Taichung parking attendant gets reputation as the city’s best urban guide

2024-02-04

Now one for the people of Taichung. A parking attendant in the city has made a reputation as its best urban guide. Chang Chun-lan only became a Taichung parking attendant in her 60s. But she quickly found fame for her endlessly professional and amiable service. She doesn’t just issue tickets. She also helps lost motorists find their cars, and directs visitors to the city’s best-loved attractions. Come rain or shine, she’s out on the streets of the central city making life easier for everyone.

The parking attendant has a device in one hand and a ticket printer in the other. Issuing a parking ticket is simple daily routine for Chang Chun-lan.

If you’ve got a parking dilemma, she’s the one to call.

Chang Chun-lan
Parking attendant
If you tell me the number of the space, I know exactly where it is. When motorists don’t know where they parked their car, I help them find it. When we find it, they’re happy, and so am I.

Chang joined the Parking Management Office of Taichung City in her 60s as a contracted parking attendant. To her 172 colleagues, she’s Aunty Lan, but she’s no less lively in her duties than any of her younger peers.

Chang Chun-lan
Parking attendant
It’s a mission and a responsibility. So I have to complete my duties. And when I do, I have a great sense of accomplishment.

She can also serve as a guide to the local attractions.

Chang Chun-lan
Parking attendant
Sometimes tourists ask me how to get somewhere, or about where to eat or what to see, what attractions are nearby. If it’s a place I know, I tell them which popular places to visit. There are lots of fun places in Taichung that you can Google.

Chang is maintaining vehicular order at the same time as promoting Taichung’s attractions. After five years at her post, Chang still has the same passion as on Day 1. She’s not just a parking attendant – she’s an asset to the city.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

65歲停車格收費員張春蘭堅守崗位並以助人為樂

2024-02-04

台中市有15萬個路邊停車格，全靠172名收費員，開單維持停車秩序，其中現年65歲的張春蘭女士，即便年過花甲，依舊無畏風吹日曬雨淋，堅守崗位，在開單收費之餘，她還常遇到觀光客，尋車、問路、找美食，張春蘭說，助人為樂，讓她充滿成就感！

一手PDA、一手印表機，停車開單收費，流程信手拈來，就是張春蘭的日常。

停車的疑難雜症，問她就對了。

[[停車收費員張春蘭]]
“你說幾號(停車格)，我就知道靠近哪一邊，車主停在哪裡找不到車的時候，我會帶他找車子，結果找到了，車主高興，我也很高興。”

其實張春蘭60歲才進入台中市停管處，擔任約僱的收費員，在172位同事裡，她是大家的蘭阿姨，但她的拼勁，不輸後生晚輩。

[[停車收費員張春蘭]]
“這是一個使命，是一個責任，所以我一定要把它完成，而且完成之後我很有成就感。”

張春蘭還會熱心介紹景點。

[[停車收費員張春蘭]]
“(遊客)有時候會詢問他要去的景點，還是吃的方面、景點，附近有什麼景點可以逛，如果說我知道的景點的話，我就跟車主講，你要去哪個熱門景點，台中市有很多好玩的地方，你可以Google看看。”

維持停車秩序、行銷城市觀光，張春蘭五年來如一日，她不只是停車收費員，也是另類美食景點導覽員。

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民視台灣台（152頻道）週日至週五晚上9:30
民視新聞台（53頻道）週二至週六凌晨1:00

The president-elect visits temples to offer prayers and promises support on development

2024-02-04

Legislative speaker Han Kuo-yu responds to criticism saying visitors kept him busy

Newly elected Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu has faced criticism for his failure to show up at the legislature on his first day in the new role. Han gave a response on Facebook over the weekend, and fellow KMT members also spoke to reporters in his defense. However, one DPP lawmaker says Han should be more transparent about his activities so as to put the public at ease. Meanwhile, the DPP says it may take legal action after a pan-blue pundit accused it of corruption in the days leading up to the speaker and deputy speaker election last week.

For two days, news reports have focused on newly elected Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu’s failure to report for duty on his first day in office. Han on the weekend responded to concerns via Facebook, saying that he’d been occupied by visitors and well-wishers over the past few days. Han said that he had found suitable aides to help out in the interim, and that his focus was now on improving the atmosphere in the legislature and fostering bipartisanship.

Huang Chien-hao
KMT lawmaker
Over these past few days, there haven’t been any legislative sessions, so lawmakers and the Speaker were not required to be present in the legislature. I believe Speaker Han had his own things to deal with, so I hope the public won’t take this as an opportunity to skew his intentions.

Lee Kun-cheng
DPP lawmaker
In the past, when Speaker Han was a mayor, he supposedly understood the hardships of the people, but slept in until noon. So, everyone was curious about whether Han would be any different as the legislative speaker. However, nobody could have imagined that after taking office as speaker, he wouldn’t make his schedule public. My suggestion for him is that he show people that he’s changed, and disclose his schedule for everyone to see.

Prior to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker election, pan-blue political commentator Huang Yang-ming alleged that the DPP had attempted to bribe some KMT lawmakers with tens of millions of NT. The DPP responded that Huang should present any evidence of his claims that he has, or potentially face legal action.

Hsieh Yi-feng
KMT lawmaker
I haven’t heard anything about money being involved in the Speaker and Deputy Speaker election. The KMT caucus looks highly upon the results of the election, and is happy with the solidarity shown among all the party’s lawmakers.

Voice of Rosalia Wu
DPP lawmaker
Everyone in the DPP caucus has been furious over the allegations. This is not something to be tolerated. Huang Yang-ming must present evidence for such claims. We support the DPP Central Committee in dealing with this seriously through prosecution.

DPP lawmakers have resolutely refuted allegations against their party, and say they would support legal action taken against Huang.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-02-04

Badminton ace Chou Tien-chen defeats Loh Kean Yew at Thailand Masters finals

2024-02-04

Taiwan Bar Studio unveils new project

Taiwan Bar Studio is a multimedia platform that produces content about Taiwan. Since 2014, it has produced over 500 animated films and thousands of articles about Taiwan’s history and culture. Now entering its 10th year, the team is starting a new project, inviting scholars both local and foreign to tell the stories of Taiwan. FTV reporter Stephany Yang spoke to the platform’s founders to find out more about their project.

Since 2014, Taiwan Bar Studio has produced over 500 films related to Taiwan. Its content explores over 100 in-depth topics including history, philosophy, law, education, economics, culture, and experimental science.

Tu Feng-en
Story Studio CEO
In 2014, we launched this website and invited a lot of young scholars to write about their own research. Including myself. Since then, we have been devoted to this public history project. This time, I think we are continuing our mission, but we want to upgrade to different level to tell not just Taiwan’s people, but the world.

A group of four Taiwanese launched Taiwan Bar Studio in 2014 to educate people about Taiwanese history. By creating informative and engaging animation, they hope to reach a broader audience.

Tu Feng-en
Story Studio CEO
We would like to produce an online platform telling a new Taiwan history. We hope we can combine Taiwan’s history with the world history and tell the world the past well thousands of years of Taiwan’s past and let the world know more about Taiwan because we can see that a lot of people right now are very interested in Taiwan. The current situation of Taiwan but they may not know that much about Taiwan’s past.

Buchi Lin
Taiwan Bar co-founder
From a team of only four people 10 years ago to now, I am very moved. I think it’s really important to combine these fragments of knowledge into a platform where it all can be edited together. Here we tell our own stories.

Entering its 10th year, Taiwan Bar Studio is launching a new project, telling new stories about Taiwan from an international perspective. The project will invite top historians from Taiwan, Germany, the U.S., the Netherlands, Japan, and other countries to share stories and produce content, which will be translated into several languages.

Buchi Lin
Taiwan Bar co-founder
By using 10 languages that are widely spoken around the world, such as English, Spanish, and Japanese, we can spread this information abroad. Our content can reach about 90% of the world’s population.

Tu Feng-en
Story Studio CEO
It will be a multimedia platform. We will have text, images, short and long videos. We also plan to make a long documentary. We hope we can play those videos on a different platform as well; not just on our platform but also on different channels. Taiwan’s history is very, very interesting because it is very complex. We have a lot of interactions with the world from the Dutch period to the Qing Dynasty period to the Japanese colonial period. We think Taiwan’s history can be in conversation with the history of other parts of the world.

The team’s members hope to continue to tell the stories of Taiwan. They plan to launch the first stage of their project in September.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-02-04

94,000 descend on Kaohsiung stadium for concert by UK pop star Ed Sheeran

U.K. pop star Ed Sheeran gave a concert at the National Kaohsiung Stadium over the weekend. In addition to the 50,000 fans inside the venue, the crowd in and around the stadium reached 94,000, setting a new record. The city government seized the opportunity and gave out discount coupons for the city’s night markets, successfully boosting the income of local businesses.

In front of excited fans, Ed Sheeran took the stage at the National Kaohsiung Stadium on Saturday night. The 32-year-old singer-songwriter had on a black T-shirt with the word Taiwan emblazoned on it.

Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chi-mai went backstage to welcome the superstar with whom he took selfies. He then visited the Response Command Center to personally oversee the operations. In order to smoothly transport the large influx of fans, trains were arriving at the MRT World Games Station every 3 minutes. Another 45 shuttle buses were dispatched to transport fans to Zuoying High-speed Railway Station and MRT Kaohsiung Station. The venue was cleared in just 90 minutes.

Liu Chien-pang
Kaohsiung Transportation Bureau
The maximum number of people at a given instance reached 94,646. It once again broke the record set by previous concerts.

The concert also set a record for ridership count of the city’s MRT.

Wang Po-yan
Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp.
The combined volume of the MRT and light rail was 332,000 people, the highest this year so far.

After the concert, many fans headed to various night markets around the southern port city. This is because the city government offered coupons in the amount of NT$50 at six MRT stations to travelers with concert ticket stubs. The coupons could be used at the city’s night markets.

Chuang Chi-chang
Liouhe Night Market
The concert brought in waves of shoppers, and business improved.

Not only at Liouhe Night Market, but Cingnian Night Market also saw large crowds, and vendors were all smiles.

Liu Yi-yu
Cingnian Night Market official
After the concert ended, the crowds poured in. Many stalls collected the coupons.

Ms. Tung
Cingnian Night Market vendor
Thanks to the concert, we had many visitors, and everyone made a profit.

Chen I-liang
Kaohsiung Economic Development Bureau
The city government’s night market coupons and the crowds visiting the yellow ducks art exhibit have given businesses around Kaohsiung’s night markets a boost.

Last year, night market vendors were shocked by the post-concert crowds that descended on various night markets. This year the city government seized the opportunity to channel concert-goers into local businesses, boosting the economy for the night.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-02-04

Exploring home-cooked Taiwanese food with chef Chelsea Tsai

Today we take you to meet the founder of a cooking school, Chelsea Tsai. In 2018, she created a school that teaches people how to make local Taiwanese dishes from scratch. She hopes to educate people about Taiwanese delicacies, along with the stories behind each dish. FTV reporter Stephany Yang joined Tsai in her studio to find out more.

The first dish is three-cup mushrooms. First, slice the mushrooms, ginger, garlic and chili.

Then, add black sesame oil, ginger, mushrooms, garlic, scallions, basil and chili into the pan and fry them. Last, season it with some sugar.

Chelsea Tsai
Cooking studio founder
The original version is like three-cup chicken but the three-cup mushroom is for everyone. It is also vegetarian-friendly. The three-cup dish. The key is the three-cup sauce. You need to definitely use the black sesame oil from Taiwan. So, one cup or use one tablespoon of black sesame oil. And then, one cup of soy sauce and one cup of the rice wine, and a little bit of sugar to balance the saltiness. The three-cup sauce is a special sauce in Taiwan. It is not in other Chinese dishes or not in other regions because we have a very nice produce of black sesame in Taiwan. It is common to use black sesame oil with ginger to make the dishes like sesame oil chicken and three-cup chicken. When we talk about the stir-fried dishes in Taiwan we always talk about three-cup chicken.

Next up are sesame glutinous rice balls. First, prepare some sticky rice flour and mix it with hot water. Next, it is time to flatten the dough. Cut it into small pieces, and then add a bit of sesame and butter and wrap it up. Lastly, give them a good shake and then boil it in hot water. This is a typical class with the founder of this cooking studio, Chelsea Tsai.

Chelsea Tsai
Cooking studio founder
Tangyuan we usually have it especially for winter time because it can warm up your body. To make the dough, it is very important to use the sticky rice flour. You can also mix some tapioca starch to make it chewier. Traditionally, people use cold water to mix it, mix the dough and cook part of it, and boil it to make it a cooked dough. Then, mix them together to make the dough chewier. Our version, our secret is that we use hot water to make the dough. Basically, we just mix the hot water with all the starch.

Tsai first became interested in gastronomy at a young age. She then earned a diploma in French cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu Tokyo.

In 2018, she decided to open up a cooking studio to teach foreigners and locals how to cook Taiwanese dishes. Her classes don’t only teach people how to cook: she also shares the history and other interesting stories about the food. The length of each class varies from 2 to 3 hours. So far, her team has taught 15,000 food enthusiasts from over 52 countries.

Chelsea Tsai
Cooking studio founder
I have been teaching cuisine for over eight years. Since 2018, I started this business. It is a cooking school. We show people how to make Taiwanese dishes, especially international visitors. Since then, we have been hosting over 15,000 people from over 52 countries from the world. We show how to make xiaolongbao, beef noodle soup, gua bao, braised pork rice, and all the best Taiwanese dishes. We teach them not only how to cook those dishes. We also show them and share with them all the history, all the stories. I think that is what makes us unique because we are not only teaching techniques. We share the uniqueness of Taiwan.

Last December, Tsai published her first English cookbook. The cookbook features 67 recipes ranging from Taiwanese stir-fries and street food to braised dishes, breakfast food and festival food.

Chelsea Tsai
Cooking studio founder
We tried to promote Taiwanese dishes, we found out that I think the most beautiful part of Taiwanese dishes is at home. Like, when I was a child, my mom always cooked three to four dishes for our dinner. We can share. We sit down around the table. We share with family to enjoy whole fish, stir-fried, the braised pork. We want to share the beautiful moments with more people. We want to make it happen again and again. We talk about bento culture like the buffet and we also talk about street food culture -- why we have so much street food in Taiwan. It is about the temple. It is about the religion. We also talk about Taiwanese breakfast.

Tsai also collaborates with government agencies, like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Tourism Administration. The team has traveled to many countries around the world to promote Taiwan’s food and culture.

Chelsea Tsai
Cooking studio founder
We are trying to extend our influence to a larger audience. So now, we also work with many public sectors like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, like the Taiwan Tourism Administration. And also, we are trying to do some collaboration with the bilingual education projects to empower more people and more individuals can share food culture about Taiwan. Not just us, but everyone can do that. I think that is the goal we want to do.

Through her cooking studio and book, Tsai hopes to empower more people to share Taiwanese food culture to the world.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

2024-02-04

Wet and cold weather to last till Saturday, with rain nationwide on Wednesday

2024-02-04

Taichung parking attendant gets reputation as the city’s best urban guide