Category: Asian Insight

Do You Know Eating Crickets Can Save the World?

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Do you ever think of eating insect? Beetle? Spider? Cockroach? I think the answer must be No. But how about eating cricket and you can save the world?

This cricket cracker is a product jointly developed by the famous Japanese retails company MUJI and the Department of Bioscience and Bioindustry of Tokushima University in Japan. It looks like the normal cracker, but there is a cricket printed on the package to remind everyone that this is made of bug.

It Tastes Like Shrimp.

In the interview, the employees of the Snacks and Beverage Development Department said that this cricket cracker has the smell of shrimp. Also, the official website mentioned that biologically “shrimp is an insect in the sea, and crickets are land shrimp.”

Why We Need to Eat Crickets

According to the product description, the team made this cracker with cricket powder for the future of the earth.

MUJI also mentioned why crickets was chosen as food. The reason includes that the supply of meat protein in the world is not enough to support population development around 2030, and the protein content of crickets is far higher than common livestock.

Another advantage of eating crickets is that the resources required to feed crickets are very small. Compared with common cattle such as cows, pigs, and chickens, crickets have a very light load on the global environment.

There are many benefits of eating crickets, however, not everyone dare to taste. It can only be said that technology, population, etc. are constantly evolving, and the environment of the earth also needs to be taken into consideration. New possibilities must be developed for sustainable development.

The cricket cracker is currently only avaliable on the MUJI online store in Japan, and the details of selling globally are yet to be disclosed. If there is cricket cracker selling in your region, are you dare to try?

images and info sourced from MUJI

The First Unmanned Bus in Taiwan You will Love to Ride

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The 1st autopilot or unmanned bus in Taiwan will release soon, lets have a look on its cute looks first! Taipei City Government cooperates with Taiwan Smart Driving Company to test the self-driving bus on Xinyi Road Bus Lane in May 2020.  The test ride is scheduled to begin earliest in September 2020.

In the past, Taiwan Zhijia has cooperated with Libao Amusement Park, Taoyuan City Government and other units to study and operate automated shuttle vehicles that will apply autonomous driving bus technology to the resort, rapid transit lines at the airport, and other shuttle services. In May 2020, collaboration between the Government of North City and Taiwan Zhijia will be introduced on Xinyi Road. It is expected that, in the immediate future, it would fill the gap in the lack of manpower operating public transport.

The unmanned bus is planning to have three self-driving buses include a 4 meter minibus (can carry 9 people) and a 6.2 meter bus (can carry 34 persons). The initial test speed will be less than 15 kilometers per hour and use will test at midnight, test speed will then change slowly according to the stage results. The program will be executed in 3 stages. High-precision maps, intersections and intelligent facilities, and other pre-operations need to be installed from the first level. At the second stage, the technicians are supposed to be trained and checked in May and according to the second stage Open night test passengers, as soon as September is available to the public for test rides.

When the self-driving bus is really on the road, I believe that it can fill a lot of manpower gaps, and this cute appearance really makes people want to ride on it. Please share and lets have a ride on this unmanned bus if you come to Taiwan.

source from Road Traffic Safety Portal Site

Why Kikoriki is Successful in Russia But Not in China?

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Kikoriki, known in Russia as Smeshariki ( Russian: Смеша́рики ) and in the United States as GoGoRiki is the most famous animated television series in Russia. The idea of this cartoon is to promoting “World Without Violence” which is a funny and meaningful cartoon for the children of 3 to 8 years.
Fews years ago, Russian and Chinese animators had made two agreements regarding cooperation, one of which involves the joint creation of the cartoon entitled ‘Panda and Smeshariki’ ( Панда и Смешарики ). The Chinese side of this project will be represented by the animation division of the Central Television Agency of China. It was a great plan of the talks between Asian civilisations. Since then, there is not too many news about Kikoriki in China. I have some discussion with parents and kids in China and they even don’t know what is Kikoriki. So what make these ‘lovely’ ‘little balls’ not hits in China? Below could be some of the reasons:

Too Many Choices

There are really millions of choices in China. Including TV stations, private, and online channels , there are totally more than 4000 TV channels in China and there are more then 200 channels in each city. Having one-third of them showing TV programs that suitable for children making Kikoriki difficult to be selected. Also there is already many local developed productions, such as famous “Boonie Bears” and “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” in China. So it is hard to draw people attention in this over matured market.

Personal Differences

Many children in China is now affected by Japan and Western culture and will prefer Japanese cartoon or Marvel comics that having plenty of promotion and lots of merchandise such as toys, stationeries. Children is can’t help watching them.

Also, Having they know the story well, parents prefer giving their children to watch Chinese traditional stories, such as “Journey to the West”, “The White Snake”. Their first impression is that those programmes are more healthy and meaningful than Kikoriki (but it is not!).

Big Hand of the Country

Some time ago, those major domestic video stations have spent a lot to buy the right to broadcast Japanese animation online, which has led to a series of hot topics that have been fascinated. But there is an opinion that this will make Chinese children only watch Japan animations than other programs. To prevent, the Chinese government had introduced:

“Movies that have not obtained the” Film Release Permit “shall not be distributed, shown or participated in film festivals (exhibitions), and shall not be distributed through the Internet, telecommunications networks, radio and television networks and other information networks, and shall not be produced as audiovisual products.”

The regulation aims to protect the children and also the local animations market. However, it also block the spread of others like Kikoriki.

Kikoriki is such a good animation with colourful pictures, funny characters and is so interesting and instructive. I hope it will continue its promotion and becomes more popular in China and United States in the nearly future.

images sourced from web