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Kaohsiung City Government opts to rename center

The Kaohsiung City Government yesterday passed a draft bill to amend the Organic Regulations Concerning the Bureau of Cultural Affairs of the Kaohsiung City Government (高雄市政府文化局組織規程) to enable the city to rename its Chiang Kai-shek Culture Center.

The draft mandates the removal of any reference to late dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from the name of the center, the city's Department of Information Director Hsiao Yu-cheng (蕭裕正) said.

The draft will be sent to the city council for reference only and does not need the approval of the council before it takes effect, as stipulated by the Local Government Act (地方制度法), said the city government's Personnel Department, which proposed the legislation.

The center will in future be known as the Kaohsiung City Cultural Center.

Two Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators clashed with Kaohsiung city police last night after clambering over barricades at the center in an attempt to stop the removal of a statue of Chiang.

KMT legislators Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and Luo Shih-hsiung (羅世雄) were taking part in a protest against the city government's removal of the statue.

Some KMT city councilors and members of the public who were gathered at the center to voice their dissatisfaction with the removal cheered Huang and Luo on. As of press time last night, the stand-off between protesters and the police continued.

The city government said it planned on completing the removal work by this morning at 7am.

Kaohsiung is the first local government to follow the Cabinet's lead in deleting references to Chiang.
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