[That doesn’t look like hip hop….]

64-year-old former KMT Legislator Shen Chih-Hwei is the head of Taiwan’s Street Dance Federation. This week, she rallied members of the Kuomintang, a political party with an elderly supporter base, to promote a street dance competition by getting them to show off their best moves on camera. Yes, really.

As baffling as Leslie Liao finds the video, he would like to remind viewers that attempts to appeal to young people are not exclusively KMT. Other political parties

[Speaking with Jenna Lynn Cody a.k.a. Laorencha]

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Sunday did a 20-minute piece about Taiwan. The segment has garnered millions of views on YouTube and has been widely covered in Taiwan. However, months before the episode aired, there was a petition asking Oliver to make such a segment. Leslie Liao speaks with the petition’s creator. 

LINKS:

John Oliver Last Week Tonight segment: https://youtu.be/9Y18-07g39g

Jenna Lynn Cody’s Lao Ren Cha blog: https://laorencha.blogspot.com/

Jenna Lynn Cody’s Change.org petition: https://chng.it/8RQBQ8mzGH

[A French YouTuber flies 2,300 km to sell Taiwanese ice cream]

French YouTuber “Ku’s dream” was invited to visit Palau after he donated money to a foundation that developed taro farms in the country. Ku jumped on the chance to visit the Pacific island nation, but he said he wanted to bring a piece of Taiwanese culture with him to share with the locals. Ku’s video documenting his transpacific efforts is earning massive praise and widespread attention. 

LINKS:

Ku’s Dream YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV1OpUwWJCMiv6gJCRR6yAg

Taiwan’s ICDF: https://www.icdf.org.tw/mp.asp?mp=2

[For #TaiwanNationalDay]

Last week, Taiwan celebrated the 110th National Day of the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name). The celebrations weren’t confined to just Taiwan. Taiwanese representative offices and embassies brought the party to the rest of the world. However, there was one place that didn’t need a reminder to celebrate Taiwan’s National Day: India. 

LINKS:

Hats off to India Hashtag Taiwan- https://youtu.be/CFonzGL9KIA

RTI 2021 National Day English live coverage- https://youtu.be/padLiIS9t7s

[China bans Taiwanese imports of these two fruits ]

In March this year, China halted pineapple imports from Taiwan. Pineapple farmers recuperated rather quickly with the help of social media. Now, China has set its sights on wax apples and sugar apples, banning Taiwanese imports of those two fruits as well. Taiwan launched another online campaign to help wax apple and sugar apple farmers, this time, with a bit more experience under its belt.

[110,000 credit card transactions worth over US$90 million]

Lithuania came through with 20,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses in Taiwan’s hour of need. That has since snowballed into strong diplomatic ties between the two countries. Lithuania faces immense pressure from China for choosing to side with Taiwan, losing millions of Euros in trade. However, Taiwanese people are thanking the European country for its support by opening their wallets. 

[The government plans on putting NT$1,000,000,000 into it]

Earlier this week, government officials gathered to celebrate the long-awaited launch of Taiwan+. What is Taiwan+? Leslie Liao explains.

[The max is 110!]

For far too long now, the world lacked an effective method to quantify how Taiwanese a person was. That changed when software engineer Zhung developed “TaiwanEx,” a fool proof method of measuring someone’s “Taiwan Level.”

Link: 

https://zhung.com.tw/taiwanex/

[Taiwan has POPCAT fever!]

The objective of online game Popcat is to see how many times someone can click on a picture of a cat. And people in Taiwan (and around the world) are utterly crazy for it! Why? Leslie Liao has a couple theories on why something so simple captured the attention of so many. 

[Taiwan has a dinosaur problem….]

They run amuck during air raid drills, they dance for gods, and now, they’re getting vaccinated for COVID-19.