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Taiwan (Page 10)

We check out an enchanting gold mining town in the mountains of Taiwan, and hope you do too

Jiufen is a well-known tourist attraction in Taiwan. Many Japanese tourists especially have flocked to this location after rumors circulated that it was the inspiration behind the hit animated film Spirited Away. Even though those rumors now appear to have been mistaken the place still draws visitors with its colorful lights and rolling hills.

While it’s largely agreed that Jiufen is beautiful, our reporter Kuzo had his sights on another destination. A place largely obscured by the bright lights of Jiufen but equally beautiful. He was on his way to the old gold mining town of Jinguashi.

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Man in Taiwan arrested for… polishing other people’s cars

Recently in Taiwan, authorities finally apprehended a man who had been terrorizing a Taipei community for an untold stretch of time. This possible terrorist had been brazenly walking from car to a car with a cloth and wiping them down until they sparkled. The fiend!

Thankfully, a brave citizen saw their own car being shined by the man and reported him to the proper authorities. Unfortunately, the people of Taipei only had a brief respite from the horrors he unleashed as police released him shortly afterwards.

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Now that’s what we call a close one! Massive boulder nearly crushes car【Video】

We don’t know about you, but while driving around mountainside roads, we always ignore those “danger falling rocks” signs with their comical little circles sliding down a triangle. Sure, those signs are there for a reason, but we’ve never actually seen a “falling rock”…that is until now.

A recent video taken in Taiwan shows a massive boulder rolling down a mountainside and nearly flattening a car and his presumably screaming driver. Thank goodness for onboard cameras because if the vehicle in front hadn’t been equipped with one, the world would never witness this extremely close call.

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We try some Taiwanese dishes to boost our vigor, includes snake venom and turtles

RocketNews24 reporter extraordinaire Kuzo was feeling a little at half-mast recently and was looking for some ways to put some lead in his pencil, and fast.

Luckily he heard about some Taiwanese dishes that promise to boost stamina and went out in search of them. What he found was some snake, softshell turtle, and Asian ginseng soups. Par for the course for our gourmet reporter but these soups were also served with the bodily fluids of the animals such as blood and poison. If that doesn’t get Kuzo up and going we don’t know what will.

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Deathigner – the short animation made by a group of college students that just stole our hearts

With character design and a visual style worthy of a Disney production, when we were introduced to this short animation by the staff at our sister site RocketNews24 Japan, we almost didn’t believe them when they said it was made not by a world-famous animation studio but by students of the National Taiwan University of Arts. Half an hour of replays later, we managed to tear ourselves away from the video just long enough to share it with you, our dear readers, too!

It’s cute, it’s emotive, and it’s absolutely gorgeous; this is Deathigner.

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Our reporter tries black and white burgers from McDonald’s Taiwan

Officially called, “Stunning Black and White Fortress,” this pair of burgers, one white and one black, is being sold for a limited time only at McDonald’s in Taiwan. The name alone made our reporter want to try this duo, but how would these unnaturally colored burgers taste?

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Taiwan’s Gravity Max – Quite possibly the scariest roller coaster in the world

“Whatever that thing is in front of us is, I really hope it can hold all of our weight,” says roller coaster aficionado Robb Alvey as the car he is sitting in reaches the end of the track. And it literally is the end – just a couple of feet ahead of where the train has come to a halt, the rails suddenly stop and there is naught but blue sky.

This is the Gravity Max roller coaster in Taiwan’s Discovery World theme park, a ’tilt coaster’ built by Dutch thrill rides designer Vekoma which features a section of track at the top of the chain lift that slowly tilts from horizontal to vertical before clicking into place and releasing the safety lock to drop the train down. Provided, of course, that the rails line up…

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Customs authorities in South Korea are pleased to announce that they have cracked a smuggling ring in which gold was brought into the country via people’s cracks. Police have issued warrants for the arrest of the alleged mastermind of the crime, a 47-year-old man going by the name of Zou, along with eight accomplices.

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Acclaimed action figure animator turns his hand to Zelda 【Video】

The man brought us the jaw-dropping stop motion videos of battles between iconic Dragon Ball and Street Fighter characters has done it again! This time, he’s brought The Legend of Zelda‘s sword-wielding hero Link to play, and he’s got a sexy gun-toting pal with him…

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Taiwan introduces the future of cartography: nationwide school uniform maps

Despite being a made famous by thousands of Japanese TV shows and comics, cute “sailor suit” uniforms and their ilk are not limited to schools in Japan alone. As we’ve seen before, high schools all across Asia kit their female students out with a variety of stylish getups, with the girls themselves often making their own modifications, usually quite aware that they are wearing outfits that millions of people across the world think are cute or just plain sexy.

But it appears that Japan’s reign as the school uniform capital of the world may soon be over. Bringing fashion and cartography together at last, a specially designed map of Taiwan which provides photos of the school uniforms the girls in each particular area are rocking has become a big hit online this week.

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Taiwanese Weather Reporting Idol Group to Take Japan’s Grueling National Weather Forecasting License Exam

From their humble beginnings on Taiwan’s video series Weather Girls, a seven-girl idol group by the same name that specializes in bringing you the week’s weather, have been building a solid fan base in their new home of Japan.

Though a variety of theme months and a constantly improving grasp of the Japanese language, these girls have steadily shown that they are willing to work hard for their place in the spotlight.  However, the next step is a doozy.

It has come to light that all seven girls (one for each day of the week) are studying hard to take the extremely strict National Weather Forecaster Exam next year. The test, which was established in 1994, reportedly has a 5 percent pass rate.  However, if the girls succeed they will become full-fledged weather forecasters.

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43-Year-Old Taiwanese Man Arrested for Stealing Box of Condoms, Booooooy Are His Parents Gonna Be Mad

It’s a familiar coming-of-age scenario for many a young man. Things with the girlfriend are progressing well and it’s time to round third into the home plate. However, there are still condoms to get. How do you confront the judgmental gaze of the minimum wage cashier who in reality couldn’t care less what you’re up to?

One young Taiwanese lad at the tender age of 43 faced with this dilemma opted to steal a box of condoms rather than deal with the awkwardness of buying them legally, and as such has become international news.

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Three Years After his Tragic Death, World Continues to Mourn Michael

As most people flock to the high production values of American television programs, the subtle nuances of British dramas, or the addictiveness of Korean programs, Taiwanese television shows are often sorely overlooked. Still, after nearly three years from its first airing we continue to be haunted by a television moment so poignant that it has captured not only the nation’s audience but the world’s.

I’m talking, of course, about the truck accident that claimed the life of Michael from the series Night Market Life. Achieving well over one million views on YouTube, people keep coming back to relieve that fateful day.

Let us watch and remember.  Michael would have wanted it that way.

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Taiwanese Cosplayers Appear in their Droves, Show All-Out Passion for Hatsune Miku

Ever since Japan started its whole Cool Japan kick, it’s been pushing manga and anime to a world-wide audience like never before. Near the forefront of it all is the software program turned pop icon, Vocaloid, with Hatsune Miku stealing most of the spotlight. Just last week, more than 20 real-life Mikus gathered together at a park in Kaohsiung, Taiwan! It was a truly magnificent spectacle, perhaps the highlight of our year thus far. Read More

It’s a question that’s plagued people for generations: How do I get a three-ton load of bamboo off the back of my truck with minimal effort? Well, the Taiwanese truck driver in the following video has developed a rather efficient method for dropping off his deliveries.
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A while back we showed some action figure stop motion animation that was amazing in quality but… well, really weird. Watching it you couldn’t help but wonder “wow, if only this level of quality was executed with a more lucid plot.”

Enter Counter656 Productions which seems to be one Taiwanese man in his living room with action figures.  He’s been at it for a while but recently out did himself with a battle scene between Dragon Ball’s Trunks and Piccolo.

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Bygone Fishing Technique Becomes Beautiful Modern Day Work of Art

Fishermen all over the world know that lights are good for fishing.  Insects are attracted to light and fish are attracted to insects, so they have evolved to also be attracted to light as well.

Even underwater, tiny organisms like plankton and shrimp are drawn to lights which draw small fish.  The small fish also invite larger fish which can be caught by a fisherman smart enough to put the light there in the first place.

Many fishing boats are equipped with powerful spot lights intended to attract fish, and lights can be bought and installed under docks with the same purpose.

In Taiwan, this technique takes on a dramatic flair using actual flares.  This beautiful and unique style of fishing was filmed by Kenny Chen who released a sample trailer for us all to see.

Let’s take a look!

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Meanwhile, in Taiwan, Pro-Japanese Sentiment Has Endured: A Japanese Businessman Experiences Unaffected Kindness

There is no doubt that tension stemming from territorial disputes between Japan and both China and Korea is making East Asia a volatile area.  Even Taiwan, which has been known as a pro-Japanese country, sent fishing boats to the Senkaku Island area in protest of Japan’s nationalization.

But while mainland China is pulsing with anti-Japanese sentiment, Taiwan’s pro-Japanese stance has yet to waver and Japanese business men could be comforted that China’s influence on Taiwan did not reach so far as to change it.  We spoke with one Japanese business man—we’ll call him Mr. T—who was in Taipei when anti-Japanese sentiments on the mainland were at their highest.  

What he found was a higher level of pro-Japanese sentiment than we could have imagined.  We’ve assembled Mr. T’s experiences for you below: Read More

 

Haruki Murakami, the award-winning essayist and critically-acclaimed author of Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore and many others, has spoken out about the recent troubles between Japan, China and Taiwan in a startlingly down-to-earth essay over on the Asahi Shinbun Digital’s culture section.

Motivated in particular by the recent news of China’s bookshops removing titles by Japanese authors, the essay focuses on the importance of cultural exchange in our societies and how, through all forms of media, we are able to communicate our very souls over seas and across borders. Read More

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