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."
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
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
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
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