In his opening speech at the this year's A-ha Hakka Arts Festival (2006 a-ha 客家藝術節) in Meinung Township, Kaohsiung County on Saturday, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) praised the uniqueness of Hakka culture and said he hoped the government and opposition could set partisan concerns aside to support an increase in resources for the Council for Hakka Affairs.
Su said that having served as Pingtung County commissioner and provincial government councilor, he had visited many Hakka townships and villages. He has appointed several Hakkas to the Cabinet team, including Council for Hakka Affairs Chairman Lee Yung-teh (李永得), Council for Cultural Affairs Vice Chairman Wu Chin-fa (吳錦發) and National Science Council Deputy Minister Yang Hung-duen (楊弘敦), all three of whom hail from Meinung.
Su also said that since President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) election, particular attention has been paid to Hakka culture by increasing the budget for the Council for Hakka Affairs and establishing a Hakka TV station, for example.
PHOTO: CHEN WEN-CHAN, TAIPEI TIMES
He expressed his desire for an increased council budget to enable further promotion of cultural diversity and protection of Hakka culture.
The theme for this year's festival is "music without borders." The event was opened by environmentalist musician Matthew Lien who sang old Hakka favorites together with singer Hsieh Yu-wei (謝宇威).
The festival will take place over four Saturdays at different locations around the island. Saturday's event will be followed on Nov. 11, Nov. 25 and Dec. 12 with events at the Luo Family Complex in Chiatung Township, Pingtung County (屏東縣佳冬鄉羅家夥房), the Chiang Kai-shek Performance Hall in Fengshan City, Kaohsiung County (高雄縣鳳山市國父紀念館演藝廳), and the plaza outside the Kaohsiung City Music Hall (
Further details can be found at www.hakka.gov.tw.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS