Category: General

A tea-based perfume created by Taiwanese perfume company Pan Seven International (P.Seven) has bagged a top prize at the 2022 Art and Olfaction Awards (A+OA) in Florida, according to the list of winners released Saturday.

The Taiwan company won the “2022 Art and Olfaction Independent Award” with its flagship fragrance “Aged Tea (??)” designed by perfumers Pan Yu-ching (???) and Huang Chien-shun(???).

Pan, the founder and creative director of P.Seven, participated virtually in the award ceremony Saturday morning, when Aged Tea was awarded the prize.

Speaking with CNA, Pan said she was moved to tears because the award was recognition of her years of hard work in the field of perfume making, which is a niche business in Taiwan and comes with a lot of pressure.

“I cried because I finally got my recognition,” Pan said. “I finally did it.”

In a market dominated generally by European floral and citrus scents, Pan said, she chose to make a light fragrance of tea leaves as her brand’s specialty.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, she was taking her perfumes to expos in Japan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, but with businesses suffering globally due to the pandemic, she returned home to Hualien to focus on creating fragrances that she planned to launch over time.

Pan said she had a keen sensitivity for scents even when she’s a child growing up in Hualien, and she later developed an affinity for the aroma of tea leaves during her five years working as a tea specialist.

While experimenting with ways to preserve the scent of tea, she began to delve into perfumery and has since been trying to create fragrances that capture elements of Taiwan, she said.

Her perfume lines feature signature Taiwan ingredients like shell ginger, makao litsea, betel nut flower and millet wine, she said.

P.Seven makes a wide variety of distinct tea leaf fragrances, because in the international community, Taiwan is commonly associated with tea, Pan said.

The prize winning fragrance “Aged Tea” is a more artistic product than P.Seven’s other commercial perfumes, Pan said.

It was perfected after years of experimentation to harmonize its base scent with other complimentary ingredients to create an aura of serenity, she said.

The tea leaves used to make the base scent are aged for more than 10 years, and are intricately processed to create a refined fragrance, Pan said.

Since P.Seven was launched in 2012, Pan and the company have gained wide recognition, with Taiwan conglomerates such as Starlux Airlines and Wowprime commissioning them to design signature fragrances.

P.Seven perfumes can also be seen in malls in Japan and at international events like the Cannes Film Festival and New York Fashion Week.

The A+OA Awards is an annual nonprofit event held by U.S.-based Institute for Art and Olfaction. Each year, the judges conduct blind-testing on scents from all over the world.

“Aged Tea” not only won the Independent Award but also had the distinction of being the only entry from Asia to be listed among the top 10 fragrances in the independent category.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

An annual art festival, featuring 10 installation pieces by local and foreign artists, opened in Taitung on Friday in celebration of the spectacular rural landscape in the southeastern county, the organizers said.

The installation artworks are being displayed in different townships in Taitung — three pieces in Guanshan, six in Luye, and one in Haiduan, according to the Taitung Branch of the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, which organized the event.

The East Rift Valley Land Art Festival seeks to highlight the breathtaking scenery along a 60 kilometer stretch called County Road No. 197 in the East Rift Valley and create harmony between humans and nature, the bureau said.

The three artworks on display in Guanshan Township were created by Taiwanese artists Pasulange Druluan (???), Huang Wen-yuan (???), Tung Min-chin (???), according to the bureau.

The six pieces in Luye are “Acculturation,” by Varol Topaç of Turkey and Woo Tze-hong (???) and Sophia Kwok (???) of Hong Kong, “Endless Flow” by British artist Tim Norris, “Fly To Universe” by South Korean Song Joo-yean, and three other artworks by Taiwanese Kalabaw Monalei (??), Tafong Kati (??·???), and Lee Wei-mu (???), according to the organizers.

Lee used wood and iron to build a fish-shaped cloud, under which visitors can sit and enjoy the breezes and the picturesque views of the valley, according to the event’s website.

The sole installation piece in Haiduan Township is called “Romantic Moment,” by South Korean Kim Ki-young, the bureau said.

According to the bureau’s director Ko Tsan-tang (???), the artworks have been installed in beautiful rural areas that are little known, in the hope of attracting visitors to explore the fascinating landscape and food.

The annual festival in the scenic East Rift Valley was first held in 2019.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Taiwanese have been urged by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan’s top government agency that handles cross-Taiwan Strait affairs, not to attend the upcoming Straits Forum in China, with the MAC warning that China could use the annual forum to intensify its “United Front” campaign against Taiwan.

China has been using the event as part of a major propaganda campaign against Taiwan — the United Front — which aims to persuade Taiwanese who favor Beijing to exercise influence over other Taiwanese, the MAC said in a statement released Wednesday.

The Straits Forum has become a platform for Beijing to “divide” the people of Taiwan, the MAC said.

The MAC’s warning came after the Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s State Council announced earlier on the same day that the 14th Straits Forum is scheduled to open in Xiamen in China’s Fujian province in mid-July.

Ma Xiaoguang (???), head of the Taiwan Affairs Office, said the 14th forum would follow the concept that “both sides across the Taiwan Strait are one family,” adhere to the aims of being “civil, grassroots, and extensive”, and further efforts to “expand non-governmental exchanges and deepen integrated development” among people in China and Taiwan.

Through these efforts, Ma said, the upcoming forum is expected to continue to play a positive role in promoting the “spiritual harmony” of the people across the Taiwan Strait.

While the Taiwan Affairs Office did not disclose any exact timetable for the forum, the local media cited unnamed sources as reporting that the meeting will be held July 12-14 with the major conference scheduled to open on July 13.

In response, the MAC said the Taiwan government would continue to bar central government officials from attending the forum, and discourage local government officials and private organizations from taking part.

The council called on any Taiwanese who conduct exchanges across the Taiwan Strait not to participate in activities involving the “one country, two systems” mechanism or enter “democratic negotiations” defined by China in a bid to protect the interests of the Taiwanese people.

In the past, the Straits Forum was held in May or June. But, amid COVID-19 concerns, the 2020 meeting was postponed to late September of that year.

In 2021, the forum was further delayed to December, when Eric Chu (???), chairman of the China-friendly Kuomintang, addressed the opening through a pre-recorded video.

In his speech, Chu vowed to abide by the KMT’s charter and platform to push for the peaceful development of the relationship across the Taiwan Strait.

He proposed that both sides of the Taiwan Strait work together to take on climate change, cut carbon emissions, and strive for economic recovery in the post-pandemic era.

Due to the pandemic, the number of Taiwanese participants at the forum has been on the decline in the past two years.

When asked if the KMT should send representatives to the forum this year, Legislator Chiang Wan-an (???), the KMT’s candidate for Taipei in November’s mayoral election, said Friday he believed it was crucial for Taiwan and China to “maintain peaceful and stable interactions under the premise of equality and dignity.”

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

People who have recovered from COVID-19 and develop certain symptoms either between one and three months or more than three months after recovery will be diagnosed with COVID reinfection, an official from the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Friday.

In light of an increase in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 three months after getting and recovering from the disease in Taiwan over the past months, the CECC has established a set of criteria for identifying COVID-19 reinfection cases.

A doctor can confirm a reinfection case if an individual presents suspected COVID-19 symptoms between one to three months after recovery that are worse than those from the previous infection, and the person tested positive using a rapid test or PCR test with a CT value of 27 or under, Lo Yi-chun (???) said at the CECC’s daily news briefing.

Also, if a recovered individual experiences symptoms more than three months after recovery and tests positive with a rapid test or PCR test with a CT value of 30 or under, the case can be reported as a reinfection after clinical diagnosis, said Lo, deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division.

After a reinfection is reported to the CECC, the individual can follow the same established procedures for COVID-19 infections to undergo quarantine and seek medical attention, Lo said.

The Centers of Disease Control will collect viral specimens from reinfection cases to sequence the coronavirus genome for the surveillance of variant strains of the virus so as to better adjust pandemic control measures, Lo said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (???) booked a slot in the women’s singles semifinals at the Malaysian Open after outdueling Pusarla V. Sindhu of India in a match that went to a deciding game on Friday.

The world No. 2 and second-seeded Tai defeated world No. 7 Sindhu 13-21, 21-15, 21-13 in a quarterfinal match that lasted seven minutes shy of an hour at the Super 750 tournament at Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.

It was the 21st meeting between Tai and Sindhu, with the Taiwanese leading the head-to-head 15-5 before the match. Tai also extended her winning streak against Sindhu to six matches in a row.

In the semifinal, Tai will next face the winner of the quarterfinal match between fourth seed Chen Yufei of China and sixth-seeded Nozomi Okuhara of Japan.

Back at the match on Friday, Tai played with the drift at the start of the opening game as Sindhu secured an early lead at the mid-game interval of 11-7. The Indian shuttler then extended her lead to win the first game by eight points.

Tai rallied in the second game, scoring eight consecutive points to lead 10-1, but Sindhu fought back with seven consecutive points of her own to trail by only two points at 17-15.

However, Tai was able to step up her work rate to finish off the game with four consecutive points and force a third and deciding game.

In the third game the scores remained close at 16-13, before Tai had a four shot surge that took her to match point at 20-13.

Putting on a show for the audience, the Taiwanese player returned with a breathtaking behind the back shot, followed by a backhand which Sindhu hit wide.

Tai has been on a roll since the Thailand Open, which she won in May after a poor German Open in mid-March when she was knocked out in the final 16 round. In June, she won her second title of the year at the Indonesian Open.

Tai remains keen to defend the women’s singles title she won at the Malaysia Open in 2013 as well as 2017-2019. The event was not held in 2020 and 2021.

The Malaysia Open, held from June 28 to July 3, carries a total purse of US$675,000 (NT$20.12 million).

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Manufacturing activity remained in expansion mode for the 24th consecutive month in June, but uncertainty over the global economy is likely to affect the sector down the road, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) said Friday.

Data compiled by CIER, one of the leading think tanks in Taiwan, showed that the seasonally adjusted Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for June rose slightly from a month earlier by 0.1 points to 53.6 largely due to an increase in the sub-index for new orders.

The non-manufacturing index (NMI), which covers service sector activity, also moved higher by 4.6 from a month earlier to 49.7 in June, but the index stayed in contraction mode for the second consecutive month, according to CIER.

For the PMI and NMI, readings above 50 indicate expansion, while those below 50 represent contraction.

Speaking at an online news conference, CIER President Chang Chuang-chang (???) said that after China eased lockdowns against COVID-19 last month, production among manufacturers in Taiwan showed signs of recovering.

In addition, production by local manufacturers also recovered following the eased impact from domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases which peaked in May, Chang said.

As a result, the sub-index on production for June rose 3.7 percent from a month earlier to reach 51.6 and return to expansion.

Among the four other factors in the June PMI, the sub-index for new orders rose 1.8 from a month earlier to 47.4 in June but remained in contraction mode, while the sub-indexes for employment and inventories rose 0.9 each from a month earlier to 55.1 and 59.1, respectively.

Bucking the upturn, the sub-index for supplier deliveries fell 6.9 from a month earlier to 54.8 in June.

Chang said that orders placed in June were largely deferred orders which had been anticipated, so the increase in the sub-index does not indicate the manufacturing sector received large additional orders.

As for the business outlook over the next six months, the sub-index fell 6.9 from a month earlier to 37.1, the lowest level since June 2020 when the figure stood at 33.7. It was the second consecutive month the sub-index has contracted, according to CIER.

In terms of the six major industries in the June PMI, only the sub-indexes for food/textile and transportation equipment industries moved higher from a month earlier, CIER said.

The sub-indexes for chemicals/biotech, electronics/optoelectronics, basic raw materials, and electrical equipment industries moved lower from a month earlier in June, CIER added.

Citing a survey, Chang said with the exception of some food suppliers and select biotech firms, many in these major industries expressed concern over weakening demand after seeing their orders fall in June.

The global economy has showed signs of weakening, which have impacted demand at a time when the major central banks, in particular the United States Federal Reserve, have kicked off a rate hike cycle to fight inflation, Chang added.

As a result, despite a small recovery in the June PMI, the local manufacturing sector still faces uncertainty in the wake of such unfavorable circumstances, Chang said.

Commenting on the recovering NMI, Chang said with the growth in new indigenous COVID-19 cases moderating, consumers appear more willing to spend and travel.

Among the four factors in the June NMI, the sub-indexes for business activity, new orders, and employment moved higher by 10.2, 8.8, and 1.5, respectively, to 48.0, 46.3 and 50.8 in June, but the sub-index for supplier deliveries moved lower by 1.9 from a month earlier to 53.8.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

The Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling on Thursday and sentenced a landlady to 22 months imprisonment for negligent homicide over an apartment arson in New Taipei that killed nine people almost five years ago.

The ruling against the woman, identified by her last name Lien (?), is final and cannot be appealed, the Supreme Court said.

Having been sentenced to two years in 2018 for negligent homicide for the deadly fire, Lien had filed an appeal with the High Court in January this year, which reduced her jail sentence to 22 months, in consideration of her having provided monetary compensation to some of the victims’ family members.

Unhappy with the jail sentence, she then filed another appeal, but her appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court on Thursday, which maintained the lower court’s ruling.

The arson occurred in November 2017, when a man named Li Kuo-hui (???), an ethnic Chinese from Myanmar, deliberately set Lien’s apartment building in Zhonghe District on fire.

On Nov. 22 that year, Li went out with an empty bottle which he filled with gasoline, returned to the apartment building and doused the fuel on the staircase to the third and fourth floors, ignited it, and fled.

The blaze quickly spread, and Li’s tenants who had been living on the fourth and fifth floors in partitioned rooms were killed, police said at the time.

According to the New Taipei District Court in its ruling in 2018, Li set the fire out of anger because he claimed to have heard other tenants making fun of him from his rented room in the building.

He was subsequently found guilty of murder with direct intent, and sentenced to death.

Regarding Lien’s liability in the case, the district court also handed her a two-year prison sentence for negligent homicide, mainly because it was found that she had previously ignored advice given by the New Taipei Architects Association to make safety improvements on her property and went ahead with renting out rooms to tenants.

According to a court document, Lien purchased two Zhonghe apartment buildings in 2015 that were joined together, then broke their inner walls without proper authorization to make them into a larger space in order to partition it into a total of 41 rooms.

The deaths of the nine people were in part due to her negligence, due to the lack of fire safety equipment installed in the apartment floors, the court said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Taiwan’s shares plunged by more than 400 points on Thursday, following steep losses on American markets overnight, with the major index of the country’s stock market falling below 14,900 points.

With the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index in the United States having fallen sharply by 2.2 percent, the Taiex, the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s benchmark weighted index, opened down by 93.21 points at 15,146.92 on Thursday and moved even lower during the day.

The Taiex ended down by 414.40 points, or 2.72 percent, at the day’s low of 14,825.73. Turnover totaled NT$259.23 billion (US$8.71 billion), with the bellwether electronics sector leading the fall, shedding more than 3 percent.

The Taiex has lost 1,982.04 points in June and 2,867.74 points over the second quarter. For the first half of this year, the Taiex has shed a total of 3,293.11 points.

Electronic shares, including chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), were among the biggest losers on Thursday, falling by 3.2 percent.

TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock on the local market, dropped by 3.05 percent to close at the day’s low of NT$476.00, its lowest in 19 months.

TSMC’s losses contributed more than 125 points alone to the Taiex’s decline, and pushed the company’s market capitalization down by NT$388.9 billion to NT$12.34 trillion.

Another contract chipmaker, United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), fell by 4.28 percent to end at NT$39.15, also a 19-month low.

Bucking the downward trend, Largan Precision Co., a supplier of smartphone camera lenses to Apple Inc., gained 1.47 percent to close at NT$1,725.00.

The old-economy sector also lost ground, falling by more than 2 percent, while the financial sector decreased by 2 percent.

According to the TWSE, foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$22.79 billion worth of shares on the main board Thursday.

As the index opened low and continued its downward trend, the fear of further losses was evident during Thursday’s session, triggering selling pressure, according to equity market analyst Wang Chao-li (???).

However, the index is likely to rebound from the deep dive in the near future, Wang added.

Following the crash in the stock market, Vice Finance Minister Juan Ching-hwa (???), who serves as executive secretary of the National Financial Stabilization Fund Committee, said Thursday that the losses had indeed done damage to investor confidence.

However, Taiwan’s economic fundamentals remain solid although investor confidence has been affected by factors such as inflation, interest rate hike, and supply chain issues, Juan stressed.

He said the committee would keep a close eye on the development of the local stock market before it convenes a regular meeting in mid-July to determine whether to make any further moves to help stabilize the market.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued Thursday, Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp. called on investors to look at the market rationally because most listed companies’ fundamentals are stable.

It also attributed the recent fluctuations in the local stock market mainly to soaring global inflation, tight monetary policies adopted by central banks in many countries, and bottlenecks in global supply chains.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Cancer was the leading cause of death in Taiwan in 2021, continuing a trend that has prevailed in the country for the past 40 years, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) reported Thursday.

Last year, 51,656, or 28 percent of the total 184,172 deaths in Taiwan were caused by cancer, the most deadly variety of which was tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer, the ministry’s statistics showed.

Following cancer, the most common causes of death were heart disease, pneumonia, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, accidents or unintentional injuries, chronic lower respiratory diseases, nephritic syndrome and liver disease, in that order, the data showed.

Overall, the 2021 mortality rate of 784.8 deaths per 100,000 people was 6.9 percent higher than 2020 but still the second-lowest on record, while the median age at death was 77 years, according to the MOHW.

The ministry said the rise in mortality relative to 2020 was mainly driven by population aging, and to a lesser extent by an extended cold snap in January 2021 and COVID-19.

Compared to 2020, deaths from pneumonia decreased by 1.4 percent, while deaths from high blood pressure, diabetes and chronic lower respiratory diseases rose by 17.6 percent, 11.0 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively.

COVID-19, which caused 896 deaths in 2021, ranked as the 19th most common cause of death, the ministry said.

In terms of age groups, accidents and unintentional injuries were the leading cause of death for people aged 0-24, while cancer and suicide ranked first and second for people aged 25-44, and cancer and heart disease were most common for those aged 45 and above.

The ministry advised members of the public to keep up to date with recommended cancer screenings in order to reduce the risk of death from the disease.

Women aged 30 and above should undergo yearly screening for cervical cancer, while those aged 45-69 should get a mammogram every two years, the ministry said.

Similarly, people aged 50-74 should get a fecal occult blood test every two years to check for bowel cancer, and current and former smokers or betel nut users aged 30 and above should undergo biennial oral cancer screenings, the MOHW said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Foreign professionals with an employment permit issued by the Ministry of Labor (MOL) will have the option to apply for their Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) online from July 1, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said Thursday.

This online ARC service will be launched on a trial basis and will not initially be made available to those who have obtained their employment permit from ministries other than the MOL, such as the Ministry of Education.

It will be an alternative to onsite application, and foreign professionals with an employment permit from the MOL will also be able to use this online service to apply for an ARC for their family members in Taiwan, the immigration agency said.

The NIA said it would consider expanding the online ARC application service to other foreign professionals who have obtained an employment permit from the Ministry of Education and other authorities in the future.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel