Kaohsiung Municipal Senior High School will no longer make its students bow to portraits of Republic of China (ROC) founding father Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) and the ROC flag at its end-of-semester ceremony, school officials said yesterday.
Making three bows to the flag and Sun’s portrait during school ceremonies has been a tradition for students in the nation’s elementary, junior-high and high schools.
Kaohsiung Municipal Senior High School principal Hsieh Wen-pin (謝文斌) said that there was no political motive behind the decision, but rather it was the result of relocating the end-of-semester ceremony from the school’s gym to its outdoor assembly area, where there is no portrait of Sun or a flagpole.
Photo: Fang Chih-hsien, Taipei Times
“We moved the event outdoors to save time, conserve electricity and be more environmentally friendly, and to have a more hygienic venue. There is no particular political agenda whatsoever,” Hsieh said.
Tu Chun-ching, chair for student rights on the school’s student council, issued a statement saying that ending the practice of bowing to Sun’s portraits and the national flag is “the first step to campus depoliticization and a step forward for transitional justice.”
The student council, after debating the issue for more than a month, submitted a formal request to the school administration to do away with the bowing, and the authorities granted the request after due procedure, Tu said.
In an opinion piece published in the Chinese-language Apple Daily, Tu said that he believed making students bow to Sun’s portrait and the flag is “an act of servility to authority and totem worship.”
Compelling people to express an “intense identification” with “national symbols” is shunned by democratic societies, but embraced by “totalitarian states” and during war time, the student said.
“Kamikaze squad volunteers were raised and bred in such a manner,” Tu added.
The school’s student government announced the abolition of the bowing ritual on Facebook, and the post had more than 1,700 “likes” and was shared more than 450 times as of press time last night, with mostly positive comments from users.
“Terrific. This can set a precedent for other schools to follow,” one comment said.
Ministry of Education K-12 Education Administration Director Yang Kuo-lung (楊國隆) said that the ministry respects the school’s decision, which as a municipal high school falls under the jurisdiction of the Kaohsiung Bureau of Education, not the ministry.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a