Spectators attending today's National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Office will notice the absence of big-name artists. It is especially apparent when compared to the time period of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule, when famed entertainers were often seemed eager to accept an invitation to perform on formal occasions.
But due to the huge profits offered by the Chinese market, many Taiwanese entertainers are distancing themselves from taking the stage when it means having to rub shoulders with pan-green officials. Many are afraid of being labeled as "pro-green" entertainers by the leadership in Beijing. The first such singer to suffer from this kind of fallout was Aboriginal singer Chang Hui-mei (
Olympic taekwondo gold medalists Chen Shih-hsin (
Officials at Chinese Television System (CTS), the station authorized to broadcast the National Day festivities, admitted that it ran into some difficulty finding entertainers to perform for the event.
Pop singers such as Jay Chou (
The evening party, which will take place on the square in front of the Presidential Office tonight from 7pm until 10:30pm, will be hosted by Pung Chia-chia (
Aside from an array of cultural performances, military parades and the like during the day's ceremonies outside the Presidential Office, spectators will be treated to a taste of Taiwanese flavor which characterizes this year's National Day celebrations. For the first time, Chen will not lead the crowd in chanting "long live the Republic of China."
"Shouting slogans is outdated -- even the military doesn't do it anymore," said Presidential Office Secretary-General Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
A new National Day design will replace the traditional National Day decorative arch in front of the Presidential Office building. The new logo, designed by a senior high school student, features an image of a green shape of the island with a pair of peace doves painted in gold adjacent to the name "Taiwan" in English.
About 82,000 foreign guests, local politicians and overseas Taiwanese are expected to attend the morning celebration, according to the event organizer.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
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