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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Holidays
Lunar New Year set
The official holiday period for next year's Lunar New Year holiday will be six days, the Cabinet announced yesterday. Lunar New Year's Day is Thursday, Jan. 22. The six-day holiday will start from New Year's Eve on Wednesday, Jan. 21 and run through Monday, Jan. 26. Some lawmakers had proposed extending the holiday for nine days, from Saturday, Jan. 17 to Sunday, Jan. 25. Claiming that longer New Year vacations would adversely impact the economy, Premier Yu Shyi-kun overruled the proposal.

■ Judicial System
Reprimand over leak
A Control Yuan member yesterday issued a corrective measure to the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office, saying that the office's misconduct during the recent Hualien Country commissioner by-election had jeopardized the image of the judiciary. Lee Shen-yi (李伸一) said the office's careless handling of con-fidential information about alleged bribery and lack of management and control mechanisms had resulted in the leak of three confi-dential reports. "The leak of three confidential reports on the eve of the polling day impaired the image of the judiciary and weakened the people's confidence in the government's authority. The correction was pro-posed to reprimand the oversight," Lee said. The investigation found that a secretary in the office had faxed the three papers to a wrong number, which led to the leak on July 29. The investigatory report con-cluded that the secretary's error had been inadvertent.

■ Entertainment
Film winners to get reward
Local filmmakers or enter-tainers who win interna-tional movie awards will be eligible for a NT$100 million reward, Premier Yu Shyi-kun announced yes-terday. "In a bid to encourage local filmmakers to shoot more commercial films and lure international film-makers to invest in the local film-making industry, we thought it was a good idea to hand out substantial rewards to local filmmakers and entertainers who win international awards, no matter whether their film was locally produced or an international joint venture," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) quoted Yu as saying. Yu made the remark while receiving Ang Lee (李安), the Taiwanese director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Hulk, Sense and Sensibility and many other movies.

■ Cross-Strait Ties
Coin sets prompt complaint
The People's Bank of China has issued a set of collectible coins entitled "TheChinese Island of Taiwan," according to Tainan City Councilor Chiu Li-li (邱莉莉) who said that the coin collection was a propagandist attempt to bring about unification with Taiwan. She said the coins, issued on the eve of the China's National Day on Oct. 1, features Taiwanese historic sites, such as the Chaotien Temple in Yunlin County and Tainan's Chih-kan Tower, also known as Fort Provintia, on one side and the People's Republic of China imprint on the other. She said the bank had issued 10 million of the coin sets, each worth five yuan (US$0.60). Chiu demanded the government protest to Beijing over the coins.
The Tainan City Department of Cultural Affairs said the Chinese coin sets are an act of cultural appropriation and it would report the case to the central govern-ment. Chiu said she had found the coin sets being auctioned online and had bought three of them.

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