Taiwan is set to open institutes in New York, Los Angeles and Houston in the US in October as part of a project initiated by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to establish “Taiwan Academies” worldwide to promote “Taiwanese culture with Chinese characteristics,” an official said yesterday.
The US has granted permission for the establishment of Taiwan Academies after the “misunderstanding” that fee-charging language courses would open in Taiwan’s representative offices in the US was clarified, Council for Cultural Affairs Minister Emile Sheng (盛治仁) said.
“What concerned the US most was that we planned to run Chinese-language classes at our representative offices, but that was not our plan in the first place,” Sheng told a press conference after presenting the proposal to the Cabinet.
Sheng said that promoting the study of traditional Chinese characters, a main objective of the Taiwan Academies project, would take various forms, including establishing free digital learning resources for both learners and teachers and providing learning materials for local language-teaching institutions.
Setting up Taiwanese academies overseas was a campaign promise by Ma as part of his efforts to secure the nation’s role in spreading what he called “Taiwanese culture with Chinese characteristics” and pushing the use of traditional Chinese characters, as opposed to the simplified characters used in China.
Government Information Office Minister Philip Yang (楊永明) said the establishment of the academies was not aimed at competing with China’s Confucius Institutes.
“The Taiwan Academies will not just be about learning Chinese, but also a platform to do research on Chinese classics, to learn Chinese culture with pluralistic Taiwanese characteristics and to promote Taiwanese culture,” Yang said.
The government has budgeted NT$3.6 billion (US$142.4 million) to carry out the project over four years, with plans to establish branches in Europe and Asia next year following the first three in US, Sheng said.
The project includes a combination of nine different grants and scholarships, currently worth NT$600 million annually, offered to foreign college and graduate students as well as academics to encourage them to either study Mandarin or do Taiwan-related research in the country, he said.
In past years, the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission has run cultural centers in a number of major US cities.
Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission Minister Wu Ying-yih (吳英毅) said in a telephone interview that the major difference between the commission’s centers and Taiwan Academies is that they are targeted at different groups.
The commission provides services to Taiwanese, while the academies are aimed at foreigners and descendants of Taiwanese, Wu said.
The academies in Los Angeles and Houston will be set up at the commission’s offices, and the one in New York will be established under the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in New York, Wu said.
Based on its own experience in providing Chinese-language instruction, training Chinese teachers and promoting Chinese language and culture, the commission’s centers can easily extend their services to foreigners, Wu said.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
PUBLIC SAFETY: The premier said that security would be tightened in transport hubs, while President Lai commended the public for their bravery The government is to deploy more police, including rapid response units, in crowded public areas to ensure a swift response to any threats, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after a knife attack killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei the previous day. Lai made the remarks following a briefing by the National Police Agency on the progress of the investigation, saying that the attack underscored the importance of cooperation in public security between the central and local governments. The attack unfolded in the early evening on Friday around Taipei Main Station’s M7 exit and later near the Taipei MRT’s Zhongshan
RSS