Taipei's Cultural Affairs Bureau yesterday temporarily took over the Taipei Fine Arts Museum following the controversial resignation of the museum's director.
Before the new successor is picked by the bureau's five-person task force -- which will be led by bureau Chief Lung Ying-tai (
Lin handed in her resignation on July 14, about four months before her contract expires in November, following friction with Lung.
The war between the two women started on April 23. Lin said in a seminar that Lung applied "White Terror tactics" when the bureau asked the city's anti-corruption unit to conduct an investigation of the Second Taipei Fine Arts Museum, which was yesterday renamed the Taipei Contemporary Art Museum.
Lin also accused Lung of being "a layman interfering in a professional's job" and urged the authorities to respect professionalism in the arts and stop the "abuse of administrative powers."
The criticism not only agitated Lung, but also prompted city councilors to call for action from her and make a decision within 10 days about Lin's future.
"I was shocked when I knew that somebody had accused me of `abusing administrative powers,'" Lung told reporters yesterday. "It's well known that in 16 years of being a professional writer I've never had any interest in either a political career or flattering the authorities."
Lung said it was her job to supervise the five subsidiary units under the bureau, including the museum and she has never interfered nor questioned the professionalism of the directors' concerning the arts.
"To be a director is not an art but rather art administration, and art administration is managerial science," she said. "Just like an artist does not necessarily make a good manager, a good manager does not necessarily have to be an artist."
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions. Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei. ‘NO’ “I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned
TALKS CONTINUE: Although an agreement has not been reached with Washington, lowering the tariff from 32 percent to 20 percent is still progress, the vice premier said Taiwan would strive for a better US tariff rate in negotiations, with the goal being not just lowering the current 20-percent tariff rate, but also securing an exemption from tariff stacking, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said yesterday. Cheng made the remarks at a news conference at the Executive Yuan explaining the new US tariffs and the government’s plans for supporting affected industries. US President Donald Trump on July 31 announced a new tariff rate of 20 percent on Taiwan’s exports to the US starting on Thursday last week, and the Office of Trade Negotiations on Friday confirmed that it
RSS