An amendment to the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法) introducing more detailed categorization of, and reporting procedures for, cultural heritage has elicited a strong response from the central and local governments.
Local governments usually adopt a passive approach to assessing cultural heritage, fulfilling their statutory obligations and only getting involved after receiving a report or because development and preservation compete.
Tangible cultural heritage attracts people’s attention relatively easily, but changes to the nation’s landscape mean that the innate character of Taiwan is disappearing before our eyes.
This includes the loss or shrinking of the west coast’s lagoons and wetlands that are about 300 years old. Irrigation and drainage networks are being built over, diverted or filled in as a result of urbanization. Taiwan’s landscape as depicted by artists is disappearing.
Sometimes this is due to urban expansion, which blocks the view of particular landscapes; sometimes the culprit is large-scale public infrastructure, which divides a view into fragments.
People used to talk of Taiwan’s “eight scenic views,” “12 scenic views” or every location having “100 special views.”
Along Provincial Highway No. 3, there is an old temple and river crossing in Hsinchu County predating the construction of E-mei Lake (峨嵋湖), also known as the Dapu Reservoir (大埔水庫), and the original river crossing on the Dahan River (大漢溪) in New Taipei City’s Yingge District (鶯歌), which have been covered with water after the construction of the Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫).
With the construction of the Suhua Highway, the old bridges, temples, trees and views of the Pacific Ocean might be lost.
During the modernization of Kinmen, roads were widened and trees planted as windbreaks were cut down. The wetlands and coastal area of the Wujiang River (浯江) delta in Jincheng Township (金城) has been developed into a coastal park.
The Alishan Forest Railway was developed over a century, and while the Taiwan Railways Administration Alishan Forest Railway Branch is seeking world heritage status, areas along the tracks have been developed and local communities are becoming increasingly like night markets.
When all the 1,000-year-old trees have been felled so visitors can see the sunrise, it must have an impact on the nation’s forestry industry. Alishan has lost its soul, replaced by profits and increasing tourist numbers.
The north and west coasts are also changing because of the need for renewable energy sources. New Taipei City’s Siangbi Rock (象鼻岩) is to be turned into a coal deposit station, and the Cigu Salt Fields (七股鹽田) in Tainan are to become a solar power farm.
Calling for the preservation of the landscape is not a romantic notion, it is a reminder to decisionmakers that they must keep a place in their minds untouched by ideological concerns.
Japan and the EU have seen a growing interest in studies of old poetry, art and music using geographic information system software and GPS to discover original landscapes. Such studies remind people of the need to protect the environment and cultural resources.
If we criticize the former-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) authoritarian regime for destroying Japanese-era monuments, we should also look at the changing landscape over several hundreds of years.
It might not be possible to restore the land, but investigating and connecting with it highlights the nation’s geography, and this is a Taiwanese value that should be pursued.
Monica Kuo is chair of Chinese Culture University’s Department of Landscape Architecture.
Translated by Edward Jones and Perry Svensson
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations