Chen launches cultural exhibition

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) prepared a Tainan traditional snack -- No. 1 cake (狀元糕) -- at a press conference yesterday to kick off the city's cultural exhibition at the Presidential Office.

Tainan City will be the theme of the Presidential Office's Exhibition on Local Culture for next month.

The topic of the exhibition is "The First School in Taiwan -- Wing-Spreading Phoenix."

The president, himself born in Tainan, blessed the county while making the cake.

"I hope Taiwan's financial situation and international status will improve step by step. I hope Taiwan can become number one," Chen said.

Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) and Council of Cultural Affairs Chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀) presided over yesterday's press conference.

The Presidential Office, decorated with cultural and historical features of Tainan City, will be open for visitors beginning Sunday.

The president said he hopes the exhibition can enhance Taiwan's culture and the creation of a cultural miracle.

"I hope Tainan City can spread its wings like a phoenix to display its splendor again," Chen said.

"I also hope that under the leadership of Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair, Tainan can be transformed into an international city rich in cultural features," he said.

The president added that Tainan is the city he is most familiar with. "I passed my teen years in the old city. I often miss it.

"I still remember when I went to Tainan First Senior High School for the first time, the flaming peacock-flower trees at the roadside impressed me immensely," he said.

To highlight Tainan's significance in Taiwan's culture, the signboard of an ancient Confucius temple established in the Ching Dynasty was transported to the Presidential Office for exhibition.

The Tainan City Government will also hold a food fair on the square at the Presidential Office on Sunday.

The president will attend the fair and chisel the words "great respect for the people' s will" on a stone tablet.