The Taipei First Girls High School marching band will join more than 1,000 performers from around the world to perform in the Edinburgh Military Tattoo next month, which will mark the 60th wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II of England.
The school's team is the only one from Asia to have been invited to perform at the festival. The marching band will send 135 students to Scotland to give 24 performances from Aug. 3 to Aug. 25, and take part in the Edinburgh Festival's Cavalcade on Aug. 5 and Glasgow march on Aug. 7, which will also host smaller musical performances.
"The marching band has become a symbol of national pride with its famous performances. I expect all of you to demonstrate the energy of Taiwanese girls and make Taiwan shine on the international stage," Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said, giving his blessing to the band yesterday during a flag presentation ceremony held at the school.
PHOTO: CNA
Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳), who joined Hau to present the national flag to the marching band, also lauded it for passing the Edinburgh Military Tattoo's two-year screening process to be invited as one of the participants.
In response to concerns about possible disapproval from China, Hau said that the festival's invitation was done under a city-to-city exchange, and thus would be unlikely to prompt China to interrupt the school's performance.
The Taipei First Girls High School marching band has also been invited to give performances in Japan, Singapore, South Africa, the US, the UK and China since its performance at the Pasadena Rose Parade in California in 1996.
Part of the Edinburgh Festival in August, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo is an annual show of military bands along with several other groups in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS