，XBB、BQ家族重複感染情況增加，但疾病嚴重度並未提高，因此他也呼籲民眾，踴躍接種次世代疫苗，來防範變異株。

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Diwali Celebration kicks off in Taiwan

Every year, Indians all around the world celebrate Diwali, one of the most important Hindu festivals. During the festival, people set off fireworks and light candles to symbolize light over darkness and a spiritual victory of good over evil. The Taipei India Music and Culture Center, the group, "Indians in Taiwan," and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized a Diwali celebration in Taiwan on Friday. FTV reporter Stephany Yang takes us in for a look.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu, the India Taipei Association Deputy Director, and other distinguished guests light a lamp, symbolizing the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. The 2022 Diwali Celebration in Taiwan is back in action.

Diwali, also known as “The Festival of Lights,” is one of the most important and major festivals celebrated by Indian communities around the world. During the festival, people light candles and set off fireworks to symbolize the spiritual victory of good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, light over darkness, and new beginnings. Ministry of Foreign Affairts Joseph Wu said, in recent years, investment and cultural exchanges between Taiwan and India have grown and deepened.

Joseph Wu
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Diwali is the most important festival in Indian culture. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is very happy to work with the Indian community in Taipei to promote this cultural event. I think it’s a very important symbol for Taiwan and India’s cultural relations. Taiwan has that kinship with India because both are democratic countries. The bilateral relations are getting better and better. The trade relations or the trade volume between Taiwan and India has grown 64% from the previous year. That is a tremendous achievement on our effort. Right now, we have the Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs visiting India right now discussing on how the two countries can further promote economic and trade relations with each other.

Since 2020, the Taipei India Music and Culture Center and the group, “Indians in Taiwan,” have organized the Diwali Celebration in Taiwan. The event is sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This year, the celebration was held at the American Club, complete with a lighting ceremony, a musical drama of the story of Diwali, dinner, and several traditional Indian music and dance performances.

Jeffery Wu
Taipei India Music and Culture Center
It’s evil and just. They’re fighting together. Inside this story, there’s a lot of environment, loyalty, family values, and about how to protect your land and protect your people.

Around 140 Indians living in Taiwan, including officials from the India Taipei Association, entrepreneurs, students, scholars, and NGO groups came to celebrate Diwali in Taiwan.

Akash Dubey
Festival attendee
This year our guests is over 140. Plus the backstage team is more than 50 people helping backstage. As you see the beautiful decorations is just matching the standard of how we do it in India.

Vinoth Kumar
Festival attendee
I come from Kaohsiung all the way to Taipei to enjoy this Diwali celebration. Diwali is one of our very important festivals for Indians so I came here to enjoy this wonderful evening.

Neha Purswaney
Festival attendee
The whole family gathers, there are fireworks, lights, eating, and dancing. It’s different here because obviously, we can’t do it on such a large scale. But the spirit and the joy is here. They were all yelling out randomly during the photo. That spirit is there.

Stephany Yang
FTV reporter
This is the third Diwali festival held in Taipei, and organizers hope to further strengthen the relationship between Taiwan and India. This is Stephany Yang and Leung Chun Lok reporting in Taipei.

2022-11-06

Three leading Taipei mayoral candidates continue to trade barbs in the aftermath of debate

With less than three weeks to go before the local elections, the three leading candidates in the running for Taipei mayor faced off in a debate over the weekend. In particular, the KMT’s mayoral candidate Chiang Wan-an and the DPP’s Chen Shih-chung traded barbs over Chen’s management of the COVID pandemic. On Sunday, Chiang’s status as an American lawyer was placed under a cloud, after a local scholar came out and said that Chiang’s American license to practice law had been suspended three times in a row. Chiang for his part said he had never been blacklisted as a lawyer, and that he was simply late in paying his fees and not doing other necessary documentation on time.

The DPP’s Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung was seen pitching with President Tsai Ing-wen on a baseball diamond. It was the fourth time for the two to appear together in a week.

Tsai Ing-wen
President
Taiwan is just like a baseball team. The central government and local governments each have their own defensive positions. We must unite as one, cover for each other, and be good teammates. Currently, the election campaigning is really getting heated; it’s really neck-and-neck. All of Chen Shih-chung’s Team No. 12 must together help him canvass for votes so that Chen Shih-chung can get elected.

Tsai hopes that Chen, a former health minister, can enter the Taipei mayor’s office, but his opponents--one from the KMT and an independent--are putting up a good fight. On Saturday, the three butted heads in a debate, where the KMT’s Chiang Wan-an asked Chen seven more questions about epidemic prevention, causing Chen to describe him as someone pretending to be uncomprehending. Meanwhile, independent Huang Shan-shan took the chance to lambaste Chen as arrogant.

Chen Shih-chung
DPP Taipei mayoral candidate
I talked about this so many times, then we also did a Q&A. It was only then that I said Chiang “wants to give the impression he doesn’t understand.” Then of course, this seems that he really doesn’t understand. In the future, I will take other opportunities to explain it once again. “The Greens and Communists are one family” is a new phrase he’s invented. However, he’s never signed a pledge that says he won’t capitulate to China, so I don’t think he’s right.

In addition, the KMT’s Chiang kept referring to his experience as a Silicon Valley lawyer during the debate, but Weng Ta-jui, a Taiwan-born scholar in America, said while Chiang indeed is qualified to act as a lawyer in California, the name on his license is another surname his family used earlier, and it had been suspended three times in a row. If his business was going well there, he would not likely have allowed his license to practice law be suspended. If his law firm in Silicon Valley was merely a shell company, then Chiang had nothing to boast about.

Chiang Wan-an
KMT Taipei mayoral candidate
I was never struck off the list as a punishment. The reasons why I was delisted were because I was quite busy during my time as a lawmaker, so I paid my fees late. Second, owing to the situation with the pandemic, when they later requested I give them my fingerprint as identification, I completed it relatively late. Now I have given them all the relevant supporting documents, so my license to practice law is valid, and I can conduct professional business.

Huang Shan-shan
Independent Taipei mayoral candidate
My own license to practice law has never been suspended, so I don’t know what his problem is.

As election day draws closer, such bickering is only going to get more tense.

2022-11-06

Taiex to be affected by results of U.S. mid-term elections and American inflation data

2022-11-06

Dihua Street’s Lunar New Year market to return Jan. 6 after two years of COVID

2022-11-06

Lukang tea master shares the family secrets on how to package tea leaves

We head now to one of Taiwan’s oldest towns, Lukang in Changhua. In this town full of traditional arts and culture, tea is serious business. And at the teahouse of Wu Chao-hsun, a special way of packing tea leaves has been taught to the third generation. His family has been preparing tea for more than 60 years, and they also have four generations of calligraphy expertise.

A tea master pours tea leaves onto white paper, before folding it carefully to form a traditional package. This special method of making “Paper Tea Packages” has been handed down in Changhua’s Lukang Township for 60 years.

Tea master Wu Chao-hsun says that back when there were no plastic bags, dry goods like tea were often packed in paper. At first it was white newspaper, and later, by the ‘70s, they used special paper printed with the shop’s name and seal. The secret to making paper tea packets has now been handed on to the third generation.

Wu Chien-yi
Tea master
If you want to wrap it really beautifully, you need some skill, and it takes time to develop. Folding it is not as easy as it looks, because you need to make it look really nice, and make it feel really presentable. That’s where the difficulty lies.

And that’s not the only skill in the family. They have also been practicing calligraphy for generations. Wu Chao-hsun has now passed the calligraphic tradition onto the fourth generation, opening a calligraphy exhibition center near the teahouse, where the beauty of Chinese characters can be appreciated fully.

Wu Chao-hsun
Tea master and calligrapher
Calligraphy and tea are of one taste. I believe they have a lot of commonalities. That is, we need to take a lot of care, we need to be absorbed in what we’re doing, to make it right, the product or the artwork. It’s not just simply completing the thing. You must want to do it well.

Having been brought up surrounded by tea, Wu is truly a tea expert. He’s handing down both teahouse traditions and the art of Chinese calligraphy, and hopes the love of traditional arts will continue to inspire the next generation too.

2022-11-06

Spotlight on teen artist, Nathan Chi

Today in our spotlight series, we meet a Taiwanese teen artist named Nathan Chi. Chi is a self-taught artist. His artworks have been printed on many products over the years. Our very own Stephany Yang spoke to the artist to find out more about his works.

Today in our spotlight series, we meet a Taiwanese teen artist named Nathan Chi. Chi is a self-taught artist. His artworks have been printed on many products over the years. FTV reporter Stephany Yang spoke to the artist to find out more about his works.

The exhibition walls are covered in pictures of city landscapes and railroad tracks. These are the works of Nathan Chi. He began drawing almost every day after attending a dinosaur exhibition when he was in third grade.

His drawings are greatly inspired by his life, such as films, cars, road trips with his family, and pictures he finds on the internet.

Nathan Chi
Artist
I’m at an art school called Xue Xue Institute. So far my arts, I have learned by myself. Some of my ideas and inspirations are from things or people around me such as my family, my friends, school, and some of the things that I watch on the internet.

Chi is a self-taught artist. He says he never drafts, and instead just picks up a pen and draws whatever comes to mind. Now, a junior at the Xue Xue Institute, Chi is holding his third exhibition. The exhibition showcases his works to date. Chi said that over the years his ideas and style have evolved and matured. He has now begun experimenting with watercolors.

Nathan Chi
Artist
I have to control the amount of water I put on the brush and the colors, and try to not paint with darker colors first. Instead, paint with lighter colors first. Later on, it will turn out to be what I expected.

One of his current projects is 50 illustrations of a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Nathan Chi
Artist
My current project is the 50 illustrations. I’m continuing to work on as one of my most important school projects. It’s a Jurassic park logo-inspired T-rex skeleton. It’s not just about 50 skeletons that are the same. Every one of them are painted in different ways. Some of them are half-dimensional, and some of them are oil paint styles.

Chi’s father is a well-known Taiwanese artist, Chi Yuan-tzu. Seeing his son’s talent, Chi Yuan-tzu has designed many products with his son’s drawings, such as cups, bags, and posters.

Chi Yuan-tzu
Artist
Because his great works, I really love it. His natural talents, not like his father who works so hard. So, for example, in my career environment, if I find some chance, I always try to give Nathan an opportunity to join some of my clients or design co-branding products. There are some items from Nathan’s drawings of dinosaurs and illustrations.

Nathan Chi
Artist
My goal is to make my own portfolio for school admissions. I hope to get into an art school like Cal Arts.

Chi hopes to continue to improve his craft and become a professional cartoonist one day.

2022-11-06

Taipei’s 18th dog park is launched on Sunday at Huazhong Riverside Park

2022-11-06