President Chen Shui-bian (
Addressing the opening of the AICA 2004 World Congress at the Taipei County Government building, Chen said artistic activities symbolize a country's freedom and creativity while artistic criticism can serve as a bridge between artists and the general public.
As a member of the international community, Chen said, Taiwan is more than willing to make positive contributions to the world and fulfill its duties and obligations.
However, the president said, Taiwan has been shut out of the UN since 1971. For years, he said, Taiwan has faced enormous difficulties taking part in UN-sponsored activities because of Beijing's diplomatic suppression.
Against this backdrop, Chen said, the AICA's choice of Taiwan as the venue for its annual congress is of great significance.
Chen said his administration has consistently placed much emphasis on cultural development and artistic activities and education, with an aim to making Taiwan a country with vitality and creativity. He urged all AICA conference-goers to present valuable advice to help boost Taiwan's cultural development.
The AICA was founded in Paris in 1948 and was recognized as a non-governmental organization by UNESCO in 1951.
The AICA now has branches in 72 member countries, representing more than 4,000 art critics around the world.
Taiwan became a formal member of the organization under the designation of "AICA Taiwan" in 2001 and the AICA authorized Taiwan to hold its 2004 world congress last year.
AICA Taiwan is one of the few local organizations that have been able to join an organization affiliated with UNESCO.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater