Conservationists and city councilors yesterday presented Taipei City Government officials an application to designate the Four Four South Village (
While the city's Bureau of Cultural Affairs (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"We'll start the review process of the Four Four South Village (四四南村) right away," said Chang Yun-cheng (張雲程), secretary-general of the Bureau of Cultural Affairs.
Currently, over half of the village has been demolished and only some 70 buildings remain. The city government had originally planned to reduce all the buildings in the village to rubble except for four homes.
DPP city councilors Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) and Lee Chien-chang (李建昌), as well as some 10 members of the Alliance to Preserve Four Four South Village as a National Relic (四四南村國家古蹟促進聯盟) presented the cultural affairs office with the request at the site yesterday.
During their visit, members of the alliance also took officials on a tour of what remains of the village and inspected old air raid shelters located there.
While city officials said they were supportive of the efforts of the alliance and city councilors to preserve the village, they were not optimistic about its future.
"Although we agree with their argument that it's important to preserve historical and cultural heritage, it takes scientific and professional study to decide whether it's a historic relic worth saving," said Lu Chun-che (
"That's why we plan to launch a survey of Taipei's military compounds and to study those worth preserving."
The bureau has earmarked NT$820,000 for the project, Lu said. The budget has been approved by the city council and the survey is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Lu, however, would not say whether the move by the alliance and city councilors would halt the village's demolition.
"Starting the review process and halting the destruction project are two separate issues. Besides, it may take months before the actual review takes place," he said, adding that the demolition will not be blocked until the review actually takes place.
The core of the problem, Lu said, does not lie in whether or not to designate the place a national relic.
"The key is the controversial public design contest," he said. "And there's nothing we can do about it."
In March 1999, the city's Urban Development Bureau (
While the top three contest winners all favored keeping what remained of the village as a cultural site, the city subsequently decided to make it into a park and to hand over the part of the village that had already been demolished to the nearby Hsinyi Elementary School.
Some of the finalists and evaluation panel judges then launched a series of protests and lobbied against the policy U-turn.
Curtis Smith, a Canadian living in the vicinity who came third in the contest, said that it is important to make the area a historic relic.
"It'll not only be the first relic in the district and the [district's] cultural heart, but will also form a vital landmark for both Chinese and Taiwanese," he said.
Chang Mao-kuei (
"The city sees it as a filthy and shameful eyesore, and there are many interest groups involved," he said.
"On the one hand, the school wants to expand its campus in order to attract more students, on the other hand, the real estate industry prefers to build more high-rise buildings to make big money."
Executive director of the Culture and History Council at the Community Construction Society (社區營造學會), Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮), said he has been disappointed with the bureaucracy of the city government over the years.
"There are many ways to solve the problem, but it has chosen to do nothing," he said.
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January last year have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
The WHO ignored early COVID-19 warnings from Taiwan, US Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on Friday, as part of justification for Washington withdrawing from the global health body. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that the US was pulling out of the UN agency, as it failed to fulfill its responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO “ignored early COVID warnings from Taiwan in 2019 by pretending Taiwan did not exist, O’Neill wrote on X on Friday, Taiwan time. “It ignored rigorous science and promoted lockdowns.” The US will “continue international coordination on infectious
RSS