Branded city living: Taipei becoming-Paris in Yi ye Taibei/Au Revoir Taipei (2010)

This article analyses Yi ye Taibei/Au Revoir Taipei (Chen, 2010). Due to its status as a co-production (with talent drawn from across borders, its various international funding sources and its deliberate appeal to global audiences through the festival circuit), the film is seen to provide a transnational perspective on Taipei. In this the film’s relationship with a film tourism agenda, a branding process pursued by the Taipei authorities, is stressed. Au Revoir Taipei’s consideration of life in Taipei, as a ‘branded city’, is analysed in terms of its three becomings (becoming-Paris, becoming-imperceptible, becoming-dance), in relation to Gilles Deleuze’s idea of the time-image (a striking example of which concludes the film) and it’s intertextual referencing of several ‘world’ or ‘art’ cinema classics, including Jean-Luc Godard’s Bande à Part (1964). The film’s transnational view of life in the branded city is thus understood to emerge at the conjunction of global production and distribution realities for film-making, and contemporary work and lifestyle opportunities in Taipei, the convergence of which create a cinematic construction of Taipei city that can be deciphered using Deleuze’s concepts

Developing Family Development Accounts in Taipei: Policy innovation from income to assets

In July 2000, the Taipei City Government launched an anti-poverty program, Taipei Family Development Accounts, which drew heavily on Sherraden¿s asset-based welfare theory, and was to provide matched savings accounts for low-income families in the City. This paper presents the ¿income to assets¿ policy shift process and a research summary on the participants to date.family development accounts (Taipei), poverty, assets-building

The Construction of City Images in Micro Films: A Case Study of Taipei City Government

In recent years, with the rapid development of the media, an increasing number of corporations and even government agencies are using the new format known as the micro film as a means of advertising and marketing. In this study, we took the micro films produced by the Taipei City Government as objects of analysis to investigate the image of the city as constructed in and produced by these films. Furthermore, in this study, the symbol of image in three such micro films was studied: Love@Taipei, My Micro Tour of Taipei, and Happily Ever After. It was found that in these films, the characteristics of the city of Taipei have been presented accurately and successfully by means of the [appropriate selection of] celebrity performers, the romance narratives used, and the lively presentation of these films. Therefore, these films have foregrounded an image of Taipei that is free, friendly, diverse, and progressive; furthermore, they have successfully conveyed the idea that “Taipei is a city that is positive and capable of outstanding achievementsâ€. These films, designed to attract audiences, have been made with great skill and portray little elements of the government-run campaigns they are actually part of, thus making them even more entertaining for viewers

Excerpt: Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse

Taipei 101, the blue-green glass tower that reigned for six years as the world’s tallest building, is everywhere in Taiwan. Its image appears on advertisements, magazine covers, brochures, guidebooks, and billboards; the soaring structure itself is visible from nearly everywhere in Taipei City. As ubiquitous as Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl TV tower—and considerably more graceful—Taipei 101 has become the iconic image of contemporary Taiwan

Assessing the Efficacy of Restricting Access to Barbecue Charcoal for Suicide Prevention in Taiwan: A Community-Based Intervention Trial

Objective Charcoal-burning suicide has recently been spreading to many Asian countries. There have also been several cases involving this new method of suicide in Western countries. Restricting access to suicide means is one of the few suicide-prevention measures that have been supported by empirical evidence. The current study aims to assess the effectiveness of a community intervention program that restricts access to charcoal to prevent suicide in Taiwan. Methods and Findings A quasi-experimental design is used to compare method-specific (charcoal-burning suicide, non-charcoal-burning suicide) and overall suicide rates in New Taipei City (the intervention site, with a population of 3.9 million) with two other cities (Taipei City and Kaohsiung City, the control sites, each with 2.7 million residents) before (Jan 1st 2009- April 30th 2012) and after (May 1st 2012-Dec. 31st 2013) the initiation of a charcoal-restriction program on May 1st 2012. The program mandates the removal of barbecue charcoal from open shelves to locked storage in major retail stores in New Taipei City. No such restriction measure was implemented in the two control sites. Generalized linear regression models incorporating secular trends were used to compare the changes in method-specific and overall suicide rates before and after the initiation of the restriction measure. A simulation approach was used to estimate the number of lives saved by the intervention. Compared with the pre-intervention period, the estimated rate reduction of charcoal-burning suicide in New Taipei City was 37% (95% CI: 17%, 50%) after the intervention. Taking secular trends into account, the reduction was 30% (95% CI: 14%, 44%). No compensatory rise in non-charcoal-burning suicide was observed in New Taipei City. No significant reduction in charcoal-burning suicide was observed in the other two control sites. The simulation approach estimated that 91 (95%CI [55, 128]) lives in New Taipei City were saved during the 20 months of the intervention. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that the charcoal-restriction program reduced method-specific and overall suicides. This study provides strong empirical evidence that restricting the accessibility of common lethal methods of suicide can effectively reduce suicide rates.published_or_final_versio

Effects of Topography on Seismic-Wave Propagation: An Example from Northern Taiwan

Topography influences ground motion and, in general, increases the amplitude of shaking at mountain tops and ridges, whereas valleys have reduced ground motions, as is observed from data recorded during and after real earthquakes and from numerical simulations. However, recent publications have focused mainly on the implications for ground motion in the mountainous regions themselves, whereas the impact on surrounding low-lying areas has received less attention. Here, we develop a new spectral-element mesh implementation to accommodate realistic topography as well as the complex shape of the Taipei sedimentary basin, which is located close to the Central Mountain Range in northern Taiwan. Spectral-element numerical simulations indicate that high-resolution topography can change peak ground velocity (PGV) values in mountainous areas by ±50% compared to a half-space response. We further demonstrate that large-scale topography can affect the propagation of seismic waves in nearby areas. For example, if a shallow earthquake occurs in the I-Lan region of Taiwan, the Central Mountain Range will significantly scatter the surface waves and will in turn reduce the amplitude of ground motion in the Taipei basin. However, as the hypocenter moves deeper, topography scatters body waves, which subsequently propagate as surface waves into the basin. These waves continue to interact with the basin and the surrounding mountains, finally resulting in complex amplification patterns in Taipei City, with an overall PGV increase of more than 50%. For realistic subduction zone earthquake scenarios off the northeast coast of Taiwan, the effects of topography on ground motion in both the mountains and the Taipei basin vary and depend on the rupture process. The complex interactions that can occur between mountains and surrounding areas, especially sedimentary basins, illustrate the fact that topography should be taken into account when assessing seismic hazard

Taipei's Use of a Multi-Channel Mass Risk Communication Program to Rapidly Reverse an Epidemic of Highly Communicable Disease

BACKGROUND: In September 2007, an outbreak of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC) occurred in Keelung City and spread to Taipei City. In response to the epidemic, a new crisis management program was implemented and tested in Taipei. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Having noticed that transmission surged on weekends during the Keelung epidemic, Taipei City launched a multi-channel mass risk communications program that included short message service (SMS) messages sent directly to approximately 2.2 million Taipei residents on Friday, October 12th, 2007. The public was told to keep symptomatic students from schools and was provided guidelines for preventing the spread of the disease at home. Epidemiological characteristics of Taipei's outbreak were analyzed from 461 sampled AHC cases. Median time from exposure to onset of the disease was 1 day. This was significantly shorter for cases occurring in family clusters than in class clusters (mean+/-SD: 2.6+/-3.2 vs. 4.39+/-4.82 days, p = 0.03), as well as for cases occurring in larger family clusters as opposed to smaller ones (1.2+/-1.7 days vs. 3.9+/-4.0 days, p<0.01). Taipei's program had a significant impact on patient compliance. Home confinement of symptomatic children increased from 10% to 60% (p<0.05) and helped curb the spread of AHC. Taipei experienced a rapid decrease in AHC cases between the Friday of the SMS announcement and the following Monday, October 15, (0.70% vs. 0.36%). By October 26, AHC cases reduced to 0.01%. The success of this risk communication program in Taipei (as compared to Keelung) is further reflected through rapid improvements in three epidemic indicators: (1) significantly lower crude attack rates (1.95% vs. 14.92%, p<0.001), (2) a short epidemic period of AHC (13 vs. 34 days), and (3) a quick drop in risk level (1 approximately 2 weeks) in Taipei districts that border Keelung (the original domestic epicenter). CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: The timely launch of this systematic, communication-based intervention proved effective at preventing a dangerous spike in AHC and was able to bring this high-risk disease under control. We recommend that public health officials incorporate similar methods into existing guidelines for preventing pandemic influenza and other emerging infectious diseases

Rebuild, Retreat, or Resilience: Can Taipei Plan for Resilience?

Taiwan is ranked as the country most exposed to multiple hazards (The World Bank 2005). Taipei City is the capital city as well as the economic and political center of Taiwan. The United Nations report World Urbanization Prospects: The 2011 Revision places Taipei City third on the list of the worldâ??s top 10 urban areas exposed to three or more natural hazards, with the highest risk of cyclones, floods, and landslides. In order to gauge the vulnerabilities and damages of Taiwan and Taipei City, this research creates a natural disaster density indicator (NDDI) to conduct a comparative study of Taiwan, Japan, China, U.S.A., U.K., France, and the Netherlands over the past three decades. The results indicate that Taiwan has both the highest disaster occurrence and highest death toll among these seven countries. The Taipei case study, a chronology of policies implemented to prevent flooding, explains that costly engineering structures, rebuilding, and fortification against floods eventually created a false sense of security, which has encouraged more intensive residential and commercial developments in flood-prone areas, and led to a higher level of vulnerability. This research further simulates and evaluates the vulnerabilities of population, land value, properties, GDP, and critical facilities in three scenarios: heavy rainfall, typhoon conditions, and extreme weather rainfall, through the technology of Geographic Information System (GIS) by using ArcMap 10.2.2 software. The results indicate 40% of Taipei City is located in flood risk areas in an extreme weather scenario. This percentage is higher than other global cities such as Londonâ??s 15%, Tokyoâ??s 10%, and New York Cityâ??s 25%. Based on the 10% of total flooding areas above 0.5 meter, the vulnerable population is estimated at 200,000 people, or 7% of the total population. The GDP impact will be more than $28 billion. More than$67 billion of land value is vulnerable. A least one million subway passengers will be impacted each day. There is little evidence that the urban poor are particularly vulnerable to floods. On the contrary, some neighborhoods with high income households face a higher risk of floods. Very few medical centers, oil and gas stations, and electrical power substations are located in flood-prone areas, but, a large number of public schools, administrative buildings, and major subway stations are susceptible. Additionally, the likelihood analysis of flooding in an extreme weather rainfall scenario concludes that the possibility will be five times that of the existing assumption with a flood in every 200 years. Thus, Taipei Cityâ??s infrequent once-in-two-century floods are likely to occur more frequently. Further, the 1% of Taipei metropolitan region flooding above 1 meter will possibly cost up to $ 1.5 billion in damages. Therefore, in the future, rather than strengthening and rebuilding costly structures, Taipei should focus on land-use and environmental planning for resilience. Urban policies should include environmentally responsible development in the face of continued population and economic growth, and being resilient regarding natural disasters. Most important is the need of a strong political commitment and leadership to initiate and implement urban policies toward resilience. In doing so, resilience can be achieved in Taipei

Flood Vulnerability and Risk Maps in Taipei City, Taiwan

This paper presents the process of constructing a flood risk map in Taipei City. The study calculates the social vulnerability index (SVI) for flooding at a district level, based on five factors including (1) female population (2) alone living elderly (3) low-income households (4) household income and (5) house-hold possessions. The index is determined according to the factor ratios in a district comparing to the statistical average across Taipei City. By combining the SVI with spatial varied flood potential information simulated by a hydraulic model, the flood risk index is obtained for district level that has an area of about 0.2 km2. Results show that the flood risk in Taipei City changed from 2002 to 2010 due to changes in the demographic structure. During the period from 2002 to 2004, the most obvious change of flood risk occurred in the Wanhua district due to the increase in the ratio of household possessions, which escalated the vulnerability to flooding. Between 2005 and 2007, the ratio of household possessions dropped in the Nankang district such that the flood risk reduced mostly in the region

(Section A: Planning Strategies and Design Concepts)

For a long time, funeral facility sites and management by the local government in Taiwan have been lacking cross-regional resource integration and location based research. As a result, funeral facility locations have become inappropriate, excessive or insufficient in supply, etc. New Taipei City is located adjacent to Taipei City and Keelung City. The number of funeral facilities is as high as 264. How to plan funeral facilities appropriately and in cooperation with neighboring local governments has become an important issue for the New Taipei City government. This study reviews the theory of regional cooperation, and the main topic of the research is the public columbarium buildings and public cemeteries in New Taipei City. In addition, the service radius of funeral facilities in the three cities is studied to identify both service area and distribution, as while as using a time series model to estimate the supply and demand situation of public cemeteries and public columbarium buildings. It is intended that the result may be used to develop a regional cooperation strategy for future funeral facilities in New Taipei City. The conclusions are as follows: (1) the location of existing funeral facilities in New Taipei City are uneven, resulting in the residents\u27 use of funeral facilities in other cities; (2) the funeral facilities\u27 percentage of use is uneven in New Taipei City, with some regions facing imbalance between supply and demand by 2025; (3) the funeral facilities in New Taipei City can be developed according to four aspects and nine strategies through regional planning, renewed facilities, management systems and regional cooperation; (4) a public cemetery near Taipei City or Keelung City should be planned as a regional cooperative demonstration project; (5) the three cities should reduce or standardise the charges (such as exemption of cross-county fees) as a priority policy for encouraging regional cooperation