First lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) and her entourage did not travel to Tokyo yesterday morning as planned after the National Palace Museum notified the Tokyo National Museum that posters promoting an exhibition of artifacts from the Taipei museum did not carry the Taipei institution’s full name.
Chow was initially scheduled to preside at a ceremonial opening of the exhibition of National Palace Museum pieces in Tokyo today, but has “temporarily postponed” her visit to Japan, according to the Presidential Office.
Political sources familiar with the issue said the reason Chow’s visit was “temporarily postponed,” rather than “canceled” is to allow for further coordination and follow-up by the Japanese organizers, since there is still time for negotiations before the formal opening ceremony tomorrow.
Photo: CNA
A National Palace Museum official said yesterday that the Tokyo museum is replacing the promotional posters in which the word “national” was omitted from the Taipei museum’s name, adding that it will decide whether to go ahead with the exhibition only after the complaint is fully addressed.
Saying that the omission breaches an agreement between the two museums, the National Palace Museum demanded on Friday that all promotional posters for the exhibition that did not have the full name be removed by midnight the following day.
Selected artifacts from the Taipei museum were to be displayed under the title “Treasured Masterpieces from the National Palace Museum, Taipei” at the Tokyo museum from tomorrow to Sept. 15, and at the Kyushu National Museum from Oct. 7 to Nov. 30. Controversy erupted when some posters advertising the exhibition used “Palace Museum, Taipei,” omitting the word “national.”
The posters in question, which have been spotted at train stations and parks in Tokyo, were prepared by a media sponsor group comprising major media outlets including NHK, the Asahi Shimbun and other TV stations and newspapers.
However, the official posters and brochures prepared by the Tokyo museum refer to the Taipei museum by its full name.
Meanwhile, entrance tickets sold by the Tokyo museum remain on sale, since they are printed with the National Palace Museum’s full name, Tokyo National Museum director of administration Yuji Kurihara said yesterday.
Japan has diplomatic ties with Beijing rather than Taipei, but maintains close trade and other ties with the nation.
The National Palace Museum has more than 600,000 artifacts spanning 7,000 years of Chinese history from the Neolithic period to the end of the Qing Dynasty.
For years, the Taipei museum was unwilling to lend the artifacts to Japan for fear that China would try to reclaim them, until the Japanese government passed a law in 2011 to prevent such seizures.
Additional reporting by AFP
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique