Thousands of people took to the streets of Taipei yesterday to support preserving the Losheng (Happy Life) Sanatorium.
After speeches, musical performances and a play by individuals and groups, the crowd marched 2km from the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office where another rally followed.
Losheng is a sanatorium in Taipei County completed in 1930 under Japanese colonial rule where thousands of people with Hansen's disease, or leprosy, have been secluded for life.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, AP
Plans to tear down most of the buildings to make room for a Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) maintenance depot have sparked heated debate.
The sanatorium still houses 45 elderly lepers who refuse to move.
Last month, the Taipei County Government announced that today would be the deadline for the residents' mandatory eviction.
PHOTO:CHIANG YING-YING, AP
However, having faced tremendous public pressure, Premier Su Tseng-chang (
Although the premier's decision has given Losheng a temporary reprieve, the sanatorium's future is still uncertain.
"Through the march, we want to put pressure on the government on all levels ? so that Losheng's preservation can be assured," said Hsia Chu-chiu (
A UK-based construction consulting firm has proposed a plan in which 90 percent of the sanatorium's buildings can be preserved with only a few months' delay to the completion of the MRT line.
"Preserve 90 percent of Losheng -- no delay to the MRT" the crowd chanted as they marched.
At the tail end of the march was a group of about 100 "disciplinants," mostly of university students.
Four people leading the team walked while dragging metal barrels with burning coals.
Those who followed kneeled down on the street after every six steps and kowtowed.
"I do so to get a feeling of what it is like to be a disadvantaged person in a society, and to try to feel how hard life was for the elderly people [of Losheng]," said Lou Nai-chieh (樓乃潔), a university student who participated in the disciplinant team.
"I want to thank you all for holding out your hands and offering us your warm help," Chou Fu-tsu (
More than 100 civic groups around the nation participated in the demonstration, according to Hsu Po-jen (
To bring demonstrators from outside of Taipei into the city, the sponsors organized a "Losheng bus" program in which people pooled their money to hire buses.
"There are four buses that brought us here from Kaoshiung and Pingtung," said a demonstrator surnamed Kao from Meinong (
"We're here to join forces with others and express our opposition to a bad decision," Kao said.
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January last year have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
The WHO ignored early COVID-19 warnings from Taiwan, US Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on Friday, as part of justification for Washington withdrawing from the global health body. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that the US was pulling out of the UN agency, as it failed to fulfill its responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO “ignored early COVID warnings from Taiwan in 2019 by pretending Taiwan did not exist, O’Neill wrote on X on Friday, Taiwan time. “It ignored rigorous science and promoted lockdowns.” The US will “continue international coordination on infectious
RSS