Ping Lu (
The ambassador-at-large post is an unpaid quasi-diplomatic position.
Ping was appointed as the director of KHICC in January, but the Hong Kong government has yet to issued her working visa.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
"Based on past experience, government workers who are appointed to work in Hong Kong have to wait three to six months to obtain their working visas from the Hong Kong government," Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) told the Taipei Times.
"We have tried our best to push Hong Kong officials on the issue. It is a normal procedure and we think it should be no problem for Ping to work in Hong Kong," Chen said.
There has been speculation, however, that Ping will not be accepted in Hong Kong because of her suspected political leanings.
Ping graduated from National Taiwan University with a degree in psychology. She has a master's degree in statistics from the University of Iowa and is now teaching at the National Institute of the Arts.
The Kaohsiung-born novelist told the Taipei Times that she supported the development of democracy in Taiwan and, as a result, was sympathetic to the DPP and was a moderate dissident during KMT rule.
"I have never, however, been interested in political power and am not a political person," she said.
An incident that happened just prior to the Government Information Office naming her the head of the KHICC lent a political twist to her nomination.
Former KHICC director and New Party member Chiang Su-hui (江素惠) told a Hong Kong newspaper last December that Ping had assisted former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in formulating his 1999 "special state-to-state" model of cross-strait relations.
Chiang was quoted in the article as saying, "If Ping Lu takes the post, she will definitely do whatever the DPP government asks of her."
His statement reported made Hong Kong officials and Chinese leaders hesitant about issuing her a visa.
Chiang served as director of the KHICC for 10 years -- an unusually long term.
Ping said she understood the forces that had delayed the issuing of a working visa.
"The Chinese government obviously doesn't know much about Taiwan's culture and of course, they don't know much about me," she said. "I have nothing to do with the `special state-to-state' relationship dictum ? [and] do not belong to any political party. I am a person of culture."
Chin Heng-wei (
"Ping enjoys a great reputation among Hong Kong's academic and cultural intelligentsia," Chin said.
However, Ping seems unperturbed by the matter.
"I usually consider it great fun to be on a journey? it is better than getting to one's destination," she said.
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