Apologies All Around After Watch Is Presented as Gift in Taiwan

That message didn’t reach Susan Kramer, the British minister of state for transport, until after she had given a large pocket watch to the mayor of Taipei, Ko Wen-je, on Monday during a visit to Taiwan.

Dr. Ko said that as a physician — he was the chairman of the traumatology department at National Taiwan University Hospital before winning the mayoral race in November — he didn’t believe such superstitions. (Some argue that a watch isn’t the same as a clock and shouldn’t violate the taboo anyway.)

Linking the offline identities of authors with their online writings, new guidelines say, will encourage writers to “better take responsibility” for their works and bolster “moral education and training.” Read more…

The New York Times